Consumer Complaint Detail

VOLVO / C70 / 1999

Recalls
0 Injured
Investigations
0 Death
Complaints
No Fire
Components - Details
NHTSA Complaint Number: 004013672 Incident Date: Dec, 30 2004
Consumer's City: COEUR D'ALENE Consumer's State: ID
Vehicle Transmission Type: AUTO Manufacturers Name: Volvo Car USA, LLC
Model Name: C70 Model Year: 1999
Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No Component's Description: Fuel system, other:fuel injection system
Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No Persons Injured: 0
Vehicle's VIN#: YV1NK53D6XJ Date added to File: May, 23 2021
Date Complaint Received: Mar, 27 2005 Complaint Type: IVOQ
Incident Reported To Police: No Purchase Date: Apr, 02 1999
Was Original Owner: Yes Anti-lock Brakes: Yes
Number of Cylinders: 5 Date of Manufacturer: -
Was Vehicle Towed: - Description of the Complaints: On 12/31/2004 while driving home, the etm dash light came on and the vehicle went into "limp" mode. i barely made it home, and since it was friday night, i could not call my local garage. on monday i had my vehicle towed to the local garage, where they informed me that i had the "error code of death", that i would have to have it towed to the nearest big city volvo garage. they had seen many of these tb problems. i had it towed to smc, inc. where i was told that the etm unit failed and it was my fault for "using cheap gas" and "failing to service the air cleaners". since i always burn the best fuel available, and always go to the dealer garage for all my maintenance, i knew that was bogus. the throttle body was replaced as was a gasket. i was outraged, and expressed this to the service manager, and challenged his accusation. i expressed concern about the reliability of the replacement part. the magneti morelli etm modules which is common in all 1999-2001 70-series engines are all starting to fail. does this mean that we are all using "cheap gas and failing regular maintenance"? no, it means that their lousy design uses metal wipers against a thin-film poly rheostat, guaranteed to rub thru within 30-60k miles. if this happens in the fast lane on the freeway, someone is going to die. if this happens on a remote winter highway, someone is going to die. i was told that volvo's "legendary safety" only applies to crash tests, and has nothing to do with defective designs and other safety issues. just this weekend a stranded motorist was plowed down by a semi-truck on a local highway. *jb