1985 Volvo 245 cold start after 6 years
 

Good morning my fellow Volvo peeps. Bunchman here, the latest on the wagon is that I replaced the mass air filter, cleaned the throttle body, and cleaned the idle air control valve. She's running great on the freeway, quick and agile. the problem is when I come to a stop in the City it just wants to die at a stop unless I put it in neutral with the emergency brake on. I am replacing the fuel filter today. I should also note that I did take off the distributor cap when I cleaned the idle air control valve to get easier access to it to remove it so I probably need to put the timing gun on it and adjust the timing. I just want to know if anybody has any thoughts on what my next move should be I am expecting a thermostat any day which I will put in as well. As always Volvo nation, thank you in advance for your time and input. bunchman

when you took of the cap what was its condition and the condition of the rotor? why are you replacing the thermostat?

the rotor appeared to be fine although when I first put it back together I started it and the cap kind of blew off so I put it back on with everything lined up and it started after that but there might be a little bit of damage to the distributor cap also the thermostat is being replaced on the advice of a friend of mine because it takes forever to warm up in the morning before I had this problem of it just dying. I have noticed that the temperature gauge inside on the dash doesn't move to its usual spot like it has before usually it sits just below the middle and it's always in the same spot and it's hardly moving at all now.

well that certainly is not good...yikes. better check it again.

Thank you for your concern Captain...

i guess you mean the AMM.. there is no such thing as a mass air filter. what brand was the replacement and why did you
replace it? did it test bad?
the thermostat has nothing to do with idle/stalling issues, but a bad cap and/or rotor could.

My apologies it was the mass air flow sensor and it did test bad.I realize that the thermostat has nothing to do with the stalling issue but it takes a long time in the morning for the car to warm up before I was having the stalling issues. Another member recommended replacing the thermostat in one of my first posts to this forum. I thought my sarcasm was well-received. My bad. Do you agree with replacing the fuel filter?Please let me know. Thank you.

AMM and MAF are the same thing

30 years and 3/4 million miles of volvos and never had a problem with a fuel filter, but they were typically replaced every 90k or so miles on principle.

Thank you sir. I'm about to hit 200,000 and I don't know if itsi been replaced or not.

again, what brand MAF sensor did you replace the original with? it makes a difference. replace fuel filter? suppose you could,
but it's still passing fuel right? you said the engine runs ok on the freeway so don't think that it really has anything to do with your issues.
if your t-stat is not opening correctly then needs replacing. you could test the one that is already in there if you want to.
how's the gas mileage? did you pull a plug to see if it is fouled ie running rich situation.

I never replace fuel filter unless the car has symptoms like sputtering, i.e. fuel starvation under high demand, like high speed hiway driving.
The MAF sensor is important, and I'd stay away from cheap Asian ones... Better a used one, they work or they don't.

If you car runs badly cold, I'd look at the Coolant Temp. Sensor, on the head, under the third intake runner.

General advice re parts: these days there a lot of cheap Asian parts sold by the big stores. Some are OK, some not so much, but they are definitely cheaper for sure. Some parts like MAF sensor, crankshaft pos. sensor, cap, rotors, plugs, wires, fuel pumps, relays, etc. should be only OEM or high quality bought from import only specialty houses like IPD, FCP Groton, Volvo, etc. If a part can get you stranded, don't go cheap!