Brake Failure - Stop Safely (...the irony!)

Brake Failure - Stop Safely (...the irony!)

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signia

Original Poster:

479 posts

224 months

Saturday 6th September 2008
quotequote all
Morning,

A few weeks ago I had the Anti-Skid Service Required Message come up. Now I'd had this a few years ago and it was an ABS sensor.

As I was driving, the message changed to Anti-Skid Temporarily Off. Figuring that car computers are usually compulsive liars I slammed on the brakes and turns out it was lying.

After stopping, I got back in the car, warning still on, but went off after a few seconds. Next day, same thing happened and went off again. Again, a few days later - same thing.

No problems for nearly two weeks. Then last night, I went over a bump on the A329M and Brake Failure Stop Safely came up, along with the ABS and DTSC lights. The dials all dropped to zero and the gear indicator stayed on 5 (geartronic was in manual mode).

Got off the A329M and pulled up at a bus stop. Turned off the car and then back on. Anti-skid Temporarily Off was showing but dials were working. Drove to the shops. Parked up, came back and message screen was clear all the way home.

Now, I've heard about BCMs failing on Volvos and that they're pretty expensive. I was going to leave the Anti-Skid messages until the next service, but when the dash starts to drop out, I reckon I should get it looked at.

What I was wondering is whether anyone has had, or knows of, this problem with circa '03 Volvos and what it was all about - and perhaps how much it cost? Is there anything I can do myself to try to fix this before parting with cash.

I reckon that whilst there is no message, there is no problem. So maybe I should just see if it goes away with time?

I was going to change the pads and discs soon as the pads are a bit low but have been worse before - could this have anything to do with it? I didn't think that the car had pad wear indicators.

Any thoughts, ideas welcome. Cheers.

bogie

16,382 posts

272 months

Saturday 6th September 2008
quotequote all
LOL ...dunno if its a problem with that year, but my old 98 S80T6 had the same problem..and the fix was a new ABS control ECU only available from Volvo at £600 frown

signia

Original Poster:

479 posts

224 months

Sunday 7th September 2008
quotequote all
well, that's not good news at that price!

And neither is the fact it did it again today. Went over another bump and the same thing happened. Difference today was the box was stuck in fifth. I couldn't stop straight away, but when I did at the lights, it pulled away in top gear (it was in D). All dials had died like before.

Then Engine System Service Required and the engine light came on. I stopped the car, put it back in P, but the red light stayed in D. Restarted the car, no lights on the gear selector at all! I had speedo but no rev counter (weird). Brake Failure message changed to Anti Skid Temporarily Off and then back to Brake Failure a few times.

The gear box sounded like it had got back to first, but then it was banging like anything changing up. Manual mode worked, sort of - more banging. But the dash display didn't change. Transmission Service Required came up to join the engine one. Lights came back on the gear selector, but the red selector light was stuck in D.

Parked up. Reverse gear worked, but the selector showed D and I had no reverse lights. Turned off the car completely, put it in P. D was still showing as selected for about 30 seconds. Waited a bit, then restarted.

I now have just engine and transmission messages staying on. I'm sure the brake issue has caused this. But no idea of what the transmission problem is. It was banging so much!

I did the "read and rear fog light flash" to see where the diag codes were stored. Nearly every control module has a dtc set. Looks like my car is very broken and I should expecting a big bill frown
Will ring my local specialist tomorrow.

signia

Original Poster:

479 posts

224 months

Monday 8th September 2008
quotequote all
quick update - Phil Whittaker cars have taking in my motor for some diag. Very quick for short notice, and gave me a courtesy car too!
Techie downloaded the fault codes - there were a lot! Never came across this before - not all at the same time, could be water?
Cleared all the other fault codes down and the BCM one came straight back on, something about communicating with the CEM I think.

I'm still expecting the worst, but good service from PW so far.

