Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure on the 2001 Volvo S60
Only 7 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure gets reported
There are 8 reports of control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure on the 2001 Volvo S60, 7 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 12th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 81,872 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $700–$3,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 60,000 miles, and latest on the 2006 at 90,000 miles.
By volume the 2004 carries the most reports, with 10; the 2001 has 8. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
On vacation, driving 50 MPH on four-lane hwy 17 in south carolina when the car suddenly and without warning lost power and came to a complete stop in the highway. It would not restart. As traffic rushed by, my wife and I had to push the car off the road. After about 5 minutes of trying to restart, the car finally started and acted normally. We were within 20 miles of our destination, so we started out again only to stall about a quarter mile later. We coasted off the road and had the car towed 20 miles to the nearest volvo dealer. Dealer replaced the throttle control module. Car had 45k miles on it, but was 3 months out of warranty so we had to pay entire $850 bill. Despite our repeated requests, neither the s.c. Dealer nor our local dealer in m.o. Would help us with the cost. *jb
2001 volvo s60 t5 w/manual transmission stalled abruptly with a "reduced power" message on the dashboard computer display while accelerating on a highway onramp. This was a very dangerous situation, as another vehicle was behind me and came close to colliding with my vehicle due to immediate deceleration w/no warning/brake lights until I was able to react to the unexpected situation. After pulling over, stopping the car for a few minutes and restarting, I was able to continue driving it, but it seemed to run rough and "stutter" a bit for the rest of the trip. Drove to local volvo dealership first thing next morning and resulting diagnosis & repair was "throttle unit internal fault" and replacement of the electronic throttle module (etm). Engine fault codes were: ECM 915d, 916d, 904c, 928a & 903f. Repairs totaled $1,012.03. *jb
Throttle control module of my 2001 volvo s60 failed. The vehicle would go from a normal driving condition (road load, approx. 45 MPH) to a reduced speed of a max. 20 - 25 MPH. After trail and error, I learned that after 5 to 6 engine restarts, I could get the vehicle to drive normal, without the reduced power. But over time the vehicle would go back into the same reduced power mode. *jb
Also reported on the 2001 Volvo S60
Fuel pump failure
Other speed control problem
Other electrical problem
Other fuel system problem
Complete transmission failure
Other engine problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 8 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 8 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure happen on the 2001 Volvo S60?
Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure on the 2001 Volvo S60?
8 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed