99 V70 ETS light comes on with cold-weather starts

This winter and last, the ETS light in my '99 V70 5-speed comes on when
I start the car in ambient temperatures of about -15C or below. The car
seems normally drivable around town, and the ETS light will not come on
if the car is restarted after the engine is warm (say 20 min driving)
or after its been parked indoors for the day.

But also, once, in the middle of a highway drive at about -5C, the ETS
light came on when I was accelerating in high gear at about 120 km/m
(70 mph) and there was a noticeable degradation of performance, though
the car remained drivable. I completed the trip at highway speeds but
without passing anything. At the end of the trip the car idled roughly,
but after 20 mins rest it started fine with no ETS light.

In all cases the ETS light stays on until I shut the engine off. I'm
guessing that whatever logic controls it only activates at engine
start.

I'm inclined to more or less ignore it; is it something that really
should be checked? Given Toronto's weather and my frequency of driving,
the first phenomenon only happens a half-dozen times a year, and the
latter has only happened once.

Chip C
Toronto

 

You can ignore it for now, but I'll bet it will slowly get worse. Just
keep in mind how much you enjoy prompt throttle response when you're
making a left turn across oncoming traffic.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)