I'll post back what the outcome is, just in case anyone ever uses the search facility on PH wink

bogie

16,382 posts

272 months

Monday 8th September 2008
quotequote all
mmm..thats what happened with mine....LOADS of fault codes as the ABS one sits in the middle and a lot of others are dependant on it ...Id be interested to know if Volvo still have the same architecture in their modern cars, as we have an S60 as a runaround these days and so far its been fine...fingers crossed !

signia

Original Poster:

479 posts

224 months

Wednesday 10th September 2008
quotequote all
hmmm... well I guess I should be pleased! But not a very exciting conclusion I'm afraid.

They cleared the codes, cleaned up the connections to the CEM, checked for water ingress (none), disconnected the battery for 1/2 hour, did several test drives. No codes came back up at all.

Thing with electronics is that it can just go any time, so I wouldn't be surprised if it happens again. But for now, the car is driving perfectly with no codes stored.

Just got that niggling feeling that something will kick up a fuss again at some point.

Only charged for standard evaluation 40ish quid - and pwcars cleaned it inside and out too! Great service.


bogie

16,382 posts

272 months

Wednesday 10th September 2008
quotequote all
well fingers crossed...thats what they did on my old S80 and 2 days later all the codes came back again frown

I really hope it is fixed mate, just sounds a bit too good and similar to be true ..maybe the box is just on hte blink rather than actually failed smile

stricky_1967

3 posts

99 months

Monday 25th January 2016
quotequote all
Hi James, old thread but hope you are still active here.

I'm having the same symptoms on my volvo too, did you ever get to the bottom of it?

stricky_1967

3 posts

99 months

Monday 25th January 2016
quotequote all
signia said:
Morning,

A few weeks ago I had the Anti-Skid Service Required Message come up. Now I'd had this a few years ago and it was an ABS sensor.

As I was driving, the message changed to Anti-Skid Temporarily Off. Figuring that car computers are usually compulsive liars I slammed on the brakes and turns out it was lying.

After stopping, I got back in the car, warning still on, but went off after a few seconds. Next day, same thing happened and went off again. Again, a few days later - same thing.

No problems for nearly two weeks. Then last night, I went over a bump on the A329M and Brake Failure Stop Safely came up, along with the ABS and DTSC lights. The dials all dropped to zero and the gear indicator stayed on 5 (geartronic was in manual mode).

Got off the A329M and pulled up at a bus stop. Turned off the car and then back on. Anti-skid Temporarily Off was showing but dials were working. Drove to the shops. Parked up, came back and message screen was clear all the way home.

Now, I've heard about BCMs failing on Volvos and that they're pretty expensive. I was going to leave the Anti-Skid messages until the next service, but when the dash starts to drop out, I reckon I should get it looked at.

What I was wondering is whether anyone has had, or knows of, this problem with circa '03 Volvos and what it was all about - and perhaps how much it cost? Is there anything I can do myself to try to fix this before parting with cash.

I reckon that whilst there is no message, there is no problem. So maybe I should just see if it goes away with time?

I was going to change the pads and discs soon as the pads are a bit low but have been worse before - could this have anything to do with it? I didn't think that the car had pad wear indicators.

Any thoughts, ideas welcome. Cheers.

anonymous-user

54 months

Tuesday 26th January 2016
quotequote all
stricky_1967 said:
Hi James, old thread but hope you are still active here.

I'm having the same symptoms on my volvo too, did you ever get to the bottom of it?
I had this on my '04 MY 53 plate V70 T5 4 years ago. Codes related to communications to pump failures and other such terrifying things. In the end in needed a new BCM, it couldn't be refurbished. At the time there was no way to re-code a 2nd hand one to a different car either. I think the part was £900, the software charge £30 and then £50 for an independent to install and code it.

stricky_1967

3 posts

99 months

Monday 1st February 2016
quotequote all
dme123 said:
I had this on my '04 MY 53 plate V70 T5 4 years ago. Codes related to communications to pump failures and other such terrifying things. In the end in needed a new BCM, it couldn't be refurbished. At the time there was no way to re-code a 2nd hand one to a different car either. I think the part was £900, the software charge £30 and then £50 for an independent to install and code it.
thanks for this , think I've got it narrowed down to the DEM ( diff module ) we will see when I get it repaired, thank again