Bad cat on my s70?

[Rocknaz]

First off I have too say I love this site. This is my first post so please bear with me.
I own a 2000 s70 se. It is my first Volvo and I love her, Iam hooked. Got her for a steal, repaired the ABS module myself and she has been soild for the last 2 years.
I have 170,000 miles on her and the last 3 weeks she has been sputtering while driving. The last week it has gotten worse. It acts like a clogged cat....you press the accelerator and do not go any faster. I can be driving at 45 mph and then it starts to "chug". It use to only do this only when hot but now all the time hot or cold.
The codes I'm getting P1603, P0420 and P0463.
Things I have done to remedy this: New fuel filter, new plugs, cleaned MAS.
I have read about the ETM. The symptoms my car is showing,I do not think that this is the problem.
Im ready to replace the cat but have been told by other Volvo owners that they rarely go bad.
Any guidence would be most excellent!

[JRL]

Without me looking it up what are those codes.
Of course CATs go bad, I've replaced at least 4 of them.
On one of my 2000 V70R's the CAT went bad at 48,000 miles!

[dcarlson12]

According to this link, P1603 points to faulty ETM:

http://www.ehow.com/facts_7931778_2000- ... p1603.html

[Rocknaz]

Thanks for the help. I sure hope my ETM is good. I already have the exhaust system dropped,cut and tacked. I could not see through the cat. Guess I will find out tomorrow but, after reading up some more on those codes.....my fingers are crossed.

[MoVolvos]

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Some reference material to potentially save you some money.

Catalytic Converter



ETM


Blessings,
BKM
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[rspi]

Ok, I watched the youtube video about a week ago and was planning to do it to my T-5R since I've been getting the code for about a month. I reset and the code returns every 400 miles.

So the day before yesterday I picked up a gallon of laquer thinner from the auto paint store. (Had a couple of very interesting conversations with a couple of guys there ). I went to the gas station to pump my 1/2 tank of gas and put a little (about 4 oz.) in a clear water bottle. Then I put about 4 oz of the laquer thinner in the bottle, mixed it up and waited to see if it would seperate. I didn't want to add the stuff in my tank and have it seperate and run through my motor at 100% (like water does). Anyway, after about 4 hours it was still mixed, no seperation.

Well, yesterday I added 1 can (gallon) of laqure thinner to about 11 gallons of gas (in my car tank) which took my supply up to 12 gallons. My goal was to do 10/1 but I missed by a little, no big deal. Then I started my car and headed out on my 750 mile drive.

The car started and ran normally. I had 93 octane in there with the thinner and could not tell that anything was different. After about 230 miles it was time to fill up. When I'm on the road, I will sometime pump 87 octane to help myself a little financially. I figure this 87 octane is just going to be flushed through the fuel system in just a few hours and I'll be cruising at about 70 mph so no big deal. Well, when I started down the road the car really didn't like the 87 octane. It was actually running a little rough like it as trying to misfire but it didn't. After about 30 minutes it seems like the car adjusted to the lower octane and smoothed out. During the first 30 minutes my gas mileage dropped to about 22 mpg then went back up to 28.

No CEL after another 550 miles so far. I'll report back if the light returns within 10,000 miles.

[MoVolvos]

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Thanks rspi, that was very informative! Since my car puffs smoke for half a block at cold start up (233K miles) and with a lot of short city driving I may try that as preventive maintenance maybe once or twice a year. Please update us sooner if you can as you rack up a few more miles. The 400 or so miles that caused the CEL you mentioned initially were they city, highway, combined, short or long trips on average?

Blessings,
BKM
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[FireFox31]

The lacquer thinner worked for me. Here's a write up of how it worked: https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... =1&t=72970