Volvo S70 jerking problems

Filed Oct 13, 2010 · Transmission · 174,000 miles · MS

1999 volvo s 70 awd automatic transmission failure, began by jerking when 1st accelerating, then totally started slipping and will not move. Fluid level is ok, and appears clean. In process of finding a replacement transmission.

Filed Jul 27, 2008 · Acceleration, Fuel system · 209,600 miles · DC

I was driving normally on a parkway in wash dc. Suddenly the engine lost power and would not go more than 10 MPH. I "limped" to a gas station and turned off the engine, inspected for loose wires, or other observable defects. When I started the car again the ets light was on and stayed on. Now the car runs erratically lurching forward or sputtering or just plain losing power at random.

Filed Sep 22, 2007 · Acceleration · 60,000 miles · VA · crash · 1 injury

On september 9, 2007 the driver was driving her 1999 volvo s70 south on route 15 in pennsylvania. I was in the front passenger seat. The driver turned right into a short access drive to a restaurant. The driver then turned right into the parking lot, slowed further, driving about 40 feet, and turned left into a parking space directly perpendicular to the store?s front entrance. She had come to a slow and almost complete stop when the car suddenly and uncontrollably lurched forward, over the parking block. The car then lurched forward further, on the parking lot surface, up and over the parking lot curb to the store level and crashed into the store?s vestibule. The car hit a support beam, and badly damaged the store?s entrance. The driver put the car in reverse. It lurched uncontrollably backward at a fast rate of speed through the parking lot and up and over a concrete apron directly behind her parking space. It then swerved wildly in reverse along and against the parking lot curb that paralleled route 15. The car violently hit a perpendicular curb, swerved and stopped as the front wheel on the passenger?s side crashed into the curb. The impact broke the right front wheel from its axle. We removed our seat belts and immediately got out of the car. The airbags never deployed. The driver and I both had been shaken badly in the interior of the car as it hit the parking blocks, concrete apron, and curbs. This lunging incident seems to have been caused by the recognized failure of the electronic throttle module of the car. Witnesses said that the car was traveling uncontrollably at about 40 miles per hour through the parking lot as though the car?s accelerator were stuck. Pennsylvania state police made an incident report. Volvo inspected the car claiming nothing mechanical caused the incident.

Filed Apr 24, 2006 · Acceleration, Electrical · 115,000 miles · FL

Car began to lose acceleration on 10-15-05 and would take a full 2 min to reach 55 MPH with only minimal throttle depression (any more than only the least would cause the drive train to jerk and refuse to propel the car at all). If the car was pulled over and restarted the problem would correct itself for a while (sometimes the gap in between malfunctions would be several hours initially) but would always return. Ran trouble codes and the oxygen sensor was initially faulty. Replaced then the engine would idle erratically upon startup, but after a period of time (5-15 minutes) it would all of a sudden correct itself - racing the engine seemed to shorten the time period, but you would have to depress and quickly release the gas pedal in order to get the RPM's significantly high enough to facilitate the smooth operation. Once the engine ran fine, it would operate well as long as the car was never shut off (it was ran on a journey of 1,000 miles and operated perfectly normal). The moment it was shut down, even for the briefest of spans, it would act in the same manner with the idle fluctuating wildly, but seemed to be prone to stalling when the engine was warm/hot. Volvo was contacted and recommended dealer diagnosis to determine the scope of the problem. When the car was brought in for service, I was assured that it "could not possibly be the computer(etm)". However there was a software update installed (hmmmmm.....couldn't possibly, but lets adjust it....hmmmmmm ) which corrected the rough idle initially. Only problem is now the car will not reach or exceed 4,000 RPM even with the car in park (not under load) and will stall jerk and refuse to accelerate under hard pedal pressure and will not drive above about 70 MPH on the highway without protestation, loss of acceleration or jerking. All of the diagnostic trouble codes still indicate that the cylinders are wilding misfiring and I'm getting sick of trying to fix volvo's engineering problem.

Filed Nov 14, 2005 · Acceleration · 125,000 miles · SC

The electronic throttle body has been replaced twice. Once at 112000 and the other at 125000. The second time it failed, I was pulling into traffic and the car started 'lurching' forward. I pulled over and restarted the car to fix, but the ets light was on. It was fixed under volvo warranty from the first time which cost me $1200. This is also a safety issue as I was lucky that it happened when pulling into traffic and not merging onto hwy or interstate.

