Question1991 240 SW 125,000 miles
I'm hoping you can answer today because I'm planning to drive to Punta Gorda tomorrow morning to take ice, food and water to the hurricance victims and am afraid of getting over there, where there's no gas, no electricity, no mechanics and breaking down.
The check engine light has been coming on since the 120,000 mile service, actually done at about 123,000. The "authorized Volvo" garage has a new mechanic who isn't a Volvo expert. So far he's put in a new Engine Coolant Temperature Sensor and a PCV hose (the long one). He turns off the light and miles later it comes back on. The car is also idling a little rough, which it did not do before the service.
My gut feeling is that it's in the emission system and if you agree I will tell the mechanic to look into that or I'm going somewhere else. He's now talking about searching the wiring system.
He assures me that nothing will happen to the car while he's trying to find the problem and that I won't break down, but since he doesn't know what the problem is, I don't trust his reassurances.
Again, my major concern is driving 150 miles to a place where there will be no help if I have a problem.
AnswerUnfortunetly it could be a huge list of things that could set that engine light. Generally, I go over all sensors in the car, mass air flow, oxygen, etc, because usually a failure or misread on one of those is tied to the light. The good news is, generally the check engine light is for something minor, like emissions being out of wack; something that won't affect the car breaking down.
That said, I have a tough time fully recommending you to take the trip. If it were me, I would probably go, simply based on how few times I've really broken all the way down when I drive my volvo with a known problem. However, I own an 1980, and a 91 has a great deal more reliance on the computer system, therefore your situation is a little more worrisome. First thing I would do is find a Volvo mechanic. Its a good general rule of thumb because these cars do need a special touch (they have unqiue engineering). Especially in your situation, when trying to solve a problem with nuances like this, only consider Volvo specialists. I feel it's worth whatever price extra you pay for their services. A specialist might find this problem in 30min what a mechanic with less experience would take 4 hours to understand. If you were to find a mechanic today and get him or her to look at the car, they might help put you on the right track more quickly than you expected. However, in lew of that, I would probably not drive the car, unless you had AAA you could call on in the 3% chance something causes you to break down.
