US-Bought V70 T5 now in Korea with a bad ETM

SuseongGu · Post by **SuseongGu** » 12 Dec 2008, 22:45

I bought my 2001 V70 T5 back in June in Korea from an Army officer who didn't want to pay to ship it to his next duty station. I am the thrid owner of this vehicle. (The original owner bought it in Kansas.) It has 56k miles on it.

I noticed a surging idle shortly after purchasing the vehicle. I finally got around to taking it to the Volvo repair shop/dealership here in Daegu, Korea. They determined that there are a few air leaks and that the ETM is faulty. The estimated cost to fix this is 1,163,250 Korean won, which equates to about $900 as of today. (Would have been $1300 a few months ago, but now we are getting a lot more won for our dollar). I began to do a search to see if I could order the part myself for less and then found out about the ETM issues and recalls, etc.

How can I file a claim for reimbursement being that I live in Korea? Any and all thoughts ideas and help are welcome.

Thanks.

Nathan McCoy

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 13 Dec 2008, 06:57

Welcome to MVS. You could go on eBay and order the part yourself but it will have to be a new one that was never "married" to another car. Once it's installed, you'll need a software download from the dealer- so this is where you get stuck. In the U.S., as you know it is covered for 200K miles or 10 years (whichever comes first) but not all countries honor this. Some in countries that don't have the warranty were able to show the dealer how in the U.S., is covered and still get it taken care of. My thoughts are that you just need to talk to the dealer there in Korea and try to convince them that this is a warranty item. If they won't budge, ask them to talk to Volvo in Sweden and see if they might "allow" it, especially since it's a U.S. model V70. Take them information from this website and from www.vexedvolvo.org Good luck and let us know how things turn out.

SuseongGu · Post by **SuseongGu** » 13 Dec 2008, 20:23

Thank you for your quick reply!!!

I will attempt to communicate with the dealership here about having it covered under warranty, although there is a pretty strong language barrier. Yesterday, the repairman showed no indication of any knowledge of any warranty.

The dealer here had no problem getting the part and software. (I just inquired about getting the part myself because that's what we have to do to get our American car parts, since they don't have them here.) He'll have to order it from Sweden, but he can do it without a problem. Maybe when he orders it, I'll have him ask about the warranty.

Is there a refund option I can execute if it becomes too difficult to get past the language barrier or to convince them to repair it under warranty? Should I contact Volvo directly and see if they can work something out?

Thank you for your help.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 13 Dec 2008, 21:02

Yes, there is a refund procedure but that is (was) during the early part of the warranty- when folks paid to have the ETM replaced and then found out it was under warranty. I don't hear of this any more. You might try contacting Volvo Cars of North America as your car was originally purchased in the U.S.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 1-800-258-6586 (1-800-25VOLVO) Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. 4:30 p.m. Central Time
Mail: Volvo Cars of North America
PO Box 250833
Milwaukee, WI 53225

Post by **VCA** » 14 Dec 2008, 06:32

MadeInJapan wrote:Yes, there is a refund procedure but that is (was) during the early part of the warranty- when folks paid to have the ETM replaced and then found out it was under warranty. I don't hear of this any more. You might try contacting Volvo Cars of North America as your car was originally purchased in the U.S.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 1-800-258-6586 (1-800-25VOLVO) Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. 4:30 p.m. Central Time
Mail: Volvo Cars of North America
PO Box 250833
Milwaukee, WI 53225

There is a procedure in case a dealer wrongly denies your warranty. Call 1-800-283-0117, or fill out and mail this form.

SuseongGu · Post by **SuseongGu** » 15 Dec 2008, 07:07

Okay, here is an update and another question:

I called the hotline at 1030 pm my time and got hold of a real person. I gave her the VIN off the original bill of sale I have a copy of. I noticed that the car was not purchased in KS (as I thought) but in Aviano, Italy through Volvo Car International AB. Being as it was bought by a military man, (milatry sales) it states that is is US specs. The itemized bill is also in US Dollars. I hope this means its Volvo NA.

Beyond that, the woman I spoke with said my 2001 V70 T5 was not covered because it was a turbo. She insisted that it wasn't. I went back to re-read and double-check it seems that is an inaccurate statement:

What this ETM Forum is about...by Matthew1 wrote:1999-2002 C70 coupe and convertible models;
1999-2000 S70, V70 and V70SX models;
2000-2001 V70, V70XC and S60 models with turbocharged engines; 1999-2001 S80 models;
2000-2002 V70 and S60 models with non-turbocharged engines

She also said that my car, based on the VIN, was not tagged as being covered by this warranty. She did indicate that even if it were, I'd probably have to pay up front and file for reimbursement being that I live in Korea.

VIN is YV1SW53D111138848.

Any other suggestions?

Obviously, I need to get the car fixed. (It's not in "limp home" nor is the engine light on.) I just have an occasional surging idle.

She also told me that my car had a cooling fan recall as well.

Thanks for all your help!!!

___________________________________________

10 minutes later....

Phone rings and its the lady calling me back correcting her mistake and then going on to say that she ran my VIN and talked to some other folks and discovered that it is indeed covered under the warranty. The problem she had is that since the car has been in Korea for some time now it is registered in the Korean system. She didn't want to give me a firm yes or no as she wasn't sure. After checking, she was. She gave me the GRC email address to work out how to execute reimbursement or getting the Korean Volvo to just replace it under the warranty.

Kudos to her for working beyond the phone call.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 15 Dec 2008, 15:21

That's great! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. I know that Don who runs Vexed Volvo will be very happy to hear from you if you get this resolved under warranty, even if you're not in the U.S., so make sure and email him- he'll add you to the "success list." In the meantime, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.
-MIJ

SuseongGu · Post by **SuseongGu** » 23 Dec 2008, 04:07

Guess who saved (or at least delayed the spending of) $1000?

I took my car in today as recommended by the mechanic here. He wanted to download software from my car. It took him several attempts and 2.5 hours. When he finished, he told me to drive around the parking lot and tell me to listen for/feel the difference. WOW...the hesitation is totally gone!!! He told me to test drive for another week. If the surging idle returns, then we order a new ETM. If I don't notice it, then his software fix worked. He said he thinks it a software bug caused the hesitation and surging idle. The software fix was covered under factory warranty.

In regards to the ETM warranty, after investigating, Korean law will not allow for the NA warranty to be honored here. As I said earlier, my VIN is marked to qualify for the warranty. I have to file a claim to be reimbursed, however.

For now, I am cautiously pleased.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 23 Dec 2008, 04:48

Ah, so they did the software download....I should have mentioned this as one of the steps. You may be fine for a long time or maybe not. Hope it keeps up for you. What the software does (well, you've probably read about it on Don's site) is to change the parameters of the wire fingers that rub across the mylar piece in your ETM...so it's not stuck at the same part that has rubbed through. Eventually, it will rub through again, in a different location....but at least for now, this is great news!