Pi**ed at Volvo (about S70 smog test)!

This have been driving me nuts!

Due to approaching California smog test deadline (in a few days), my
1998 S70 non turbo was repaired of several emission-related (EVAP)
leaks about a month ago and there no more faulty code or check engine
light ever since. However, after a month of driving with more than 500
miles logged, the readiness codes are still not available (only 1 out
of 7 did). I've even driven one time on highway at Volvo recommended
45-50MPH (snail speed here in California) 20min twice. It still didn't
help. I've spent a ton of time dealing with dealer, garage, and a
mechanic friend, not to mention that scary low-speed highway stunt that
I wish to never do again.

The local Volvo dealer wants to charge me $340 to drive it 3 days to
reset it. And the garage that repaired it said plenty of S70's like
mind have similar problem and as a result Volvo USA offered "sceret
recall" or free repair under the pressure from US government and
consumer complaints. However, the local Volvo dealer denied such thing
and only help they could offer is to the one mentioned above.

What's to do now? If my garage (specialized in European car repair) is
right, it's absurd that Volvo allows faulty computer in S70 and don't
want to take responsibility. If the ECU is not at fault, it's also
absurd that after 500miles and a month of driving, the can still hasn't
gone through required driving conditions to generate readiness codes.
My garage actually thinks there's no chance the readiness codes will
ever be generated because he thinks the computer loses memory every
time the engine is shut or restart.

I'm very frustrated now because the car has been properly repaired and
there's no more emission problem. But this POS just wouldn't generate
readiness codes.

Help!

 

(just in case you weren't aware...)
You can (and should) pay the fees (online even, with an ATM/visa) though
you haven't passed yet. CA will gladly take your money and it will avoid
any $$ penalties.
Tags will show up 7-10 after the smog place's computer phones in the pass.

Sorry, can't help on anything else...

 

Appreciate! Just found the same thing after reading the notice
carefully and paid with CC. Now the timing pressure is temporary off.
I'll try to drive this car as much as I can and hope it passes in a
month. Otherwise do you guys know the consequence of driving with
expired sticker? Some fine if I'm pulled off by an officer right?

If you guys have similar experience or advises to share, please do so!

 

Dunno about California, but in Arizona there is a one calendar month grace
period for the physical sticker, because registrations due by the end of
September may not arrive in the owner's mail until sometime in October. In
November officers are looking for September and earlier. If found without
current registration in the vehicle, the officer writes you a ticket.
Normally you can appear at arraignment and show the registration and the
judge will dismiss the ticket. If that fails, the fine is impressive
indeed - something like $500 IIRC. I would expect it to be larger in
California.

Mike

 

I've been this route several times with my '83 245.
I typically have a stack of (current) pretests, tests, and documentation
of my payment piled in the passenger seat. If I were to get stopped, I'd
point it out with a two sentence summary of the situation and hope for
the best.
If they're stopping you for tags, they're looking for drunks or drugs.
If they're stopping you for something else, they may or may not add the
tags to the ticket.
Bottom line, It could go anywhere between an admonishment to get it
taken care of, to getting a fixit ticket, impounded, handcuffed and
beaten, tasered or shot.
Looks like you're down in south county. Unless you play football, I
wouldn't worry about getting shot...
In more than 30 years of driving SoCal roads, and being stopped many
times, I've received way more admonishments than beatings...

 

<8^O

 

I have a 1998 S70 T5, and I couldn't pass the Texas emissions tests either
for a while. I've shared this story before ... first 2 shops registered
"communication failure" and couldn't proceed with the emissions tests. 3rd
shop was OBDII only, and it said 6 different codes weren't ready. The last
shop was recommended by a Volvo dealer and for good reason! They knew
that Volvos have problems with readiness codes, and it's a published fact.
So, their machinery allowed them to switch to the old style emissions test
where they run your car on a dyno and check the exhaust.

I passed without issue there.

I'd call another shop and ask for recommendations for places that have
experience with Volvos, emissions and recalls.

 

It's only 1996 850 turbos that reset monitors every time the car is
turned off.
My experience with 2 '98 T5s has been that it takes a while to set the
monitors, but never more than a week. Note that driving at a constant
(low) speed will NOT set these monitors. You need some periods of
idling of more than 70 seconds, interspersed into driving. Low speed
only allows the check to happen more quickly. So a daily commute that
includes highway driving with some moderate city traffic at both ends
should set the monitors. My wife's commute that includes about 30
minutes of open highway driving with about 10 minutes of city traffic at
each end will set all the monitors in 1 day. I also avoid disconnecting
the battery unless absolutely necessary, to keep the monitors set.

Ship your car up here, I'll send my wife to work one day in it!

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

This is a great idea. I might read your story a while ago but couldn't
remember clearly.

You know what? My car happened to have 6 codes not ready too.

The local dealer is of no help as they just want to charge me $340 for
getting the readiness codes. California law may be different from Texas
and doesn't allow "alternative" test. So far everyone I asked said my
car has to be connected to computer with readiness codes checked.

But since I've exhausted all resources, I'll simply ask around for any
smog test places that know about this. Dyno test it is right?

Thanks!

 

Just found out it's inconvenient sign-in and out with different
accounts for posting in this group. So I'm using my Google account
instead the original one. Hope it doesn't attract too much spam.

Since my sticker is Oct., I'll have the next whole month to get it
right. If not I hope the officer can be understanding. This area has
plenty of patrol cars and the fine is $70 with expired sticker. I know
because my wife was pulled once as I was late in applying the new
sticker. Luckily it was dismissed by a judge after we proved that the
fee was paid in time. Still a hassle though.

Luck me. I don't play football!

 

What, are you posting to googlegroups with your browser?
If you post via your news server then you can use 'alternate' email
addresses in Thunderbird.
Go to "Manage identities" under account settings and create a munged
email address. Then you can switch to it by pulling down the 'From' window.
Better, set it to be the default for the news server you're using.

 

When I realized that I posted with my Google email account, I knew that
I've made a big mistake. Usually I did it with this Yahoo "address
guard" account so I could disable it if spams get bad.

However, Google Groups keep remembering my Google mail account (or I
kept forgetting to sign out after checking Google mails). That's why
such a mistake is made. It's likely to happen again unless I do
something like you suggested.

Isn't Thunderbird just an email client?

Can it be used as a newgroup manager? If not what do you recommend? I
usually read and post through Google Groups. This is a habit extended
from my Dejanews days. Though I also used News capability in Outlook
before. Looks like my 10+ years of Usenet skills need an update.

 

_____
Yes. I use it every day under Linux and OpenBSD. It is also available
for Windows 2k, XP. As you can see, my "From" address is bogus, and is
the default when i read news groups. The suggestion
made below about Thunderbird is correct.

 

Thunderbird does a passable job as a newsreader for text groups. Not so
good for binary.

Go to Tools>Account settings. Below the left column that shows your
existing account(s) you'll see 'Add Account'. Pick add newsgroup and
fill in the blanks.
(Mozilla even has it's own server for support and such. news.mozilla.org)
Kind of nice to have (most) all your email accounts and newsservers
accessible in one screen.
It won't do some webmail accounts. I've managed to get Netscape webmail
to work but not yahoo.