2000 Volvo S80: sudden loss of power

Filed Oct 25, 2012 · Airbags, Electrical · 200,000 miles · CA

While driving my 2000 volvo s80 about 20-25mph all the sudden lost power to all my gauges, dashboard lights, power windows, & power locks. The radio was the only device that was working. The following message was displayed SRS-airbag service urgent. I have noticed a difference on my brake pedal that it does not respond as well as it use too there is a short delay when stepped on. Before this incident I had noticed a clicking noise on the driver side when a came to a stop like a relay chattering & also the AC would come on when the car is turned off. At times the following message would appear frequently alarm needs servicing. I don't know what is causing this malfunctions but if its a manufacturing problem volvo should be liable on correcting the problem & provide us with a safe vehicle.

Filed Dec 13, 2011 · Engine, Fuel system · 110,000 miles · WA · fire

Driving on freeway at night, experienced a sudden loss of power. Engine check light came on. Fortunately coasted to a stop on an exit ramp. Upon stopping observed smoke coming through the edges of the hood. Turned off the ignition and exited the car. Noticed a flame under the engine compartment. Within one minute the front end of the car burst into flames and burned in a bright yellow fireball estimated to be 20 feet high. It burned until the fire trucks arrived 20 minutes later. The heat was extremely intense. The hood vaporized, metal parts of the engine melted, tires exploded. Car had a full tank of gas and strongly suspect malfunction of fuel system. Had we been trapped in the car on the freeway, there could have been four fatalities.

Filed Dec 23, 2008 · Engine, Transmission · 66,000 miles · TX

Driving along down an interstate I hit the gas to drive around a car when my transmission came out of gear and the service engine light came on I lost all power to the wheels and was almost rear ended I had no power to make it to the side of the road it is kicking back in but I can not drive above 20 MPH or above 3000 RPM or it will slip out and red line also my engine mount has broken for the second time when it slipped out my s 80 t6 is becoming a paper weight.

Filed Apr 2, 2008 · Steering · 103,900 miles · GA

The dealer also made a life threatening mistake by screwing in the power steering pipe and losing power steering. This caused a bad noise and a life threatening situation with my car.

Filed Jan 6, 2008 · Airbags, Body · 119,500 miles · CA

1) engine idles rough, problem became so bad that car stalls at low speeds, lost power steering & "engine dies" at low speeds (unsafe!). Local mech referred to etm warranty program to re-program faulty etm module. Took car to dlr, re-programmed etm car died again! Turns out bad battery as well: several hundred $$$ to replace battery. Car does not accelerate smoothly, large "shudders" present when merging onto hwy, during transmission/gear shift. Not good! 2) airbag "SRS-urgent service" warning indicator light is on. Good local mech. States this is a $1000 repair. 3) "check brake light" warning indicator light turns on when depressing on brake pedal: good local mech. States that this is "normal" requires exact matching electrical resistance of all brake lamps to ensure that "check brake light" warning does not occur (in actuality the brake lights work fine, the built-in-test is faulty). 4) "check engine light" comes on 2-3 times in last 3 months. Major service was required. One fault was isolated to fuel tank gas cap: if not secured properly "ECM-4308 (leak diagnostic) large leak" occurs...remedied by twisting fuel cap 3 full rotations, after re-fueling gas tank. Good local mech. Diagnosed the loose gas cap problem, warned me about it, and didn't charge me (nice!). 5) body paint is very susceptible to chipping & scratches. Paint or exterior panels are very soft and easily damaged. Another shame, this car looks great but does not hold up very well under typical parking lot conditions (I.e. Someone parked next to you opens their car door into the side of your car resulting in a large scratch). Solution: purchase a fancy car cover and protect the body paint, if you can! 6) parking brake "seems loose", upon parking car and engaging parking brake the vehicle rolls almost 30 cm bwds or fwd depending on level or inclined surface.

Filed Oct 12, 2006 · Suspension · 59,000 miles · PA

Purchased a 2000 volvo s80 in march of 2006, experience power loss with thing such as sunroof and windows, terrible glare from front windshield impairs vision, suspension- ball joints, axles, rods, strut bushings, struts, brake calipers, cv boots/joints, control arm, and tires have been replaced ... Still hear noise., engine surges at low speeds and when car is stopped- engine torque mount replaced, brake pedal has to be pressed completely before car stops-despite brake booster, and master cylinder being replaced. Abs module was replaced. Car drags (has a delay) when accelerating. Received updates and recalls performed. Fixed almost everything car surged forward into a trailer hook on the back of a parked car-cosmetic damage very expensive. Have been hoping that the repairs will come to an end...first car ever purchased and have almost spent 1/2 of its blue book value in repairs. Seeking explanations, reimbursements, and national awareness. Love the appearance, wish it wasn't so many defects.

