First, let me start by saying that I am a total newbie to Volvo. I was in real need of a good family car, but didn't have a lot of money. So I bought this '98 S90 back in January for $3K. Not a bad deal. I checked it all out, everything looked good, even a new timing belt and water pump.

Here's the crumby part. I'm driving along going to my son's birthday party this summer and boom!, the car comes to a dead halt. The short story is that no one bothered to replace the timing belt tensioner and pullies and rollers.[:@] All 24 valves were bent. So my BMW master tech friend offers to help me with the rebuild. Great. The head goes to the machine shop and we get busy with the rest of it.

Its all back together now, nuts and bolts wise, but I can't get any spark down to the coils. I've checked all the fuses and relays, they are good. Rechecked the exhaust cam sensor, it is in the right place. I'm just baffled by the no spark situation.

On the back side of the intake cam is a bracket. It holds three connectors from the wiring harness. There is a two pin connector and a three pin connector. They are both connected to their respective connectors. There is a single pin connector that is not connected to anything, it has a white and red wire, and runs back into the wiring harness that leads to the coil packs. I can't find a single thing that would connect there. And I just feel like there should be something it connects to. Am I going crazy?

My BMW friend told me to haul it to the dealer and let them fix it and then trade it for a Honda or Toyota. I told him to jump in the river.

Please help. I'm just goingnuts with this and it just drove so beautifully before this catastrophie.

Had A friend with the same problem You Have. he rebuilt the head completely at the machine shop put back al together very nice then started the engine it did not start thenno spark. It was the main computer it needed a new one and on ur case I don't know but it might be if ur gonna look for one the only fit will be 1998 S-90 no 1997 960's or older

Sorry about the problem.

As I'm an 850 driver, I'm not privy to S90. Please note that.

I would first trypulling codes from the ignition (or engine) ECU to see if there are any codes stored. But you need an OBD-II scanner to do this.

Now, the coil isn't firing? If so, I would find a service manual and test the coil with a digital multimeter. You don't have to spend $200 on a Fluke meter, a $20-$30 Craftsman meter is all you need.

Other than that, without testing the car myself, I cannot suggest any better solutions. The top-dog of the forum (Moderator Tech) will be out for a while, but if you can wait till he comes back (not sure exactly when that would be), then I would wait.

I'll see if I can find something, but don't count on it.

Sorry I couldn't help you better.


JPN