2000 s40T DSA/Engine lights and limp mode.

giant · Post by **giant** » 23 Apr 2014, 23:14

Hi,

Have been studying this forum since buying my S40T about three years ago and have learnt heaps, thanks everyone.

I live in Australia and my car was manufactured in April 1999 but I believe it is a year 2000 model phase 1, VIN YVVS1926XF366013. Has 180 000 kms and is due for timing belt change.

The ECU is a small mystery atm, it is located under the radio and it is made by Aisin Aw Co Japan. The pollution control label under the hood mentions nothing about OBD 2 compliance so I think I may have the stupid Fenix 5.1 ECU that only volvo can read. Although keen to make my own reader asap, as has been described in a recent thread here. Car has a automatic transmission.

I would love to read my codes but I dont think my Aisin ECU is OBD 2 compliant and driving to the dealer is pretty impossible with car in limp mode and will cost plenty of cash I am sure. Besides I want to fix it myself and understand the vehicle.

Can anyone confirm what operating system my ECU is?

My car has had a clogged PCV for months and I have been running with the dipstick loose. I believe this clogged PCV was causing some oil to wreak havic with throttle body and sensors which was causing some idle issues and revving a little oddly on occassion. I could fix these issues temporarily by cleaning sensors, throttle body etc.

My trouble with DSA/Engine light started immediately after I had serviced the PCV. I replaced the oil trap but just cleaned the hoses out. The PCV now seems fixed as I have no pressure at the dipstick and maybe a slight vacuum, hard to tell. Put a glove over dipstick and oil filler and was no inflation. Put plastic film over oil filler and it just went in and out no vacuum and no pressure, but it was a fairly violent in out action, is this normal?

After finishing the PCV I took the vehicle for a test drive and she went well for a while but then the DSA light/limp mode followed quickly by the engine light.

Checked all the vacuum lines with smoke test, vacuum cleaner/stethoscope and sticks of incense etc and as far as I can tell there are no vacuum leaks. I re used the manifold gasket but have not detected any leaks there.

Checked wires/connections and everything seems ok but could check more I guess.

Finally I thought I got rid of problem when I discovered throttle body was filthy probably from the left over crap and cleaner in PCV lines. Went for a test drive and all seemed good for half hour turbo seemed working better than before although still not working when I floor it. Got onto some open road and floored it, no turbo working but was building speed then suddenly DSA light/limp mode and a second or two later engine malfunction light.

Possible a few drops of water got in turbo while I was cleaning around it.

My thoughts atm are that cleaning the pcv lines has resulted in left over fluid and crap getting into the system has carbonized/gummed up fuel/air sensors and the computer is getting bad air/fuel ratio signals which puts car into limp mode. But what do I know?

I did have the injector rail off the exhaust manifold in order to get the manifold out to get at PCV oil trap, gave the injectors a spray with carb cleaner without taking them off the fuel rail and put them back in the exhaust manifold using a spray of lanolin to lubricate the original O rings.

My next move is to look into checking/cleaning the oxygen sensors.

I really need this car for work etc so would really appreciate any advice or experiences.

Thanks,
Anthony.

giant · Post by **giant** » 23 Apr 2014, 23:19

Cleaning the throttle body got rid of the DSA/Engine warning lights for a while but they are back.

shanegtr · Post by **shanegtr** » 24 Apr 2014, 16:14

Good to see a few more aussies here

giant wrote:Hi,

Have been studying this forum since buying my S40T about three years ago and have learnt heaps, thanks everyone.

I live in Australia and my car was manufactured in April 1999 but I believe it is a year 2000 model phase 1, VIN YVVS1926XF366013. Has 180 000 kms and is due for timing belt change.

The ECU is a small mystery atm, it is located under the radio and it is made by Aisin Aw Co Japan. The pollution control label under the hood mentions nothing about OBD 2 compliance so I think I may have the stupid Fenix 5.1 ECU that only volvo can read. Although keen to make my own reader asap, as has been described in a recent thread here. Car has a automatic transmission.

All the turbo engines from 1998 should run the EMS2000 ECU, so you should be OBDII compliant
http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=78494

giant · Post by **giant** » 24 Apr 2014, 20:13

thanks for the reply, I will check out the link.

have been looking into the ecu extensively and although my s40 has the 16 pin plug to access the ecu and the turbo which is pretty encouraging the owners manual that came with the car has a drawing with the fenix 5.1.

