PHAD: 2005 Volvo V70 crank no-start
Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2019 8:07 am
This one was interesting. Here we have a mid 2000s Volvo wagon, with 210k, and the owner brought it to a dealer for a quote. They gave back an estimate with all this stuff on it but for thousands of dollars.
So Ivan does his normal, thorough diagnostic routine. It turns out it needed a fuel pump control module. A new one was an outrageous $500 and when you see it, it doesn't seem like it should be any more than $100. But he found a good used one and that fixed that (no fuel pump required). Then he went through the rest of the list and fixed stuff as required. For one item, the dealer actually caused an airbag light to come on while they were diagnosing the no start and it was a simple matter of resetting the codes (they wanted to charge for this, even though they caused it).
Here are the 3 parts:
1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx6vLRBxErw
2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDXr8l9osvM
3: https://youtu.be/wCKLM8QUJ8g
What we learned is two things. First, a good independent mechanic is really what you want on ANY higher mileage used car but specifically a European one where any single estimate exceeds the value of the car (nevermind repeat trips). I knew this before but this is a great walk-through of the details of it. Second and more conversation-worthy, it was fascinating to watch him warm up to this car. He went from "oh god, here comes a high mileage Volvo" to "you know, I like this car." I might have to give Tony somewhat of a pass next time he says his car is good...they might actually be decent cars (this body style V70 - not generalizing any broader than that).
In this case, "decent" actually means relatively fuel efficient (this was the base, non-turbo 2.4L), solid to drive (particularly on the highway he says), pretty resistant to rust and, surprise, seemingly reliable and reasonable to fix if you are not a scammy dealer.
So Ivan does his normal, thorough diagnostic routine. It turns out it needed a fuel pump control module. A new one was an outrageous $500 and when you see it, it doesn't seem like it should be any more than $100. But he found a good used one and that fixed that (no fuel pump required). Then he went through the rest of the list and fixed stuff as required. For one item, the dealer actually caused an airbag light to come on while they were diagnosing the no start and it was a simple matter of resetting the codes (they wanted to charge for this, even though they caused it).
Here are the 3 parts:
1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx6vLRBxErw
2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDXr8l9osvM
3: https://youtu.be/wCKLM8QUJ8g
What we learned is two things. First, a good independent mechanic is really what you want on ANY higher mileage used car but specifically a European one where any single estimate exceeds the value of the car (nevermind repeat trips). I knew this before but this is a great walk-through of the details of it. Second and more conversation-worthy, it was fascinating to watch him warm up to this car. He went from "oh god, here comes a high mileage Volvo" to "you know, I like this car." I might have to give Tony somewhat of a pass next time he says his car is good...they might actually be decent cars (this body style V70 - not generalizing any broader than that).
In this case, "decent" actually means relatively fuel efficient (this was the base, non-turbo 2.4L), solid to drive (particularly on the highway he says), pretty resistant to rust and, surprise, seemingly reliable and reasonable to fix if you are not a scammy dealer.