Expert: Ray Niemi - 11/4/2009

Question
Hi Ray,

I've got a problem with my car which is apparently preventing me from passing my smog check. 2-3 months ago my battery died, this apparently reset my car's brain. I was told all I needed to do, to help it relearn whatever it needs to relearn, is to drive it around, I drive to work and back daily, spending at least an hour on the road. Nothing has seemed to happen to fix it, and now it's standing in the way of me passing my smog check.

Any clue what the issue could be?
Thanks

Answer
Michael,
They are right you have to make two drive cycles. On a '99 the drive cycles start with a cold engine 3/4 tank of fuel and a variety of drives and stops at a certain speeds. It helps to have a scan tool hooked up to see if the car is ready for drive cycles. Since you have driven the car for days to work at one hour each way and it still is not ready there must be other faults. Best idea is a shop that knows the Volvos and have them scan the car for readiness and read codes maybe even do the drive cycles for you.