Filed Jun 24, 2006 · Electrical · 60,104 miles · CT

June 13, 2004: car lost power on I-70 in ohio. Time - 10:00 pm; conditions clear. Vehicle dropped into "limp home mode" requiring that we drive in the breakdown lane to the nearest exit which was about 8 miles. Vehicle speed was about 20 MPH max. - a dangerous situation on an interstate at night since both debris, dead animals and highway construction barriers required temporarily leaving the breakdown lane. Neither my wife nor I knew what was happening at the time. We were able to find a motel and had the car towed to the nearest volvo dealership for repairs the next day. Car repairs included an etm, throttle body, the main control module (part #8601630), various diagnostic tests and software downloads. Time constraints necessitated our returning to connecticut by the next day so we ended up leaving the car and obtaining a rental. The dealership finished the repairs and had the car driven to us a couple of days later. A good part of the repair costs were absorbed by volvo, however we did pay some. The reason for this complaint is concern for my wife's safety. She is the primary driver of this car, using it to commute to/from work on heavily traveled roads. We have since learned that these repairs do not permanently solve this problem. The car now has 95,000 miles on it - about 35, 000 more miles since the original failure. We are aware of volvo's 10 year/200,000 mile warranty on the etm, but volvo needs to find a permanent fix rather than risk my wife's or my safety.

Filed Feb 6, 2006 · Acceleration · 70,890 miles · GA

In august 2005, we took our vehicle in for routine maintenance at 67500 miles. I am the primary driver of this vehicle and had noticed some problems which were discussed with the service department. This vehicle had stalled at parking lot speeds and it had been sputtering at take-off. My husband presented the service department with a publication from the highway safety board which discussed a problem with the throttle body on the volvo s80. As we were having the same problems described in this publication, my husband asked the service department to replace the throttle body on our vehicle. The service department was aware of the problem but as volvo had not issued a recall, they were not authorized to replace this without the volvo warranty company reviewing this issue with our vehicle. The warranty company did examine our vehicle, but declined to replace the throttle body at that time. On december 11, 2005 my family (husband and two children, ages 2 and 10 months) were traveling home to the atlanta area from nashville, tennessee. While driving this vehicle, I noticed that it began to accelerate and decelerate and then completely lost power. We were traveling on I-75 south at interstate highway speeds and were able to get to the shoulder of the road when this happened. Unfortunately, we had to pull over onto the left shoulder as the two right lanes were in a construction zone. We were then endangered by traffic merging to the left which in some cases attempted to pass on the left shoulder. We had to have the car towed to nalley volvo in marietta, georgia which was approximately 34 miles from where we originally broke down. As this happened on a sunday evening and no rental car businesses were opened, we then had to get a taxi to take us the rest of the way to our home. On monday morning, my husband spoke with the service department about what had happened. The problem was diagnosed as a defective throttle body.

Filed Jan 9, 2006 · Acceleration · 96,565 miles · NC

When merging onto hwy. Car lost power while trying to accelerate to enter lane. Car behind me almost hit me and swerved into the other lane where he was almost hit by another car. The electronic throttle system of my car failed. Volvo is replacing these per an extended warranty. Had I known about this problem, I would have had the car repaired before there was a problem. I had to have the car towed and was then told this was a common problem with this car. Why has there been no recall. I am the only private owner of this vehicle, having purchased it from a dealership. Yet when I called volvo about this problem, they found my neighbor's car in their database, but not mine. I feel there are others being put at risk due to the autos throttle system failure. I have seen a letter sent to a television station stating that these cars have a problem they call, "limp home mode" . Well, mine was almost "dead in the road mode" I hope there are no deaths due to this problem. I have had my car fixed, because I could not drive it unless I did. I will not purchase any more volvos, due to the omission of the truth concerning this vehicle. Thank you. Brenda tilley.

Filed Dec 22, 2005 · Engine · 91,500 miles · IN

(1) no warning prior to failure (2) the engine suddenly stalled, leading to instant loss of power / speed. The very first time it happened to me was 2.5 yrs ago(july, 2003) the day after I bought the car at 62 k miles. The engine stalled when I was driving @40-50 miles/hr for 6 miles. The car was towed to the garage and a throttle was replaced. Then, after 2.5 year, when the mileage reached 91k (less than 30k after throttle replacement), the same stalling appeared again. The first time it happened was around 12/10, when I parked the car. The second time was on 12/18, when I pulled over to a traffic light the third time was on 12/19, again when I approached parking lot, to take it to the volvo service. (3) in the first day at volvo dealer service (@ 96th st., indianapolis) could not diagnose the problem: no error code was found. In the second day, upon my request, the service personnel drove the car for two or three miles and the car stalled again. I was told that they found the error code, and determined it related to air intake / throttle. I was also told that the repair would be under volvo extended warranty of throttle cleaning, which I was not notified but found through the federal safety agency website, and made inquiry to the service personnel. Today is the third day of car in the garage, and I have not heard any word from volvo dealer. I am afraid any fix I receive today or in the near future is just temporary, as the same problem happened at 62k. Even after new throttle was installed, this problem appeared at 91k. I was also told by the volvo dealer that the previous owner had the same problem.

Filed Dec 17, 2005 · Acceleration · 77,506 miles · CO

(1) none obvious (2) 2000 volvo s80 t6 "engine reduced power" on interstate placed car in "limp" mode. Impaired traffic creating hazard while coasting to one of a few available road shoulders. Repeated failures and incidents within last 50 miles since volvo attempted 1st repair. (3) read ECM codes 9150 9160 904c 904d 903f - previous codes read as p121 and p1608. Cleaned pcv breather fitting, checked battery voltage, installed upgraded etm switch pn 30677023.

Filed Sep 29, 2005 · Acceleration, Engine · 28,506 miles · CA

Dt: the contact stated the vehicle intermittently stalled/died and lost power due to throttle body failure. *ak