hi folks , new to the forum , and am needy. (need help). my wifes 95 850 turbo wagon doesnt want to idle . sometimes it will start and seem to run fine for a few minutes. revs and runs good , then when left to idle it dies. then will start ad die , start and die until the battery is dead. charge the batt and it might start again and run or might have a start and die siezure all over again. please help me ! my wife is tired of driving the old truck.

 

Codes in the ECM?
Have you cleaned the throttle body and idle motor?

 

check engine light is always on, but car ran fine , smogged fine, then light would come back on next day or so . independent volvo dealer never said anything so we ignored it. i did check codes which could be really old since the light has been on for years and found po172 system to rich , po301 cyl1 misfire , po302 cyl2 misfire , po305 cyl5 misfire , po300 random cyl misfire detected , po 102 maf or vaf volume air flow sensor circuit low input. i gently removed and cleaned maf sensor . and reinstalled . it ran great for about ten minutes then died and started the start and die syndrome. i unplugged maf sensor and it started and ran fine again for about five minutes then died and bla bla bla. i want to shoot it or shoot myself. thanks for helping me

 

The Mass Flow might be bad.

 

Or it could also be a fuel pump problem you need to find a guage to test the fuel pressure.

 

replaced fuel pump 6 months ago. do you check pressure at the fuel rail up front? is there any way to test maf . would parts be interchangeable from a 1994 to my 1995 for testing ie. maf. what about fuel pump relay i keep reading about cold solder joints ? where is it what is it labeled as . im good with electrical and electronics ( own a car audio shop for 20 years ) thanks thanks

 

There is a spot on the end of the fuel rail to connect a fuel pressure guage. The fuel pump relay is under the black cover where the fuses are under the hood. The relay should be green and marked as a fuel pump relay.

The Mass Flow should be the same between both cars to swap and try.

 

ill check some of this and get back . thank you

 

couldn't find a fuel pressure gauge to rent or borrow but did visually check fuel pump relay and re-soldered some questionable spots. same issue. relay clicks off as soon as car starts , and then engine runs out of fuel and dies. removed relay and made a bypass bridge for fuel pump relay , and car runs fine . could be bad relay but my feeling is something is telling the relay to shut off. when i can keep it running for a few mins. , the relay clicks on and off. any more thoughts? thanks in advance.

 

Maybe Cam sensor or another sensor.

 

bought a working maf from our local independent volvo dealer for $25.00 but had no effect . went back to him and he gave me two used but tested fuel pump relays . plugged 1 in and presto , car runs great again. now check engine light comes on but a obd11 diagnostic says no codes found . how do i test onboard diagnostics ?

 

Try pulling codes through the OBDI system under the hood.

 

is there a listing somewhere that tells how to get codes and what codes mean?

 

http://www.troublecodes.net/Volvo/
Thats how to pull them.

https://volvoforums.com/m_52326/tm.htm
Check out that post for info on codes if you need more help let us know.