Conked out going down a hill in L3 - 2001 V70 Auto

Aug 01, 2006 1 Replies

My V70 has behaved well up to now, but at the weekend I was going down a very long hill (3 minutesish) and so put the car in Low3 to take some strain off the brakes.



However when I got to the bottom of the hill and came to a stop at a junction I found that the engine had stalled and there was a hot smell coming from the car. I put it in park and it restarted, although had a lumpy idle and took another attempt and some right foot to keep it going. Its been fine since, and the smell went away.



Any ideas what happened, and if I did any damage?



Background info: Sometimes at traffic lights the engine stumbles but the computer keeps it running. Also, sometimes when pulling up to lights I've felt it 'push on' a bit and change down a gear, instead of coasting, but I don't know if all automatics do this.



I was wondering if perhaps the computer didn't bother to keep it from stalling in L3, so the engine stopped when the car stopped. Or perhaps it stopped idling half way down the hill and the smell was a hot clutch where it had been trying to turn a stalled engine. I noticed in the users manual that you shouldn't bump start the car as this will damage the catalytic converter - no idea why - but perhaps this was what the smell was.



TIA Dransfield


The smell is the hot transmission fluid. It gets hot when the transmission is working either accelerating or decelerating. I live on a 500' hill and after I climb the hill to my home, the transmission always smelled hot in all my Volvos. I doubt if it hurt anything.

This is a different problem which is under warranty. I had the same problem and the 155 Service fixed it for me. There is a "service campaign" for the electronic throttle system (ETS) and electronic throttle module (ETM) where they actually put in a new program that ignores errors by the ETM. If they need to replace the ETM, it covers that. It is not techically a recall, but "VSC 155 service campaign".

Here is what the campaign covers:

"Electronic Throttle Module (ETM) failure may illuminate Electronic Throttle System (ETS) light or MIL. Symptoms may include, uneven engine idle, and/or "limp home mode" that could restrict vehicle speed to 10-30 miles per hour. Faults of the ETM are stored as DTCs in the ECM. If OBD II detects a fault that might increase emissions, the MIL is illuminated. Remedy: A software upgrade will be performed at the next service interval, and ETM warranty extended to 10 years or 200,000 miles, whichever comes first."

It basically covers S70, V70, V70 XC, C70, S80, and S60 from 1999 to

2002.

For more information check page 2 of:

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