94 940 wagon, 2.3l non-turbo, 201,667 miles, car sat for for about 8.5 months due to financial problems and a dead battery, replaced battery 2 days ago. Car will start and idle around 700 rpm's for anywhere from 3 - 10 minutes and then flat out stall, will not restart, let it sit for a hour or 2 or overnight and it will start just fine. Then stall, I put fresh fuel in her, along with a can of seafoam, but she hasn't ran long enough for that to help. When idling I have no check engine light on. I'm hoping someone here can help point me in the right direction.


And does anyone know of a link for the obd codes for the 94 940?

Thanks in advance for any help you all might be able to provide.

Thanks
Robert

 

Just read that after replacing battery, that the ecu might have to relearn idle, could this be the issue or???????????????????????

 

OBD stuff...

Engine and OBD Diagnostic Codes

when it stalls, does it stutter then putter out, or does it just shut off abruptly like the key was switched off ?

 

sometimes it just dies as in the key switching off, occasionally it will stutter briefly, very briefly as it's stalling. and it stalls quick.

Thanks for the link and reply. I'm trying to get this going and hope it's something basic that I can fix.

 

ok, the wife got up from her nap so I had her hit the key while I put my ear to the fuel tank neck, I hear fuel moving to and fro as the key is turned on and off, would this indicate a working pump or please don't say it, a bad pump. Ran the obd and got 111 when trying to retreive codes, not surprising as I had removed the negative cable for about 20 minutes this morning, I don't know if that would have cleared the codes or not, will try again as soon as she starts again. Also did the system sensor test, got all normal codes there. And the touch and listen test came up good. I'm lost and need help and a beer or 6

 

Next time it dies and will not restart but cranks check to see if you have spark at the coil and at a plug. If you do it's likely fuel.

 

Put some fuel stabilizer in the fuel tank. Change your fuel filter.

 

fuel filters are almost never the problem on these cars.

 

No spark at plug or coil, a ase friend of mine stopped by last night and helped me find that issue, He's leaning towards the crank position sensor or he mentioned something about a pick up ?????? located in the dist. or built into the dist.

Any thoughts on these?????

Thanks guys for helping

 

a pre-1989 has a pickup in the distributor, often called a hall effect sensor. a 1989+ (ok, 1990+ for turbos) has a crank position sensor instead.

if the CPS (crank position sensor) is out, you won't get spark OR gas. The CPS is at the back of the head, stuck into the top of the bell housing of the transmission, under and somewhat to the left of the distributor, if your distributor is back there (most 7/9's, it is, on 240's and occasional 740's, the distributor is on the side of the block). The problem is most frequently the wire harness to the CPS, not the CPS itself.

 

Thanks Pierce, did a search here on the cps and it seems it is a fairly common problem on the 940 and such, I can replace the whole sensor harness and all for under 50.00 at advanced auto parts here in jax. I really believe that to be the issue from everything I've read here and how the car acts. Will keep this updated as things progress.

Thanks again man.

 

ok, great minds have hit the adult beverages

Replaced the CPS, the coating fell apart in my hand, so it needed it anyway, should have guessed it wasn't the issue, too easy to swap out. however does start up a little quicker after stall, still doing the same thing, losing spark, I did double check the coil by unplugging the coil wire from dist. and no spark, however plugged it back in and the car started right up, but did the same thing, 2 - 4 mins to stall. Double checked hearing both pumps kick in, confirmed. Also laid my hand on the fpr in the fuse box and it clicks when the key hits PS2.

Next????????????????????

 

Not positive if the '94 940 has the 25A blade fuse on the left fender for ignition, but if it does, clean it and the holder.

 

Where would I look under the hood, I see no fuse box there.

 

they don't, that was a 240 feature.

the fuel injection fuse on a 740/940 is in the main fuel panel behind the ashtray.

 

I knew that, just felt like yanking someone's chain, frustrated.

In between starts the coil will show no spark, took it loose and it looks original, literally, as does the dist.??????????????

I'm lost

 

Check for power to the _______. Peel back the connector and test for battery voltage between terminals 2 and 4.

Then check for resistance on the ____. With the wires removed, there should be 0.6 - 1.0 ohms between terminals 1 and 15. Between terminal 1 and the center tower, there should be 6.5 to 9.0 ohms.

To check the switching signal, with the ignition off, disconnect the harness connector on the _________ and connect the voltmeter between terminal 5 and ground. While cranking the engine, voltage should fluctuate between 0 and 2 volts. If no fault is found, it is likely the _________ is faulty.

yank my chain.

 

fochs, this is my family's only transportation, I don't have a lot of money and have a couple companies wanting to hire me, I need the car running asap. If you want to help cool, if not so be it.

I meant no harm to anyone regarding the "yank my chain" sorry you took it that way.

 

In this case, you are going to have to purchase or borrow a goodish digital voltmeter. The usual suspect (cps) is not the issue, apparently. If you are unable to retrieve codes, then fault tracing is all that is left to you.

It is a good idea to have purchase or borrow a manual for this activity. A wire diagram helps, but you need to know how to test along each point. Fwiw, what I wrote in my previous post was for the power stage behind the left headlight , then the coil, then back to the power stage (at least in a '93 240)

One thing to do is to feel the fuse/ relay board and see if anything gets hot when the car dies. Oh yeah, regardless of where the that blade fuse is, I'd still clean it up.

good luck with your car.

 

Trying to find a manual locally, no luck yet, may have to order on line, going to check out harbor freight for the voltmeter.

Did it's usual last night, started, idled, then stalled, while running I noticed I could see spark in the distrib. you now around the sides of it where it attaches to the head, not jumping out of it but I can see inside the dist. is this proper, I always thought regardless of the car, those things are pretty much sealed when installed?

Also found a loose connection, it was one of the braided wires going from the valve cover to the black box(ECU????) mounted to the fire wall.

Fochs, cleaned the 25 amp fuse for the fuel injection, and there is nothing hot after stall in the fuse/relay box.