Nearly 2 months have passed since I purchased “the Hearse”, my 2012 XC70 T6 with 133k miles. It was rough when I got it, and is still not perfect. After new tires, front end components, serpentine belt, LF CV axle, and some other odds & ends, it still needs a filler neck and some body / electrical fixes to the passenger seat and driver’s door harness.
I’ve been driving it lots over the last few weeks and enjoying it immensely, in spite of the persistent EVAP-related CEL.
Today, on the way back from Swedish Car Day at the Larz Anderson Museum in Boston, the car began jerking and hiccuping on the 1-2 shift. The problem worsened rapidly as I drove across the outskirts of the city. It began intermittently bucking under acceleration shortly thereafter. Then, it conked out at a stoplight (but immediately restarted). I limped it home in manual mode, using light throttle pressure and trying not to stop if I could avoid it.
It’s at my mechanic’s now. We read codes for crankshaft / camshaft correlation, torque converter lockup solenoid (which explains the stalling), boost leak, and maybe one other thing (in addition to the EVAP code which was already there).
It’s suspicious because the car has been quite happy for the last few weeks and has never had issues with the torque converter or the turbo, as far as I know. It actually drives very smoothly considering its age and neglect.
I’m wondering what others think could have caused the cascading failures I experienced today. It seems that the transmission, timing, and boost codes are all related. Could a wiring harness have been chewed through? Is my ECM fried? Am I missing a ground wire somewhere?
My mechanic wants to replace the camshaft position sensor (we already replaced one) but I think the new one will get fried, too. (Or there is a VVT hub issue?) I’m thinking this will turn into a systemic electrical diagnosis but I’m pretty stumped from there. Has anybody seen anything like this before?
If we don’t get very far the car will be headed to a Volvo master tech friend, if he can fit me in … otherwise it makes the dreaded journey to the dealership.
Let me know your thoughts, and thanks as always.
As a reward for reading all this, here are some shots from Larz Anderson today. I got there pretty late, but I saw some great vehicles.