'99 S80 2.9 -- replace ETM & ABS before failure?

[Hendoo]

I've recently brought home my mom's 1999 S80.

They bought it new in 1999 and it has been garaged in California its entire life. Only 75k original miles.

Interior is absolutely as new. The outside has a few dings but overall great shape.

But it is mine now. Shortly after I took it over, I encountered some idle surging, CEL etc; MAF fixed that.

Now I'm wondering about the ETM and ABS modules. Would it make sense to just replace those now, with Xemodex units, or should I wait until they fail?

The car has the original, 199 factory units in it now.

I'd like to make this my girlfriends car, which means reliability is key. I want to avoid stranding her. Figure ~10k/miles per year.

OTOH if I thought the existing units would survive 2 or 3 years, I might wait.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

-Tom in Ventura
'99 280 2.9
'82 245 Diesel

[ThommyKent]

Wait

[Hendoo]

Thanks for your thoughts Thommy.

I sort of understand the failure mode for the ETM, but have no idea what fails in the ABS module.

If my GF gets stranded ill wish I had been more proactive... but we'll see.

-Hendoo

[ThommyKent]

ABS failure is just warning lights and no ABS, but the brakes work fine without ABS working

[skunkd84]

Hey Hendoo,

May want to get some 10 amp fuses to keep in the glove in case the ETM starts blowing fuses. That may keep her from being stranded. In my experience I took out the ETM and sent it to Xemodex, they sent me a referb and saved me about $500.00 but was undriveable for (if I remember correctly) about 4 weeks. I live in Florida so it may be sooner the closer you live to Canada.

[precopster]

You can get up to 180K miles if you're lucky. Is it a white label?

[Hendoo]

You can get up to 180K miles if you're lucky. Is it a white label?

Yes; white label. The software mod was made when it was released years ago.

The car drives fine now; about 78k miles. It sounds like there is no reason to premtively replace it now...

-Tom in Ventura