I am ordering the vag kkl usb/com obd 2 cable with the included generic software from China for $10.80
ft232rl chip. I will test out the software first and if that doesn't work I will attempt the work around to read the fenix 5.1. To add to my frustration ebay and paypal aren't co operating atm.

Between easter and anzac day the auto stores have been closed at times inconveniently and I haven't been able to test the oxygen sensor yet.

I have pulled my plugs and they are good except for being coated in white powder deposits which indicate a lean mix and hot temps so will be looking into what could be causing this.

Also discovered a loose line going fom the turbo to the turbo control unit which had been blowing some oil out. After I fixed it it got rid of the dsa light briefly but its back again and car runs poorly again.

Thanks again.

giant · Post by **giant** » 24 Apr 2014, 20:19

Shanegtr do you have a code reader for your s40?

PS I live in Sydney but was in Perth last year for a sailing trip Perth to Melbourne, great coastline in southern WA, wish I had some rockclimbing gear on that trip lots of nice granite.

giant · Post by **giant** » 24 Apr 2014, 21:41

Spark plug description.
NGK R PFR6B about 6 months old.
Gap between points are good

#1 plug

fine white powder on points
carbon on base of threads exposed to cylinder
some carbon all the way up threads
beginning of corosion around nut

#2 plug

Same as #1 but more rusty and some rust staining on white ceramic stem coming from nut area.

#3 plug

white deposits on points
carbon on base of threads
some carbon 1/4 way up threads
no rust

#4 plug

similar to #3 with more carbon on base of threads
points have more of a brown tinge to the white powder and somewhat crystalline.
some carbon 1/4 way up
no rust

Rust could be from my over enthusiasm in cleaning motor leaving some water in plug recess.

All positive coments welcome, I am in well over my head here.
Do you think I have lean burn?

shanegtr · Post by **shanegtr** » 24 Apr 2014, 23:57

giant wrote:Shanegtr do you have a code reader for your s40?

PS I live in Sydney but was in Perth last year for a sailing trip Perth to Melbourne, great coastline in southern WA, wish I had some rockclimbing gear on that trip lots of nice granite.

I've got no code reader, its on my list of things to get if thats any help. But Im fortanate enough to have not needed one yet.

And I agree the SW coast is awesome (but mostly too cold for my liking

) - I esspecially love the coast from around Denmark to Esperance.

Anyway, not sure if you've seen NGK's reference to reading plus, any of yours line up with anything from there?
http://www.ngksparkplugs.com/tech_suppo ... p?mode=nml

shanegtr · Post by **shanegtr** » 25 Apr 2014, 00:22

Maybe the MAF is your problem?
http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=52794

shanegtr · Post by **shanegtr** » 25 Apr 2014, 07:43

Oh and it looks like your looking at the transmission control unit, not the engine control unit. The auto control unit is the large box just under the radio. The engine control unit is closer to the floor pan and is fairly skinny in comparision. You should be able to read seimens on the top

giant · Post by **giant** » 25 Apr 2014, 15:35

Thanks again shanegtr.
Good news.
Tightened a loose line from the tcu to the turbo that was blowing some oil.
Went over the intake manifold bolts again slight firm up on a few bolts
Pulled the plugs, coils and wiring and cleaned them

Took her on a test drive and gave her a work out... all good.
Took her out to a mates place in the country last night about 100kms round trip... all good.

The big test is this morning got to drive in to the city accross harbour bridge and through a couple of tunnels pick up girlfriend and make it back to my sisters place in the country for my mums 80th at noon...

A good tip on the ecu/acu makes sense, will check it out tomorrow.
Will be working at improving performance of Volvo, she has been trouble free till now and overall am very happy with it.

Will check out those links tomorrow.

Plan to get a code reader and live data recording to learn more about the performance and troubleshooting.

Need to get familiar with engine mechanics in general because my long term plan is to get my own sailing boat and cruise around oz and the south pacific fishing and relaxing. going to need to be able to fix my own stuff sometimes in very remote places. Will be checking out the rest of WA coast then.

Did notice the dsa light at the switch is on and stays on even after pushing the button... no warning lights though... is this normal?