I have a 2000 s70 awd, 180000ish miles. Recently replaced the front cv joint on the drive shaft. 10 miles later the car had a loss of power while going up a couple hills, then died. Now it turns over but will not start. It happened pretty quickly. Less than 1/4 mile from the first loss of power (that I noticed) until complete failure. Fuel pressure is good. There is a good amount of oil on the top of the engine around the coil packs and under the timing belt cover. Prior to this problem I'd had a volvo shop look at it, do to a moderate oil leak. They said it was the front camshaft seal that was leaking oil, which makes sense why there would be oil under the timing belt cover. Could the oil around the ignition coils be from the camshaft seal? Seems like a long way for oil to travel, but I don't know. I haven't been able to check for spark yet, because I haven't had anyone to turn the key while I'm under the hood. I have a obd2 reader that works through my phone, and it is not showing any codes. It could be that it is not a very good reader though, but unfortunately I have no way of getting it to a shop to get scanned. Could the oil around the coils have caused a short? What should my next step be? Thank you so much for any help that you can offer!

 

OK - your name is "ganja farmer" been there, done that ( at least with the smoking part) might want to change that name - it's very telling. ( I know it's fun though!) Hopefully that's not in your email address.

Stopped running when driving, a shop told you there was an oil leak on the timing belt - does the engine sound funny when trying to start it - like it is spinning over faster, has a higher (not stoned) pitched sound?

Could be a timing belt problem, and a tow truck could "get you to a shop".

Oil around the coils did not cause you engine to stop. The next step would be - pay someone to tow your car to a shop.

 

Ok. So what your saying is that I'm likely to be discriminated against on the forum for my legitimate career, as I live in a legal state and am fully licensed? That's awesome, thought people could be adults. Maybe not. I appreciate the warning though.

Prior to having this particular issue, a shop told me that it had a leaking cam seal, I was losing about a qt of oil a month. Yes, a tow truck could get me to a shop, then I could pay a volvo mechanic more than the car is worth to figure out what is going on and fix it. Or, I was hoping that I could find some help on this forum, like other people have, and fix it myself, like other people have. But maybe that won't happen if this forum is predominantly populated with uninformed fools who are going to discriminate against me for my LEGAL career choice.

Wouldn't the next step actually be to spray a little starter fluid into the air intake and crank it over to discern whether or not it's a fuel supply issue? I guess you've decided that since I'm a cannabis farmer I'm incapable of following the same diagnostic steps that others on this site have been recommended to follow? Cool man, thanks for the help.

 

No discrimination - maybe jealousy!

Ok you said fuel pressure is good, I trust that means a mechanical gauge on the fuel rail indicated over 35 psi. You could try starting fluid, that would tell you if you had spark but no injector pulse or fuel pressure. The engine control unit handles both spark and the injectors - and have not seen a ECU fail. The oil on the top of the head could also be coming from the oil cap seal. I would pull the timing cover back slightly and verify the cams are turning when the starter is engaged. Oil leaking from a cam seal can damage the belt - and eventually cause teeth to be shredded from the belt. If it's turning you'll need to make sure it's still timed properly , the cover comes off with one bolt - and sometimes it's very hard to see the mark on the crank pulley. An example of the marks is attached, there's just a little notch on the crank pulley that's lined up with the protruding line in the oil pump cover. Those cars also have problem with power delivery to the fuel injection system. Two places malfunction - At the positive battery terminal - the 4 smaller red wires go to the fuse box under the hood. The wires are attached the the bolt with a 13mm head that you see in the fusebox. A bad connection occurs there and prevents current flow. Also where the large positive cable is crimped into the positive battery terminal - a bad connection occurs there also, but usually have starting or charging complaints with that one. Throttle modules are a known failure on a 2000 - has yours been replaced? A bad Magnetti Marelli (sp) throttle can easily kill and prevent a 99-01 from running/starting. If it were me I would probably first use an appropriate scan tool (preferably VIDA) to see what codes are stored and you can view live data also, injector pulse, ignition timing, Fuel pressure is not known electronically on that car, you have to use a gauge.

 

Thank you for the in depth response! Very much appreciated. No I have not used a pressure gauge to test the fuel pressure, so I can't say for sure it's good, but I hear the fuel pump turn on when I turn the key on. Also, when I depress the pin on the fuel line valve it sprays out with enough velocity to suggest to me that it's got at least 35 psi, but I can't say for sure. Cams are definitely turning over, timing marks are perfect. I detect some play in the exhaust cam pulley. Also called the vvt hub I think? Which I've read is supposed to be spring loaded or have some play. Is that correct? I found friend who had a good obd 2 scanner, hooked it up, code came back as a bad cam position sensor. I replaced the cam position sensor and cleared the codes. Still no start, and the cam position sensor code came back after the failed start attempt. Could it be that I have a failing exhaust cam pulley and the play is allowing the timing on the cam shaft to be off while the marks still line up?

 

You can get a cam position sensor code if it does not agree with the crank position sensor. I'm not suggesting your crank sensor is bad - that's not a part I commonly or ever had to replace on your engine. At least in my part of the country. (the south) Other crank sensors on other model Volvos - yes, it was a common repair, but not on your car.

 

I also replaced the crank sensor, but before I'd found the cam sensor code. So I have not tried it with both new sensors. I'll try it with both replaced and see what happens I guess.

 

What code will it show if one of the camshafts is out of time? I'm just thinking that if the exhaust cam pulley has developed too much play it could be causing the exhaust cam to be out of time, even though the marks are on. Could that cause it to throw a cam sensor code? The code says low input, if that helps any.

After changing out the crank sensor as well there was no improvement.

 

There's only one cam sensor so it only knows what's happening with that cam. And "too much play" is not a problem, they don't fail that way

Are you certain the crankshaft is aligned with the cams? - the mark is very hard to see

 

Here are the best pictures I can get of the timing marks. They look good to me, but I'm not a mechanic.

 

Ok. I'm afraid I'm screwed. I just discovered that the crankshaft sprocket is stripped and is spinning freely on the crank spindle. Now I'm afraid that I've got bent valves since the crank has been spinning with stationary cams. I know that the cams were spinning with the crank when I started this project. I'm not totally sure when that started, or how frequently it has been happening. But that would explain how the timing marks could line up but the timing could be off. So now I'm thinking I might just give up on the car.

 

When you spin the engine with the starter does it have a higher pitch - like it's spinning over faster? then you have no compression possibly due to bent valves.

 

To say for sure I tbink I'll have to replace the timing sprocket, realign the timing marks and reinstall the timing belt.

it's pretty crazy. The splines on the inside of the timing sprocket are almost completely smoothed over.

 

The inside of my timing sprocket looks almost exactly like this.

https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-...ng-gear-89394/

I have a feeling it was already compromised somehow, and the crankshaft was able to shift just enough inside the sprocket to put the crank out of time with the cams causing it to stop running/starting. In the process of diagnosing the cars problems I removed the serpentine belt pulley from the crank shaft. I think the tention from that pulley and nut was the only thing keeping that assembly rotating together. When I tried to start it with that pulley off is when I believe it began spinning freely. Probably the final nail in the coffin for this car.

 

Yep - sorry for your loss

 

Thanks for trying to help me. I really appreciate it.