I need some advice, please. I have a 1999 S80 with 96,000 miles on it. The check engine light has been on for about a month. The car runs fine, but when I went to have the annual emissions test performed to register it, obviously, it failed. The failure code is random misfire. As I said, the car runs fine. According to the dealership, there are 2 cylinders that are not holding pressure. They say that this can't be repaired, but that the engine has to be replaced. Their quoted price was $10,000. 1) Do you think there would be harm in driving as-is? 2) Does this sound right, that it can't be repaired, only replaced? 3) Does this price ($10,000) seem outrageous to replace with a REBUILT engine? All advice is appreciated. -- Jim Burke Scrappin' since 2/1/03 Pages done: 13 To reply: remove REMOVE
Second opinion time. If there's a compression problem, first it has to be determined what's causing it. It could be something simple like a head gasket failure between adjacent cylinders, and the fix may only involve head removal, surfacing and reassembly. $10,000 is probably about right for an exchange engine from Volvo. I certainly hope you don't need anything that drastic at such a low mileage. As far as harming anything, if your engine is already scrap (as they think it is), how much worse could it get??
I would look around for salvage S80s or engines on ebay. I would also take it to several places and play dumb and see what they tell you, for the heck of it.
Isn't this a bit drastic? Has anyone even done a leakdown test? Determine the cause of the fault, don't just replace the whole engine. My guess is it's a blown head gasket, driving it like this can wreck the block or head though.
Unfortunately, I'm only going by what the dealership said right now. I am going to get some other opinions, but wanted to get some group feedback as well.
Well if they're paying for it I'd say go for it, but if it's out of your pocket forget the dealer, they're only good for repairs done under warranty or those requiring very specialized tools.
You need to find a good independent mechanic who specializes in Volvos or at least in European cars. Most causes of two cylinders having low compression can be fixed short of a complete exchange engine. If, however, the cause turns out to be a cracked block then you may indeed be looking at a new motor. One possible scenario is the engine may need to be partially disassembled just to find out what is wrong, and that could lead to several labor hours for what might be a pretty easy fix (headgasket) or might not be (cracked block). John
