Volvo S60 Rrrrrgggghhh!

This post is updated below with more accurate information on the Anti-Skid warning and loss of all-wheel-drive for later models Volvos. If you are having similar problems with your car skip down to the update for the latest and more accurate diagnostic and repair information. Read through if you just want my inane commentary.

See this? This is a thermostat from my Volvo S60 R, normally this is an easy to aquire $3 part, but these are not normal times Kato and the S60 R is not a normal car.

I need to replace the thermostat because I got this and other warnings on the illuminated Chicken Little, hypersensitive information center on my dashboard. 

This warning was basically telling me that I will spin out of control, hit a tree, and die in a fiery death no later than next Tuesday unless I take my car to my friendly Volvo dealer sooner than immediately. “Pishaw!” I said to myself. I have a garage, a lift, an insane amount of tools, and the glowing optimism of the village idiot who smiles too much and smells vaguely of urine. I will fix these issues myself!

After some research (that’s what smart people do, right?) I found that the main problem was this.

This is the traction control unit that detects slip and engages the all-wheel-drive system. (this was not the problem, see update) When it stops working you get lousy traction in bad weather and torque steer in good weather when you stomp on the go-pedal. In the non-functioning mode you are basically running in front-wheel-drive only. The observant among you will notice that the bolt holding this unit onto the car is slightly mangled, we’ll get to the reason for that shortly.  

If you are not familiar with the S60 R here it is.

This was the performance version of Volvo’s midlevel sedan. In my 2005 version it has a 300 horse power, 5 cylinder, DOHC, variable valve timing engine with all-wheel-drive, and adjustable sport suspension. We need this car because my wife Ginger must cross two mountains to get to work and anything that won’t do the steepest twisting road in sixth gear at 80 miles per hour is unacceptable.

Here is Ginger doing triple digit speeds on a lonely stretch of highway while I take pictures and egg her on. When driven well the S60 R will get you to your destination quickly and in comfort, when driven expertly, you’ll arrive slightly younger than when you left

.

It may seem unseemly for two people approaching middle age to drive like hooligans, but the way I figure it, the prospect of accomplishing anything of note in my life is unlikely at this point. The best I can hope for is to die in a spectacular fashion. My legacy will be a gruesome page-one photo that some old man will look at briefly sitting in the local coffee shop, murmur the one-word commentary, “idiot”, then turn to the sports page.

But, if you recall the warning lights mentioned above, the Volvo’s power was intact but its control was not. It was like a 300 pound football player who can’t hold his liquor; dangerous when provoked. So looking around the interweb I found that the traction control sensor was at least $250 dollars and the ABS sensors could run as high as $400. The odds that both sensors, located in opposite ends of the car, would go out at the same time seemed high so I reasoned I would start with the traction control/AWD unit and proceed from there. As luck would have it the local U-Pull-It junk yard had a wrecked Volvo S60 turbo the same year as mine. The sensor unit I needed for the traction control was still on the car and for $15 it was mine. My R edition has the Brembo brakes so the anti-lock brake sensors were not compatible.

I took my junk yard treasure to my garage and began the butchery in earnest. The traction control unit is located near the rear differential and held in with two torx head bolts and two electric plugs. It seems inevitable that whatever is affixed with these demonic fasteners is torqued just slightly above the tensile strength of the torx head groves of the bolt; so stripping the head is inevitable (see photo above). Thus was the case here, and what should have been a ten minute job ended up with cursing and swearing set to the screeching rhythm of the Dremel tool. I had to cut the sensor away in one inch strips to get to the top (stripped) torx bolt nestled snugly between the body of the car and the rear differential.

It was an all-or-nothing play, with the old sensor destroyed the junk yard unit had to work; surprisingly it did work and the traction control warning was no more. This victory left the ABS sensor warning as my only dooms day, dashboard prophet.

Before I spent the mortgage money on a new ABS sensor I figured I’d pull all the wheels and check each electronic connection separately. The last wheel pulled, the rear passenger side, had a severed wire on the wheel sensor.

