Our 2016 Volvo was bought 3 years ago with 72,000 miles on it. It’s been a great car up until last July when we had a misfire on cylinder 1. We took the car in, we were told the spark plugs had a build up around them, recommended replacing them. We replaced them with the mechanic but then they drove it and the misfire was still there. Then they suggested we replace all fuel injectors as they had performed all $330 of the extensive testing they do and the compression was coming back fine on the engine.
Fast forward to present day April (9 months later) and we have a misfire on cylinder 2. Take it in. The spark plugs yet again have this yellow or almost honey color build up on them. Now they have done another $330 in all the testing and the engine is still getting great compression so they are going to warranty out the spark plugs for us but they are now recommending the coil packs be replaced at the cost of $1,000 and now I’m wondering if they should have
first replaced spark plugs
then replaced coils /boots
and THEN replaced fuel injectors.
wouldn’t fuel injectors be last resort? Because now I’m concerned that they skipped over the coil pack 9 months ago and now my new fuel injectors have probably received damage much like these 9 month old spark plugs they are having to “warranty out”.
Do I have any kind of case here to ask them to warranty out the 9 month old fuel injectors?
I feel like the order I’m seeing online from mechanics is always spark plugs, coils, and THEN fuel injectors.
Not spark plugs, fuel injectors and then 9 months later new coils and warranty out spark plugs.???
we don’t drive this hard at all. We’ve put 18,000 miles on it over the last 3 years we’ve had it. So really I’m just feeling taken advantage of as a woman with a “premium car”.
Thanks in advance.
Photos from recent findings.
https://shop.tekmetric.com/inspection/CQuLqsKtuAztIHEXAszukctoQ25pgPUOcCOPxXiAtoY
It looks like your mechanic deos not know what he is doing. Find another mechanic who analyze the data first before throwing parts.
$300 in testing??? outrageous. What's actually needed to test:
- Swapping the coils to see if the misfire moves to a different cylinder (diagnostics 101)
- Checking MAF and MAP, cleaning the throttle, checking all the air / vacuum lines
- Verifying the condition of the turbo (if equipped, and it probably is)
- Pressure at the fuel rail after priming and how much it decreases with time (fuel pump)
- pulsing the injectors to see how much it takes of the fuel rail (injectors)
- He should've done a compression test dry and wet (the condition of the cylinders)
wouldn’t fuel injectors be last resort?
Yes, you replace fuel injectors only when you're 100% certain it's them.
Fuel injectors aren't the kind of part "you throw at it" and hope it's the fix.
But although the mechanic MUST verify his diagnosis is correct, on Volvo's new 2.0T engines the injectors are weak - they do require cleaning to prevent them from failing and they fail often.
The spark plugs yet again have this yellow or almost honey color build up on them
This does usually mean your engine is running lean (not spaying enough fuel).
Is the lambda at the tail pipe correct (0.98-1.02)? Are the injectors brand new? have they been programed?
I'd suspected either fuel pump pressure issues, air leaks, PCV, vacuum leaks, MAF, MAP or oxygen sensors - all of this should be tested, expect inexpensive parts like PCV that are a good idea to do anyway on a turbo engine.
Quite honestly, I'd consider going to a different mechanic - I don't think your one knows anything about Volvos or what he's doing, just throwing parts at it and hoping it'll work.
Preferably one that knows how to work on Volvos, I recently saw a video of someone diagnosing an older XC90 (sadly it's a different engine and an older generation) for running lean (link) No guessing, no throwing parts at it, how a mechanic should act.
