So it turns out it probably was the gas. I remembered the salesman telling me that you're supposed to run 93 but that he had been running 89 and it was fine. I had to fight the urge to slap him across the face. So 2 tanks of 93 and the CEL just went away. Now onto the new issue. When I bought this car a month ago it was 25 out when I test drove the car so of course the air felt cold and I assumed it worked. I mean I'm buying a used Volvo from a Volvo dealership how could they overlook something like that? So I drove down to Orlando the next week and sure enough when I got to Florida and it was 80 I had no AC. I took it back to the dealership and they told me as part of their initial work on the car they replaced the headlight wiper motors. This forced them to remove the bumper as you might already know. At this point they managed to lose all 6 clips and didn't put the bumper back on properly. It wasn't outrageous but it was obvious a lazy person did the work. I was told that while replacing those wiper motors the technician knocked the AC temperature sensor or an AC line off I can't remember and the write up is at home. Either way I raised an eyebrow at this dismissive diagnosis. They said it as if it's no big deal for a Volvo certified mechanic to completely knock out my AC due to his own lack of attention to detail. So they told me it dumped the refrigerant and they just reconnected everything and recharged it. I thought "Hmmmm they probably just recharged it and think I'm stupid." So still within my 30 day warranty I decided to continue to drive a lot to try and expose any problems that they were hiding. I drove to Orlando again haven't been running the AC because it's been cold. So same story when I get to Orlando it's 80 and no AC. This is where it got weird. The car was driving fine the whole trip. When I left work for lunch I started the car and 30 seconds later the AC fan sounded like it was a slowly spooling turbo or a turbine engine, very loud. No grinding or bad sounds just loud. I watch my instantaneous gas mileage often so I decided to watch because of the noise. As I accelerated the car felt mostly normal but the gas mileage would drop as low as 3.2 mpg at any given point while accelerating. I would moderately accelerate up to 45 mph fluctuating between 3.2 and 15. Once I was going 45 I removed my foot from the gas and coasted. The mpg then jumped up to 50, 70 even as high as 99 while breaking. The AC fan clutch is constantly engaged now. I start the car with the AC off and it starts with the noise. I turn it on and off and observe the fan clutch and it just continues to run, no reaction, no clicking just permanently engaged. A day later the fan clutch will not engage no matter what. The AC when on doesn't blow hot but certainly not cold. The thermostat on the dash showed it pinned right in the middle where it always is but when I popped the hood the motor was putting off a lot of heat. When I reached under the air intake box it felt colder which surprised me. I don't hear an audible leak and wasn't able to asses it in the parking lot on my lunch break. I have a 78 244 and had a 91 740 wagon and had my hands in every last inch of those cars but I decided to get a new car finally and just let someone else work on it. Now I remember why I do all my own work, people don't want to fix problems. So now I'm in Orlando and am going to have to drive back to Atlanta with this thing. Is is likely that there is a leak in the system? Is the fan clutch bad? It's not grinding and it's spinning fine. The main cooling fan is working overtime and the fan motor is just running really loud. Not sputtering or struggling. I am obviously going to bring it back but I almost feel like I need to look over their shoulder. Any related experiences? this is my first car newer than 1991. I thought I was treating myself. I just got unlucky with this thing.
What have I gotten myself into? While it's good to know that since I reported it before the 30 days they'll "fix" it if I bring it to them but they'll probably put the same clown on it that couldn't fit my bumper on right. I ended up telling the service manager to just give me the bumper clips and I'll do the $%^* myself, your boys are lazy.