DSA light comes on, engine dies

touchaxe · Post by **touchaxe** » 15 Aug 2018, 06:07

I’m a first-time Volvo owner – just bought this 2002 V40 from a friend last week. It’s been driving beautifully up until yesterday afternoon. I was taking the freeway home from work and things seemed normal but once I’d exited and started driving through residential neighborhoods, the DSA light came on and stayed on. Each time I stopped at a light or a stop sign the car died. I’d put it in park and it would start up just fine. No DSA light. But at the next stop, it would happen again. It happened each time I stopped.

This morning, I started the car and it died as soon as I took my foot off the brake to pull out. DSA light came on, same issue. I restarted it and drove it around the block with no issues. Anyone have any insight for me? No experience working on Volvos at all.

Thank you in advance!

I did search the forums and found these threads where it seems people had similar issues but not identical:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=71250&p=374881&hilit=DSA#p374881

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=43873&p=213857&hilit=DSA#p213857

Post by **jimmy57** » 15 Aug 2018, 09:56

The DSA module is next to the glove box, rh side of glove box as I remember. Unplug it. It has a link to get a 4 wheel speeds from ABS and a comm link to engine control module (ECM) to request engine power reduction. It could be an issue with wheels speeds but I think you'd have ABS light and maybe ABS activation when braking for no reason. This system has never given much trouble that I know of and I have never had to remove one or access one.

You might have a fault code in ABS and possibly in ECM for this being unplugged but it should not affect anything since DSA relies on those two modules but does nothing for them as far as their normal functions.

touchaxe · Post by **touchaxe** » 16 Aug 2018, 06:39

OK thank you for that feedback man! I will try that for sure!

This morning the car started, acted, drove totally normally. No weirdness at all. Extrememly strange!

Post by **alschnertz** » 16 Aug 2018, 16:28

You may want to remove and clean the battery cables and terminals.
Not sure if that would help, but it is something that is too often overlooked.