Some solder, shrink wrap, and electrical tape later and I got this. For the first time in quite a while I had no warning lights. I hopped in the car and took it for a vigorous test drive; no torque steer, and strong brakes, success. (the Anti-Skid warning light would return a week later, see update)

I put the Volvo back into the garage and had lunch. After the celebratory feast I planned to refinish the wheels on the S60 as the clear coat was starting to peel. When I got back to the garage I put the car on the lift to remove the wheels and as the front bumper was rising past my field of vision I was confronted with the sight of a large puddle of coolant on the garage floor. I think I know how a doctor must feel after performing a successful appendix operation, only to have the patient die of an unrelated stroke in hospital parking lot. Can I feel good for at least an hour?

After much rooting around it seems the leak is coming from the thermostat housing. This would be an easy fix in most cars but in the Volvo I had to remove the coolant overflow reservoir, the power steering reservoir, the serpentine belt and the power steering pump to get access to the thermostat housing which is secured to the car by two, seized, and soon to be stripped, torx bolts. Let the games begin.
*Do yourself a favor if this coolant leak happens to you; do not be tempted to change the thermostat with a cheap parts store unit. Suck it up and buy the $200 unit and housing from Volvo (or find a used OEM unit). How do I know this, need you ask?

Marve Harwell 2014 (C)

Update and information learned the "hard way" also known as the expensive way.

Finally my S60 R is fully fixed and all four wheels are providing the power and traction the Nordic Gods of automotive design intended. If you are experiencing similar problems with your Volvo I have provided this update with the list of procedures in steps that should be followed to save you time, money, and grief. I know this to be true because I did everything the wrong way and lost my lunch money in the process.

If you have an anti-skid warning on your Volvo’s dashboard display and you are experiencing a loss of traction in bad weather or torque steer on dry pavement check out the following:

    1.   If your car has close to, or more than, 100,000 miles on the clock the odds are you need to have the spline sleeve replaced. This is a metal sleeve that links the transmission to the angle gear giving you AWD as needed. Have this checked first, and be prepared to spend $500 or more to have it replaced or remove the gear box to do it yourself. In most cases this will fix the problem.

 Follow this link for more info plus a way to weld in the sleeve and never replace it again: http://forums.swedespeed.com/showthread.php?164579-Never-replace-another-AWD-collar-sleeve-EVER-again!

  2.  If you have the spline sleeve replaced also have the shop change the oil and the filter for the Differential Electronic Module (DEM) located by your rear differential. You can do this yourself quickly. Ginger was doing this while I was changing the engine oil and she was finished before I was. I bought the DEM oil, filter, and gasket from the Volvo dealer for $54. You will need a cooking syringe with a graduate on it to squirt the correct amount of new oil into the filler hole.

  3.  If you do these two things and the anti-skid warning light stays on or comes back on shortly after, it may be the DEM itself (the Haldex unit pictured in the story above). These units are $2,000 new, but hold on, because there are far less expensive alternatives.
You can have the unit reprogrammed by ASI for about $110, a little more if they have to replace any components.  Here’s the link to their Ebay store: http://stores.ebay.com/ABS-ECU-ECM-EBCM-COMPUTER-REBUILD

They will bench test your unit before they do anything. They found mine to be fully operational and refunded 100% of my money.

So why didn’t mine work? Well if you read the diatribe above you will see my DEM (held in place by two torx screws) was fused in place and I had to destroy it to remove it. This forced me to get a used one from a local U-Pull-It junk yard.

What I didn’t know at the time is that these Haldex units run at different processor speeds for different years.

Volvos built on or before 2004 require a unit manufactured before June of 2004. 2005 and newer Volvos, like mine, require a unit made on or after June of 2004. I found a used unit from a Volvo breakers yard in Tennessee called Southern VoVo that was the correct year and is on my car and working fine. 

This is the WRONG Haldex unit for my 2005 S60 R. This unit was made February 12th, 2004. The date is in DAY, MONTH, YEAR format pictured above the bar code.

  4.  If you do everything above and you still have the warning light then you may have a communication or connection problem between your DEM and the car’s computer. You have to take it to a shop that has the proper equipment to test these systems. A hand held VIDA DICE diagnostic tool will not do an accurate job in diagnosing these problems.
How do I know this? I have a friend who works for Haldex and he called corporate HQ in Sweden and talked to the engineers. They gave me a list of Volvo dealers in my area that had the proper equipment.  The dealer checked my system for free; shout out to Lehman Volvo in Mechanicsburg, Pa, good people!

I hope this helps other lost souls from repeating all the expensive mistakes I have made!

Marve Harwell © 2015.