2000 C70 HT Coupe - ETM light approach

[elav]

There is so much information on this forum that I'm having difficulty putting my approach together. For a while now my ETM light would come on and go off every once in a while. It mostly says off and there have been no real driving issues accept a pulsing/slight bucking under hard acceleration. I was hoping it was the Boost Pressure Valve causing this but when I swapped that with another one on hand there was no change.

I decided to do basic tune up before tackling these two issues and I'm happy to report that new spark plugs fixed my pulsing/ slight bucking issue. So now I'm down to the ETM light issue.

Question 1: Even though I was careful, I broke one of the snaps on the plug that connects to one of the ignition coils. The connector seems fairly secure without the clip but curious what others have done to fix this. Can you just replace the physical connector or do you have to replace the entire wire? It gets very hot under there so not sure if zip tying it is an option.

Question 2: The black plastic covering over all the wire harnesses are brittle and falling apart. Do people replace these or just let it flake off?

Question 3: ETM light - I only have an OBD-II reader that can't read any error codes associated with the ETM light. Is there anywhere I can go, other than the dealership, to have these codes read (assuming there are codes)? Meaning - do places like Pep Boys, etc. have these special readers?

Question 4: What are the main items that can turn the ETM light on and how do you go about ruling them out?

Thanks ahead of time for any help!
-Alan

[Ozark Lee]

You can buy just the connector and it will come with new crimp on pins. The best way to replace it, however, is to get a pin removal tool and push the old pins out of the old connector and then push them back into the new connector. The wires to the coils don't have much extra length and cutting the wires and them crimping on the new pins can leave you with wires that are too short to plug back in.

A call to your dealer parts counter will get you what you need. You are not the first person to break off the locking tab.

For the crumbling wire looms I just buy new split loom from the auto parts store and then use self fusing silicon tape to dress the ends. NAPA has what you need for sure and most other stores do as well. The silicon tape is kinda pricey and it is really too wide to do a neat job. I wound up cutting strips of it in half, along its length and it worked out great. You really need a couple of different diameters to do it right but the loom is real cheap.

The ETM is a different kettle of fish. You can't pull the ETM diagnostics with a standard OBD-II scanner but ETM failures are common, particularly if you have one of the modules with a white sticker. There is an aftermarket solution to ETM problems from a company called XeMODeX http://xemodex.com/ that retrofits the throttle position sensors with magnetic sensors rather than the wiper style sensors. The service isn't cheap but it is much cheaper than a new module and you won't need to buy a software download since it will stay mated to your car. They make a DIY kit but you need to be pretty good with a soldering iron to do it yourself.

...Lee

[elav]

Lee,

Thank you for your feedback. I'll look into buying the new connector at the Volvo parts counter. It seems that all the plastic parts on a Volvo are brittle. Perhaps it is the extra heat from the turbo.

I tried to get my ETM replaced by Volvo as it approached 100K but they only cleaned it for me. I am familiar with the XeMODeX retrofit and even the DIY kits but I was wondering if there is a list of items that can turn the ETM light on and a list to rule out the other items before doing the retrofit. I did read somewhere that there is a sensor at the accelerator that can potentially malfunction and set off the ETM light but not sure if that is true and how to rule that out.

Great stuff about the ignition coil connector!

[precopster]

A faulty accelerator pedal sensor will also light the ETS but these arw very rare occurences, so rare that I've only read of one instance.

Another cause can be a brake pedal position sensor failure which is common though I would be having the car read/scanned before going down this route.

A Autel EU-702 scanner can read most of the '99 plus volvos if you don' t see the need for the full Vida/Dice diagnostic setup which is a HUGE install on a laptop requiring much memory (over 2GB to be happy) and hair pulling because of its requirements for other software to be present.

The Autel EU-702 is a good investment for any long term Volvo owner for around $150.