V70 1999 Excessive cranking required to start

mlisee · Post by **mlisee** » 01 Jan 2010, 14:49

I have a 1999 V70 T5 with manual transmission and 169K miles on it that I bought new. The car has a problem starting that worsens as the weather gets colder. For example, a few days ago it was 5F when I left work. It took close to 5 minutes of cranking for the car to start. When it did start it smelled flooded, so I'm assuming that the engine is getting fuel. Another interesting data point, which I expect is a symptom, is that while the engine is cranking (but not yet started), the tachometer will spike, or jump, up to about 3K rpm then return to zero. The erratic tachometer occurs even at summer temperatures. The car often generates P0300 error codes (random/multiple misfires) and occasionally P0354 (Ignition coil D circuit malfunction) and P0335 (Crankshaft position sensor A malfunction). (I've swapped coils 3 & 4 and the problem has stayed with 4.)

This has been happening for quite a while and I've tried what I think are all of the usual suspects: air and fuel filters, spark plugs, some of the fuel injectors, key transponder (immobilizer), crankshaft sensor, RPM sensor, new throttle body (warantee), ground cable between battery and transmission. I just checked the B cable (battery to fuse box) and it looks good. The engine was also rebuilt about 53K miles ago due to oil consumption. (The problem predates the rebuild.)

My suspiscion is that the problem is due to a bad electrical connection somewhere. Does anyone have any advice about where to look next?

Post by **FlyingVolvo** » 01 Jan 2010, 15:52

Silly question... but how old is the battery?

mlisee · Post by **mlisee** » 01 Jan 2010, 17:08

I should have mentioned that in my original post. The battery's about 2 weeks old.

Post by **Pauloil** » 01 Jan 2010, 17:20

have you checked the ECT sensor? fuel pressure?

jakub72 · Post by **jakub72** » 02 Jan 2010, 03:59

Your symptoms and fixes remind me of a problem with a my Lincoln that I still own. The vehicle had very similar issues and would always throw out TPS codes and would have engine knock at lower rpms, irregular idle, misses and rough idling. The cure for all the problems was a new PCM. I replaced it with a OEM refurb from FORD on my friends recommendation. I learned many years after, that FORD had a recall on the exact code my car had for those exact reasons. Ironically, there was never a TSB issued for that fix until many years later. I would seriously look into a new/refurb PCM from the dealer or other reputable source. In my experience, the OEM refurbs will have the lates and greatest software that replaces all the bugs from previous version. My garage queen is a 93 Mark VIII with FORDS EEC-IV.....may not be too relevent today, but PCMs can be a big stinky pile poo.......

mlisee · Post by **mlisee** » 05 Jan 2010, 16:43

I hadn't checked either the ECT or fuel pressure. Sunday the car died with some very bizarre symptoms: the ETM (or ETS?) light came on with rough running and no power. Also, the headlights were off (switch was on), all of the gauges were reading zero (engine was running), the rear wiper was on (switch was off) and the dash light for the rear fog light was on (switch was off). The car is now at the dealership and they found a broken ground wire just below the main fuse box. (The one closest to the driver.) Hopefully this is the cause of all of the problems that I've been having.

66tz · Post by **66tz** » 25 Mar 2017, 08:04

Hello Mlisee,

I know the thread is very old but I still post an answer to this as it might be relevant for other people out there.

My car showed exactly the same problems and it took over a year to figure the issue out. Volvo dealer was of not much help.

The car showed long cranking, jumping RPM values 3k, 4k for split seconds etc as your car as well.

The solution was very cheap and easy and it is too simple to believe.

- Check first the routing of the starter motor cable and see that it does not go close to the wires that lead to the RPM sensor. Most likely there is nothing wrong there my cable was perfectly ok also changing the cable did not help at all.

- Most important is to really check all of the bolts between engine and gearbox and not only the ones that you see when the car is up on a lift. But also the ones that go on the upper side of the gearbox where the RPM sensor is located. In my case there were three lose bolts.
What was done to my car was to clean the surface between engine and gearbox and to tighten these bolts nice and snug.....and the problem disappeared immediately.

--> The reason is that the gearbox/engine surface connection is very important for getting a good grounding around the RPM sensor. If the grounding is not good the sensor received electrical signals during cranking from the starter motor current which causes false values (jumping RPM) and thus a no start condition. I tried to work with direct grounding cables between gearbox and engine to battery which all did not help.

So to anyone seeing this issue on a V70 1998 to 2000 I would very much recommend to first check this out thoroughly before doing anything else.