general problems of the 2000 Volvo S80

As I was driving I heard a bang and saw smoke coming from underneath and behind the passenger seat and quickly fire spreading throughout the back of the vehicle. The rear window blew out. The car would not stop as I drove the vehicle off the street. I had to throw myself out of the vehicle. The entire vehicle was inflamed and exploded.

Driving in the city and when trying to stop on a traffic light the brakes became hard and engine was not running well. When I tried to drive off in the green light the speed control of the gas pedal was very chaotic. I got a message of engine system service required. I took the car to the local Volvo dealer and he diagnosed a faulty throttle etm asking 2000 $ to replace. After researching I found that there was already a recall on that by Volvo and when I asked the dealer he said that this was true but my car was more than 10 years old ( although he could have informed me about that in the first place). He informed me that a software service on the etm of my car was done in 2006 ( after the recall?) but this did not fix the problem as apparently the problem is with the etm design ( faltering potentiometer). This car is very dangerous and it will probably go to the junkyard, but we should be concerned by all Volvos remaining on the street with faulty etm's, which the numerous complaints filed at NHTSA show.

2000 Volvo S80 t6 sedan - car began to jerk as though missing; got progressively worse, even after complete maintenance update. Has essentially gone to no power and I'v had to coast to the side of the highway - turn off- wait - restart and then run awhile longer. Local mechanic says its a throttle module or my main computer and must be fixed at dealer (220 miles away) because no one else can program the new module when replacing.

I get performance reduced messages on my 2000 Volvo S80 message console, and the car will slow down almost to a stop. This has happened more than 100 times to me - even at highway speeds. I have to put the hazard lights on, and make my way off of the road on to the shoulder. If I turn the car off, and restart the car, (often several times), the car seems to "reset" and I can often drive on. Westside Volvo of cleveland, ohio has quoted me between $1,200 and $2,000 to fix this problem, and has told me it is the "etm". My car has 106,000 miles on it. The dealer has told me that the unit was "designed only to last until 100,000" miles, and that only a Volvo dealer can replace it - because of computer software that must be encoded on the part. I purchased this car used with 59,000 miles on it, thinking I would get a car that might last me ("Volvo - for life. . . " happens to be the company's marketing slogan). However, I cannot currently afford the repair, and I cannot afford to get another car. I am forced to drive this car and it is unsafe. I have had more than 5 incidents where there was almost a crash - mostly due to this "performance reduced" happening at highway speeds on multiple lane highways in heavy traffic. Please do something about this - please help me. Thank you.

I was traveling on interstate 20 from atlanta, GA headed to charleston, SC. Between augusta, GA and columbia, SC, the car lost power as if someone were applying the brakes while I had my foot on the gas pedal. Suddenly, I had a warning light come on that said "performance reduced". I wound up having to locate the local Volvo dealer in columbia where I left my car for repair and had to proceed to charleston in a rented vehicle. This happened late in the day on Friday and I had to be in charleston for a meeting on Saturday morning. The "throttle body control" was deemed to be the problem and the dealer replaced it at a cost of close to $1,000. When I asked what would have happened if I had continued to drive I was told that the car eventually would have lost total power and died. Unfortunately, I do not have the part that was replaced. When I read about your investigation, I was outraged that this is obviously a dangerous and fairly common problem.