Hello,
First of all I want to say thanks for this forum and all the people involved. Iīm from Spain and this is my first thread. I purchased a Volvo ī93 960 3.0l automatic that had been parked in a garage for 4 years and the owner was going to take it to the junkyard.
With the help of this forum, I changed the battery, the fuel pump, a few cosmetic jobs and the car was running perfect.
But 3 months ago the evil came into the car, it suddenly stalls without reason. Sometimes you can use it for more than an hour and runs perfect and sometimes it stalls in les than 5 minutes. When it stalls the lambda light comes on. I did the diagnosis and the fault code is 1-1-3 or 1-1-5 sometimes, wich means inyectors fault. When it stalls you have to wait a few minutes and it starts again straight away, if you donīt wait it wonīt start. It is not a temperature problem because it has happened when cold too. I tried to clean all the grounds and check all connectors. It is really wierd because the problem doesnīt happen in a particular situation. So honestly I donīt know when is the problem coming from, it is really making me crazy. I donīt want to start wasteing money buying parts if I donīt have a minimum idea of the cause.
Any advise please???
Thanks.
Albert.

 

This could be one of the most difficult to track down and fix of all the trouble codes. But usually it is just a bad connection, so it may not cost any money to fix. Hope that is the case. I had that code for almost a year, mine was alway 113/115. The car ran but was not running at it's best. I cannot tell you what it was eventually, but I know for one thing is was a bad connector somewhere.

I have the Volvo service manual for trouble shooting, I believe it was about $60.00 US, and was the best money I ever spent. Paid for it self many times over. This code has the most pages in the manual to tracking down the repair.

From that manual:
The only difference between the two codes is 113 is for one group of three injectors and the 115 is for the other three injectors.
Conditions that will set either code, if the injector group is shorted to ground/live, or if there is a break in the circuit, the ECM notes this as a fault and sets the code 113 or 115.

Fault sources:
Signal too high;
Signal lead short circuit to live
Injector valve defect

Signal too low;
Power lead broken
Signal lead short circuit to ground
Contact resistance to terminals
Injector valve defect

Current too low;
Signal lead broken
Contact resistance in terminals
Injector valve defect

You can test the injector valves with an Ohm meter, it should be approx. 16 Ohms.

I would also use a voltmeter to measure while the engine is idling the pulse voltage to the injectors, it should be 12 volts.
How is it idling?
You might have to wait until it starts to act up before doing your tests.

The injectors are powered by 12 volts, but also get a pulsed ground signal form the ecm. So you might have to track both injector leads. A wire schematic would be very helpful.

My experience with this style engine is the all of the electrical connectors under the hood are not weather proof, just weather resistant and my annual maintenence routine for me is to clean and tighten all of the connections, especially the big plug on the driver side wheel well inside the black box.

Also there is a relay for the injectors, it the same part number as the ignition relay. So you can swap them and see if that does anything. They are located on the same fender next to the code reader.

Good luck, I believe you have a fine vehicle that should run well for a long time.
You did not mention the timing belt, but once you get this code out of the way, look into changing the timing belt, the water pump, the idler pulley, dampener and tensioner pulley. The engine is an interference design, so if the belt goes bad or one the other items, some valves will need to replaced and that will not be cheap, possibly not even worth repairing. Cheap insurance to maintain those items.

DanR '94 964 387,000 miles (153,000 on the new engine)

 

Thank you very much for your quick response danr960.
Thatīs a lot of very helpfull information. Unfortunatelly, I already went through most of all those steps. I have checked all the visible conectors, swapped the relay, cleaned the grounds... I checked the inyectors resistance and all have 18 ohms. I am probalby missing something, so I am going to have to go trough all the steps again. I got into it many times and I am starting to fed up. The big problem is that the only way to test if the problem is fixed is to use the car untill it suddenlly breaks down in the worse moment, there is when you realise that it is not fixed...
Is it worthy to buy new inyectors?

 

I replaced the injectors and the fuel rail which had a tiny leak on the front of it.
I also replaced the wire loom that was falling off under and in between the manifold.

I also replaced the wires going to the coils with that kit from davebarton.com.

