Is this 2004.5 S40 T5 a lemon, please help!

[DonWillson]

I got the following but I know nothing about the later model 40 series so I'll post the e-mail I received.
Respond to me or the forum if you have suggestions.
[email protected]
[email protected]
_____________
Tollie says,
I unfortunately have a 2004.5 Volvo S40 T5 with ~52.5k miles.

Bottom line, I do not feel that the car is safe to drive. I feel that I have been mistreated or misled by multiple dealerships and I want Volvo to buy the car back from me or Lemon Lawed if possible. I don't want to drive it anymore. The failure of this part causes the car to completely stop in heavy fast-moving traffic. But I don't know what is possible.

Here's what happened:

I had the car serviced on October 25 at around 49,000 miles. According to the receipt, NO COMPUTER UPDATES WERE DONE TO THE VEHICLE. On 12-Dec, I had xxxxxxxxxxxxxx put new tires on the car but I have been told repeatedly that they do not do any work with the cars computers when mounting, balancing and aligning the tires. On 13-DEC, I was driving from Lansdale, PA to Whitehouse Station, NJ when the car reported "Reduced Engine Performance" and the oil light came on (this was in Colmar, PA). I pulled over and stopped the car. I waited a few minutes and restarted the car with no problem and no lights. I drove a few more miles when the same exact thing happened again. I, again, pulled over, stopped the car, waited a few minutes and restarted with no problem and no lights. I then was able to drive all the way from New Britain, PA to around Flemington, NJ when the car reported (and I can't remember the exact message) but something like a "System Engine Failure" and the Check Engine light came on. The car was sputtering and I steered it off onto the shoulder but was getting no response from the gas pedal. It was at that point that I called Volvo Roadside Assistance and had them tow me to xxxxxxx in xxxxxxxx.

At xxxxxx, I was informed that the "main" computer had failed and that "two other computers" had "stopped talking to each other". In addition, the "throttle module" had failed. yyyyy, the gentleman I was working with, told me that he thought they could fix the car for around $300 if they applied a few computer upgrades. He didn't know at the time if that would fix the throttle module as well but he thought it might. An hour later, those upgrades did fix the car in their opinion after they road tested it for ~7 miles. yyyyy told me that available computer upgrades are ALWAYS applied at xxxxxxxx when the car is under warranty. He said that they are NEVER applied when the car is out of warranty UNLESS there is a problem. He said that even the extended warranty that I purchased DOES NOT cover the upgrades I needed. I was charged ~$300 dollars.

I asked yyy if those upgrades COULD HAVE been applied at my last service since I WAS under warranty at that time. He felt that they indeed could have been, assuming the upgrades were available at that time but he couldn't tell me if they were or not. I spoke with the Service Manager at xxxxxx, where I was on October 25th and he said that they NEVER apply computer upgrades UNLESS there is a problem with the car, under warranty or not. He also confirmed that no upgrades were applied to my car on October 25th.

I drove the car home on 13-Dec and noticed "electrical" issues. Radio going in and light, headlight(s) going in and out. I drove the car on the morning of 14-Dec and one of my headlights went out completely. This may or may not be related but this car has had so many "little" things wrong with it in its two years of life, it seems that every time someone touches the car (and I leave) something else goes wrong.

I filed a case with CustomerCare.

Last I checked with the dealership they cleaned the throttle module but still had the problem so they were ordering a new ETM module at around ~$800 for the part. I was told that they will use the $300 as a 25% payment on the parts/labor for the ETM replacement and there will be no additional cost to me. Last I checked, the upgrades that I spent $300 on didn't work

[MadeInJapan]

Sounds absolutely awful. To bad the ETM on this newer car isn't covered by what Volvo is doing with their '99-'02 cars. However, the Lemon Law only applies to when someone complains of the same issue for 4 times, or is it 5? without that particular problem being fixed, so I guess he's SOL on that one.

What gets me is that the dealer who serviced his car didn't do any of the computer upgrades under warranty. I've never heard of such and this should be investigated. I have always heard that whatever upgrades are available are done whenever a car goes into the dealer for service, no matter what. If the original dealer was not following standard procedure, then they might be liable to get the car up to snuff.

What are the years/miles warranty that these newer Volvo's have now?
I always thought 50K miles, or has that changed in recent years?

I was going to say, read the codes...yada yada yada, but if it's been into a dealer, obviously that's been done. Electrical gremlins, 95% of the time on this board are related to battery/charging system issues. I wonder if these were checked out.

On a last note, it seems strange to me that the three computers (I didn't know there were that many of them on these cars) weren't communicating with each other and the dealer was still able to do some type of software upgrade. If they dont' communicate, then this would not be possible in my opinion.

If I were the owner of this car I would take it to another dealer and also read the extended warranty contract thoroughly. I might even retain an attorney.

[techietollie]

Just wanted to update the forum on this issue.
The dealership kept the car for 1.5 weeks, cleaned the ETM and the car still died.
They replaced the ETM and the car still died.
Volvo told them to recalibrate the computers. They did and then test drove it for ~200 miles. They gave me the car back saying that everything was fine.
I drove it not even 7 miles from the dealership when it stopped dead in traffic on a major road. Luckily I was able to steer the car into a gas station parking lot.
I called my lawyer who said to keep my car in my possession.
I called the dealership, told them what happened and told them I would NOT be returning the car to them to repair. They OFFERED me a loaner.
I spoke with the service manager today who said that if I did not return the loaner within 24 hours, (since they did not have my car), I would be charged with car theft...
The car is not driveable and I am pursuing legal action.

[MadeInJapan]

So let me get this straight...you have your screwed up car AND you have the dealer's loaner car? I'd call your attorney about the loaner...do you need to return it or not? Seems that things are about to get real funky. Why they would offer you a loaner when they don't have your car in their possession is beyond me.