Filed Oct 26, 2005 · Acceleration · 87,000 miles · FL

Dt: the contact owns a 2000 volvo s70. While driving at speed of 25-40 MPH vehicle would cut out while idling or slowing down. Then it would lurch forward. The contact would put vehicle in neutral to try and keep this from happening. The vehicle is currently dealer for repairs. This has been going on since august 2005 and has been getting progressively worse. The problem was diagnosed as fluctuating idle due to electronic throttle module failure. *ak

Filed Oct 24, 2005 · Acceleration · 75,054 miles · WA

My car was jerking and stalling without any notice. My wife use to tell me all the time that it was doing that. This went on for a few months or maybe even longer. I decided to drive the car and it never happened with me until I was driving on vacation to n.c. And it just cut off while I was with my family. I had to push the car of the road. I continued to attempt to restart the vehicle. It restarted, and I went to the nearest volvo dealer and had to have the electronic throttle module (etm) replaced. $1014 worth of repairs, from one of the best cars known for safety and reliability in the world and I felt helpless. I know that this is a defect and recall issue and would like to be reimbursed or given credit at a volvo dealership to make up for my loss and just make this matter right. I still have the invoice service receipt with all the information on it. The volvo dealership where the repairs were made was crown volvo in greensboro n.c. Thank you for allowing me to make a complaint. Hopefully enough people with the same problem can make some key personnel think about the safety issues and reliability concerns of these vehicles.

Filed Oct 17, 2005 · Acceleration, Electrical · 105,442 miles · NY

Dt: the contact stated that 1999 volvo s70 experienced the same problem with stalling while driving under 40 MPH. The engine light was coming on and the car was uncontrollable. The car would shake and jerk, speed ahead and slow down. T the contact took vehicle to the dealership and they replaced the fuel throttle body, put in new spark plugs, and reprogrammed the computer. The car has since then ran well. The contact stated that this happened a year ago. The repair cost for the contact was almost $1,000.00. The contact has been in touch with volvo dealership, and they told him that they have not heard anything about recall. The volvo manufacturer said that there was an investigation on the car, and to call the federal safety agency. The contact has also filed a complaint with volvo.

Filed Oct 12, 2005 · Fuel system · 63,100 miles · CO

Driving to denver on sunday 10/8/2005 and my car started to miss and jerk severely. There was a lot of traffic behind me going well over 60 MPH and no place to pull over. I almost got rear ended. I don't have the money to fix the car as I was told the cost is over $1000. It now does this intermittently so I can drive it part time anyway.

Filed Oct 11, 2005 · Engine · 91,800 miles · WA

While teaching my son to drive our 2000 volvo s70, our car started jerking as he was coming to a stop. At the stop light,the car continued to have a jerking motion. The ets light came on so I looked this problem up in our manual. It says, 'if the light remains on, the system should be inspected by an authorized volvo retailer'. The light went out so we didn't think that this was going to be an ongoing problem. We continued to drive the car and it worked fine. On some occasions the light would come on and we would simply bring the car to a stop and turn the car off. The light would go off. I became concerned about this only after the light came on and I couldn't bring the car to an immediate stop. I was gearingup to a merge where cars are weaving and out of each other at rush hour to position themselves to get onto or off the highway,respectively. The light came on and I couldn't stop. The car's accelerator began to behave erratically like it was losing pressure but I wasn't in a location where I could stop;I barely avoided a major accident. When I brought the car to a stop and turned the engine off the light went off again as if nothing was wrong. I came straight home and got online to get insight. I read that volvo owners in cal had brought a class action lawsuit over this safety issue. Ironically, we had just had our 90k service performed 3 mos before this problem occurred. We thought that we were maintaining our vehicle to its highest safety standards. Now we have to bring the car back in for a $1k fix. I am adding my voice to other volvo owners who've had this problem and believe that it's volvos duty to correct it before there are significant deaths attributed to it. If nothing else, the manual should say, 'bring your car in immediately to be fixed because the problem will worsen and eventually lead to complete engine failure and potentially your death and the death of innocent people in the cars around you who hit you unsuspecting because your car's engine fails'.