I believe the stalling was coming from the wires that go to the coils were rubbing on a support that is underneath the intake manifold near the rear of the engine where the wire loom protection had rotted off. Then randomly it would short and throw a code and throw the computer off and the engine would stall. It would always start back up. I ordered a set of injectors before I found the exposed wires and installed them anyways. It could have been the fuel rail though too.

I always had a faint smell of gas in the cabin and after replacing the injectors I thought one of them was, but with engine running and fuel line pressured up I could see a real faint stream of gas coming from the plug at the forward end of the fuel rail.

I replaced it with the updated version and it's been running fine since, except for the brake booster that failed and a left front caliper that stuck and damaged the rotor.

If you replace the rail make sure you get the correct mounting screws and new o-rings for the fuel line.

The fuel leak possibly could have caused the stalling too. The only code I get now is from the O2 sensor.

Hope that helps

 

I also bought a cheap set off injectors off of ebay - Mistake

 

Thanks Rundio.
I finally have time to work on it this weekend. I have removed the intake manifold to be able to reach all parts. I am checking every wire and conector but honestly I haven't found any possible damage that could cause the engine to stall. I'm a bit frustrated at this point but I won't put the manifold back till I sort it out. Any advice would help. Thanks.

 

Hi,

I am not sure what causes your problem but I have some ideas.

One detail I didn't see is the way she behaves when she stalls. Does she shut off immediately as if key were turned off; or, does she get weak then sputter and die like fuel pressure was lost?

First, hidden in the wire harness, is a splice for all the positive wires for injectors. An easy way to check it is to measure resistance between injector + terminals.

Second, the problem might not be here. Double check the relays for injector and ignition!

I think that it's hard to learn more about this, with the engine taken apart. Next steps I would choose, is to get a helper and run the engine again. Run engine until it stops, and grab multimeter. Helper can try to start engine while you check things like coils and injectors for B+ voltage, or replace a relay with another relay or a jumper wire.

 

Thanks for yor reply VDonkey.

It allways shuts off inmediatly, but one time it got weak for a few seconds like if some of the inyectors were not working and then stalled.

I didn't find that splice for all positive inyectors and, fck! I have put the intake manifold back on!

I have replaced the fuel inyectors relay for a new one, I thing there is only one.

There is no way to check the engine when faults because it only happens when you don't expect it, when you are taking your grandmother home for example...

What I realised is that the inyector wires go underneath the intake manifold straight to the relays box, they are very good taped, tied up and covered into a plastic tube, it seems very difficult to have a damage in there,.. I think now I should check the wiring from the relays box to the ECU, shoudn't I?

 

Check the front of the fuel rail and if it's discolored yellowish brown it's leaking fuel. If it is leaking it could cause the the injectors to throw codes and crash the the boschtronic. The 95 and earlier fuel rails were replaced the following year for the design flaw. I had to retrofit a newer one on mine. It's been running fine since, now the drivers seat controls are not working. Got to love old cars.....

 

Thanks Rundio, I already had that problem, there was a horrible fuel smell and I replaced the fuel rail, problem fixed.

I have put everything together and the car hasn't stalled so far, but I am not very confident as I didn't find any significant problem...

By the way, the car has a engine vibration particulary from 1000 to 2000 rpm, even at neutral. I can feel it from the steering wheel and it is very anoying, it a intermitent vibration that goes up and down every 1-2 seconds. Has this ever happen to you?

 

No, I don't have that problem yet. There is a little vibration/shuddering that is coming from the rear end at first when i accelerate from a stop.

I replaced all of those relays as a precautionary measure. I like you haven't had any problems but I have my fingers crossed.

Rundio

 

So far so good guys, it has never last this long without failing so I am very happy.

Regarding you vibration it should be something in the transmission.

My vibration happens also in neutral, today I lifted the transmission a little bit with the jack stand and the vibration was gone. Could be the

 

So far so goog guys, I thing it is fixed, I don't know exaclty what was the problem though. Thank you very much for your help.
Now I have to find out where is the vibration coming from, I think I am going to start by changing the gearbox mount