Hi

This is not a spectacular fix but an interesting sequence of events

This is a good customer of mine but lives a few miles away, her husband was away and driving the car she noticed that the MIL came on and the temp gauge dropped down and when she stopped the cooling fans run on for 5 minutes

Next morning the MIL still on and the cooling fans running from the off. In a panic she took it into her local garage in South Godstone

The garage had the car a couple of days and told her there were multiple codes and required a coolant temp sensor a fan relay. The bill came to £265.92

She picked the car up and 2 days later the same thing, she called back into the garage and left it with them, they also told her that the service was well overdue and may be causing part of the problem, so they cleared the code and charged her £134.64 for an oil service and sent her on her way with a list as long as your arm for additional work

A week later the same thing, this time her husband was back, he said take it back, but get them to just clear the code and then bring the car to me. The garages parting shot was that it needed to go onto Volvo diagnostic equipment and will probably need a software update

When I received the car the MIL was back on and fans running constantly. The only code I could see was

P0116 Engine coolant temperature sensor 1 circuit performance/range

When this code is stored in the ECU the fans run as a fail safe in case of overheating. I cleared the code and all OK. Left for half an hour and seeing the new sensor working OK in live data i started to just pull at the loom behind the sensor and hey presto the fans started and MIL on

Removed wiring and checked carefully as they are a twisted pair, a couple of strands stuck in my finger



Repaired the wiring and all OK now

I am just amazed that the garage managed to releave my customer of £400.56 without fixing the problem and telling her to take it to a Volvo dealer for another huge bill

The garage in question is a Trust My Garage and Motor Industry Codes approved, logos all over their invoice, classic parts darts garage by the looks of it

Peter