I have a 2004 XC70, which uses a very similar ECM setup as the XC90. My sweetheart and I were driving at night through a secluded part of Vancouver Island when the first failure hit. Only in our case, it was 35 degrees Fahrenheit. After a loud, jarring bang, all the cabin lights illuminated, immediately followed by a "Left Rear Passenger Door Open" message on the MFD. After another few miles, the dash failed completely. Only a 30 minute cooldown allowed the vehicle to operate normally or indeed even start. A terrifying problem to be faced with in the middle of nowhere. After much scouring the forums and some empirical experimentation, I determined that this is a problem with the CEM, mounted behind the dash above the drivers left kick panel. The cabin heater, venting through the foot pan air directors, enveloped the CEM in a stagnant bubble of superheated air that caused the hapless module--already blessed with notoriously bad airflow and excessive shielding--to overheat and fail. Being an IT guy, I've repaired many computers with overheat problems, and the XC70's CEM is no different than any other overheating computer. After removing the CEM, I removed the top of the chromed processor shielding box and elected to leave it off of the CEM. Utilizing forceps and patience, I installed self-stick copper heatsinks--the kind normally used to cool memory modules in high-end gaming rigs--on the processor and every glue chip I could get to. I trimmed the black perforated plastic off of the top using a rotary cutting tool to increase airflow even further. I then affixed a 12v PC chassis cooling fan to the top with tie wraps, such that it constantly blasts circulated air across the planar and heatsinks, and supplied power to it by wiring it into directly into the accessory circuit. I've been pounding on it for the last four days in a winter shakedown roadtrip, through brutal Pacific Northwest winter driving conditions in freezing rain and snow, blasting the heater into the footwell for hours at a time. My XC70 has performed flawlessly. The cooling fan on the CEM, despite its size and relatively rapid RPM, is only audible upon vehicle start and even then only barely. Instead of paying $4,500 for a replacement CEM from Volvo, or $1,000 for an Xemodex refurbishment of my existing CEM, I solved this otherwise terrifying electrical gremlin with about three hours of elbow grease and less than fifteen bucks.
This happened to me. I took out my CEM and tightened the connection harness clips. My 05 xc90 did this same thing. After I tightened the connections. No more power loss, electronic failure.
If it is in 4th gear, I'm guessing its a T6, which is already notorious for its 4 speed transmission failures. I'm sorry to hear that you got stuck with a dud. Hope you got everything sorted out! My dad has a 2005 V8 AWD that he has had since new and works flawlessly and is incredibly reliable.
So, we mortally wounded the transmission permanently. Ours sat for almost 18 months until we had the money to do the transmission. Got quoted $3500 to $5000. Lucked out and found one at the junk yard for $1100 and put in for $1500. Ouch. Got it put on the road and was once again having electrical issues. The wife got fed up with it and me and started unplugging things to see what happened (she's awesome because she plugged them back in). Found that the key solenoid (not the tumbler but the thingy at the end of the tumbler) when it was unplugged we had a lot of the same problems happen (as well as the car shutting off). Replaced that solenoid and the key antenna. We've been running it for about a month now with no issues (BUT still holding our breath). Hope that helps someone.
Sorry to hear about these kinds of problems. For me it's such a nice car. Never happened to mine here in Norway even though it has been rolling for 248 548.477 miles, and it's still going. Should cut the T6 crap, buy a D5 if you are able to (pretty rare for the american market).
Getting rid of the 04' XC90 was the best decision we could have made. Traded in for a 2012 Subaru Outback and love it. I get that cars have a bad year run and some models are better than others, but because of our interactions with the dealers and manufacturers over this issue, we will never own a Volvo......guaranteed.
2004 was an early model year. New models usually have issues in the beginning that get fixed overtime. I'm happy you have a car you feel pleased with now, but I'm just saying.
I think that Volvo like other brands has good cars and turds, and I will research carefully before buying. Even Toyota has some bad models. It's mainly disappointing when companies don't make the problem right, but it seems all of them like to do that. Hyundai, Honda, Toyota, etc.
You never mentioned which engine it had. That's a huge factor for these, especially through '07. I had an '04 2.5T with 160k on it, and it ran beautiful. I currently have an '06 V8 with 175k on it, and it purrs like a kitten... or roars like a lion, take you pick. Yes, EVERY vehicle can have problems, and EVERY vehicle WILL have problems at some point. It's a matter of good maintenance, proactive with proper repairs, and being a member of a good forum (swedespeed.com for Volvo).
'04 is a bad year for CEM;s. Send the CEM to xemodex for a lifetime repair.My '04 S60 did the same exact thing before repair. Only the '05 and up vehicles have the issue with water leaking onto the CEM not '04 and older
mwstaton64 you said that "Only the '05 and up vehicles have the issue with water leaking onto the CEM not '04 and older". So if mine is a 2003 T6 then it is for sure not the water but the overheating issue? The car is a 1000km away from home in Germany, home is Hungary where any repairs are much cheaper then Germany. Do you think I can drive it back if I take the insulation covers off and blast the aircon or I will need to stop for 2-3 hours after every 300km to let it cool down. If I do this could it fail so bad that it will stop working?
that is shurely the previous's owner fault, maybe he didn't care about the car, he sold it because it was full of problems, that guy destroied it. sorry to hear that. it is strange to be blocked like this.
Where is the 100 amp fuse? My Volvo is doing the SAME thing. But I turn the key off and then back on and everything works for a few minutes. Would it still be that fuse?
If it's a T6, stay away from it. It will need a transmission rebuild. There is one kit on the market that should actually work (search swedespeed.com forums). It's a weak GM transmission mated to a pretty powerful (for the time) turbo 6.
Sounds like your CEM needs a software update. These are times when you have to bend over and put some vaselin in you a-hole and take it to the dealer......... if you were closer to us we could do the software update for a fraction of the price but since you're in Idaho it's difficult! These vehicles are very well built......... just for the US market they put "quirks" in them so the owners have to PAY to own them............. sad.................... i've owned many Volvos and they've been great vehicles putting more than 300000 miles on some of them!
No offence taken. Getting rid of that hunk of garbage was the best decision of my wife - if the automotive industry collectively got together to poop, they would crap out a 2004 Volvo XC90.
Ok.....sooo all i hear is a lot off bullshit talk Coming from people that have no clue about anything! First of.... The problem does not effect the drive of the car! Second. The cem is not behind the kick! It's behind the stereo and it's about 800-2000$ to fix it. And last but not least It the 02-03 only that have that problem,not saying that a 05 can't get that problem,but not as frequent
The CEM on an XC90 is in the footwell, not behind the infotainment, it can cause non start issues and the like as the immobiliser is part of the CEM function, they suffer with water getting in and corroding the connectors to and the CEM itself, we replace both the loom and the CEM.
