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1998 V70 Rough Idle/Misfire/P0305 After Long Time Idling

Help, Advice and DIY Tutorials on Volvo's P80 platform cars -- Volvo's 1990s "bread and butter" cars -- powered by the ubiquitous and durable Volvo inline 5-cylinder engine.

1992 - 1997 850, including 850 R, 850 T-5R, 850 T-5, 850 GLT
1997 - 2000 S70, S70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70, V70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70-XC
1997 - 2004 C70

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bubbeck
Posts: 51
Joined: 22 January 2016
Year and Model: 1998 V70XC
Location: Boston
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1998 V70 Rough Idle/Misfire/P0305 After Long Time Idling

Post by bubbeck »

Hey volvo wizards,

I roadtripped down to NYC from Boston this week for work, and my 1998 V70XC with 222k miles drove great the whole way down. However, while working in the city today, I idled the car for several hours continuously to charge some electronics/tools etc, and I noticed that over the course of the day/hours of idling the car began having an increasingly rough idle (RPMs dropping from 1000, sputtering sound from exhaust.) At the beginning, I just thought the drop in RPMs was from the alternator kicking in to run the chargers, but by the end of the day, it was so bad I was worried about the car stalling. When I checked the codes, I found a new P0305, cylinder 5 misfire and cleared it. Once I got it moving though, it seemed to run fine on the hour-plus trafficky drive to where I'm staying and didn't have a new P0305 code.

So two questions:
1) Any idea what might be causing this? I recently replaced and gapped all 5 plugs (not the cap/wire/rotors though - those were done ~40k miles ago). I also recently replaced the timing belt, and have done the PCV in the last year. I also recently did a compression test (before TB job though) and got good numbers on all 5 cylinders. I've also had a P0440 evap code for years now that I haven't bothered fixing if it might be related.
2) Can I let this ride for the drive back to Boston where I have a garage with tools, or should I deal with it ASAP? I put some techron fuel injector cleaner in the tank, hoping that helps.

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abscate
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Posts: 35284
Joined: 17 February 2013
Year and Model: 99: V70s S70s,05 V70
Location: Port Jefferson Long Island NY
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Post by abscate »

Have a good look at the cap rotor and plug wires focussing on number 5 cylinder of course.

Idling all day isn't the best thing for an old engine, pull off the idle air control valve (IAC) and check for cleanliness too

I would drive it back to BOS if it's running ok at revs
Empty Nester
A Captain in a Sea of Estrogen
1999-V70-T5M56 2005-V70-M56 1999-S70 VW T4 XC90-in-Red
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jtp
Posts: 490
Joined: 3 October 2007
Year and Model: 99 v70R
Location: Westminster, MD
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Post by jtp »

Could just need a hard driving Italian tune-up to get everything lose.
99 V70R AWD
Almost 155K Miles
Breaking is how I know it’s working

98 S70NA (sold)
95 850 Turbo Wagon (RIP)

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