05 S40 T5 CCM Calibration: Volvo VIDA/DiCE Clone – Victory!

Purpose: I want to get my S40 into tip-top shape, so I want to get the necessary software/hardware to do so. This is being spurred along by a strange climate control issue

Car: 2005 S40 T5 AWD

Location: I’m in the Fresno, CA Metro

Tool: I have the necessary software/hardware: VIDA/DiCE

source: https://www.chinaobd2.com/wholesale/low-cost-vida-dice-for-volvo.html

VIDA installation:

I got Volvo 2014D installed directly on an old hp laptop running win7 64bit. I’m still fighting through some compatibility issues, but making decent progress. Getting this software is the biggest PITA I have had in a while. Currently I’m trying to get it to play nice with the Microsoft .NET framework. I uninstalled 4.5.1 with the intention of replacing it with 4.0, and about the time that finished I read about a registry patch I could have done instead…(swearword).

To patch up a later version of .NET:

Paste

“EnableIEHosting”=dword:00000001

Into this directory in regedit

64 bit:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\ .NETFramework]
“EnableIEHosting”=dword:00000001

32 bit:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramewor k]
“EnableIEHosting”=dword:00000001

Stay tuned.

Got back to IE8, I am able to log in, but I under communication tool there is just the red x symbol:

The registry edit was supposed to fix that, but hasn’t. Back to the drawing board.

As a humorous aside, When I was editing away the 2.7gb ram requirement for install I edited the EULA as well. The installer showed me this:

Sometimes you have to have some LOLZ when you’re fighting software all.day.long.

Update:

I plugged it into the car and I got a slow blinking green firmware status slight and a fast blinking orange vehicle comm light. The computer recognized the DICE device, but inside ViDA, no DICE. There is not even a dropdown menu at all under communication tool… just an empty white space:

I’m going to try to bump back to .NET 3.5, but if that fails, I guess I’ll have to clean install windows and try again.

Update:

CCM was stuck in nighttime mode, but about a minute of an LED maglight woke it up, lol.

Here are my photos, first one of victory over this b#@$*(^ of a software package, and the second is my car crying out for help. I’ll post up another thread for that, though.

The consensus is that the $79 off chinaobd2.com  DiCE is fine so far. Order your heart out.

Still stumped on the CCM calibration, and reeeeally nervous to try it again. I’m heading out for a road trip up the west coast to the Canadian border, so I’ll probably call around to all the dealerships I will drive past to see if someone will do the software update for less than the $240 the thiefs at Fresno Volvo wanted…

Victory!!

I seemed to have claimed a victory over my poorly performing CCM issue. It was stupid simple — recharge the system with R134a…WOW, what a difference! Before the compressor cycled some at idle, but now it is on 100% of the time.

Before the idle air temp was great at the left two vents, and hot on the passenger’s side. Now it’s about 68F all the way across with the fan on full, windows rolled down at 102F ambient. I can’t wait to see what she’ll do on the highway at 70mph!

My conclusions: the CCM calibration made it a lot better (maybe a 5 degree drop on the left side, but didn’t solve it. My theory is that the two zone HVAC routes the driver’s side of the airflow through the side of the evaporator closest to the refrigeration inlet. When undercharged, the smaller amount of liquid R134a fully evaporates by the time it hits the center of the core, leaving only conduction of heat through the tubing and the cool gas-phase R134a to cool the passenger’s side…Just a theory, I haven’t seen how the evaporator core is laid out in this car.

Either way, I’m ecstatic at the developments today. This system is a strange animal — usually when undercharged, you’ll see mediocre performance from all vents. On this one, you get Horrible performance at the PS vents, and good performance at the DS. Average the air temperature across all vents, and I’d have immediately known that the system was undercharged.

With that, I’m going to call it a day on car stuff.

(many thanks to RenaissanceMan for his update)