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2000 S40 Erratic/High Idle Tip

Help, Advice, Owners' Discussion and DIY Tutorials on S40 and V40. In this forum you'll find S40/V40-specific owners asking and answering questions on maintenance, ownership, repairs, tutorials and almost every do-it-yourself thing you can do to save money owning these Volvos.

1996 - 2004 S40
1996 - 2004 V40

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metalriff
Posts: 6
Joined: 11 November 2014
Year and Model: 2000 s40
Location: USA

2000 S40 Erratic/High Idle Tip

Post by metalriff »

I've had this car about 6 months and after 1 month the idle started to surge sometimes up to 2600 and back down to barely running. After reading a lot about what it could be I started with removing the idle air control valve which takes all about a minute and cleaning it with carb cleaner and then shooting some all purpose lube in it. Although its a sealed unit and I cant really see any benefit from it it ran perfect for a couple hours then acting the same again. Removed it and repeated the process.
Same result ran great for a couple of hours then surging bad, to the point where you don't have to touch the gas to go 25 mph. I'm sure the Volvo techs would frown at my fix but its been nearly 4 months and my mileage has actually improved since eliminating it. I cut a gasket out of paper gasket material just tracing around the IAC but only cutting out the mounting bolt holes. Reinstalled it so basically blocking it off but kept it plugged in for the ECM. It idled very low initially but there is a great manual plastic idle control you can turn by hand and just cranked the idle up to where it likes it. BTW it was 60 degrees when I did this and now it was 10 this morning and no starting issues and runs like a top. (well a volvo). And it was free. (BTW most mustang 5.0 guys do this and there is even a block off plate for that purpose) Thanks Todd

Livens
Posts: 54
Joined: 20 December 2013
Year and Model: 2003 S40
Location: Lou, KY
Been thanked: 1 time

Post by Livens »

Thanks for the tip, good to know in case mine starts acting up :)

BTW, how many miles on your S40?

metalriff
Posts: 6
Joined: 11 November 2014
Year and Model: 2000 s40
Location: USA

Post by metalriff »

154k miles. Thanks

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