Hi everyone. This is my first time on the forum but I've been driving Volvos for 20 years and my father's first car was a '58 544 and he's been driving Volvos every since.
2 weeks ago, the 940 would start and had to be jumped. She drove it until last Friday when jumping it didn't work anymore. There were a few days in between where it started up fine.
I assumed it was the battery or alternator but both are fine. A few people have suggested the fuel pump.
Could anybody give me some advice on how to determine if it is the fuel pump? And are there 2 pumps; one in the front, one in the tank?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

How do it run once it starts up? first place to start is at the fuel pump relay. you can jumper the relay to force voltage to the pump. after that you can measure fuel pressure at the fuel rail with the engine running then again after the car's been sitting for a few minutes. I assume when you say it didn't start, it would crank but not fire up? If you bypass the relay and it starts up then you have a bad relay. If you bypass the relay and it fires up after long cranking, you could have a pump issue, a fuel pressure regulator issue, a temp sensor issue (if it runs fine when warm) etc.

 

Initially, it was running fine once it was jumped (and on the occasions it had to be jumped, it did crank but not fire up). I checked the 2 fuel pump fuses but had trouble reaching the relay the other day, but now that I've read your suggestions I'm going to try again tomorrow and let you know how it goes.
Thanks for responding so quickly. My sister's as broke as I am so I'm trying to get this taken care of without spending more than we have to. I'll let you know how it works out. Thanks again!

 

Bradley, tomorrow has come and gone. What did you find out?

 

grab a fuel pump relay at a salvage yard first. easy to replace.