Hello Sean!

On 20 Jan 2026, Sean Dennis said the following...

 SD> Some good news: there is a good possibility that I may be getting a 2005
 SD> Chrysler Town and Country minivan.  I won't know until this time next
 SD> month if I'll get it but there's a very good chance I will.

Sounds great! Fingers crossed, and hoping 2026 will continue to be a good year
for you!

Myself, I've been hunting possible causes for a returning (on Christmas Eve, of
course!) fault code on my now 23-year-old Volvo V70. Happens only sometimes,
during highway driving, on flat road and at steady throttle, so really
unexpected.

As it is kind of related to emissions, it triggers the check engine light, so
you don't want it to appear during an inspection (although that light usually
goes out after a couple of more driving cycles).

The car runs fine otherwise, doesn't burn any oil, has no excessive fuel
consumption, the lambda value is just fine, and you can't tell that there is
anything wrong except for that check engine light.

Checked for vacuum leaks, replaced the mass airflow sensor, the air filter,
cleaned the air filter box, replaced the manifold absolute pressure sensor, a
vacuum switch (between the intake manifold, a vacuum pump and the brake
booster), a couple of vacuum hoses and hose clamps, and cleaned the throttle
with meths. Also checked a bunch of OBD2/EOBD values before and after, nothing
strange there really, neither before or after.

Right now I'm hoping the MAF sensor and/or the throttle cleaning will
have done the trick, as the old sensor was at least pretty dusty, the engine
side of the trottle had some carbon build-up after approx. 29100 km (181,000 mi)
-- although nothing excessive by any means! -- and the throttles on these cars
are known to be a bit on the sensitive side, both when it comes to carbon
build-up and throttle position sensors.

Combine that with some (probably) unnecessarily complicated calculations
involving a bunch of sensors and their values, all for the sake of low
emissions, and you're in for a surprise when you least expect it... :-D

As I don't drive very much these days (trying to walk to/from work as much as
possible, including shopping), it might take a year or so to know if it
helped. Or until the next inspection, if I'm unlucky. We'll see... :-D

Best regards
Zip

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