2008 s60 failure to start then reduced engine performance

[Romac]

Backstory first so jump ahead for my current problem; in early spring we purchased a 2008 Volvo s60 2.5t with 95k miles on it. The car looked great on the lot and test drove well, but unfortunately was much rougher than we originally thought cosmetically and after not even having the car a week the problems started and we've had a couple expensive repairs done (a sensor in the fuel tank, common problem, was throwing CEL and the dealer met us halfway on the repair of that as well as on the repair of another sensor that was disabling dct). Excuse my vagueness but it's been a while since then and I'm unfamiliar with the car as a whole coming from almost exclusively Fords. It also randomly broke two washer motors, we replaced the battery and we had the timing belt changed as precaution (as well as oil changes etc).

the current problem
Yesterday my wife called because the car was failing to start. It's an older car with some miles on her now (105k) and it has gotten suddenly cold here with an arctic blast so I figured that hopefully it wasn't anything that out of the ordinary. But the car continued to fail to start another four cranks. Eventually it fired up but threw a 'engine performance reduced' message. She said the message ran on for about ten minutes before going off and it hasn't returned. However, the car again failed to start this morning when she left for work. She says the message didn't come back up but she also doesn't pay much attention so who knows.

Anyway, I've been reading about dirty ETMs, MAFs, and a million other things causing that code to be thrown. Could those things also cause the car not to start?

I was about to pull the trigger on some tune up parts from IPD anyway (air filter, fuel filter, cabin filter, spark plugs, oil change kit). I went ahead and added a throttle body (or etm or whatever) gasket in case I have to pull it to clean it. Anything else you guys could think of to add to that list on the cheap to start at the bottom?

Any other ideas you guys have at all would be greatly appreciated. Im no mechanic but am willing to tackle the basics and would gladly accept any guidance.

Thanks!
Roman

[oragex]

I assume the battery cranks the engine at a good rate - that is, not too slow. If that's fine, in order to have a good start in cold weather, the ignition has to be in good shape. Given the miles, if it has never done before, it's largely time to replace the spark plugs. I would suggest not starting to replacing too many things at once, just the spark plugs. Have a look at the engine air filter, if it looks dirty you may want to have it replaced.

If that doesn't do it, you may try replacing the ignition coils. The cabin filter has no incidence on the engine. I don't think you car has a serviceable fuel filter.

The car also needs a 5w30 or 5w40 oil in cold weather - a 10w30 oil won't help a cold start.

Remember not to crank the engine for too long if it's not starting. The starter is not designed to turn for too long, and will burn up (expensive to replace). Don't crank more than 5 seconds at once. Pause for 30 seconds after each try.