Hey all, brand new to the Volvo family and to the forum. I bought a 1990 240 wagon about two weeks ago. 185,000 miles on it and I love driving it.

Here is what the situation is. I was very low on fuel this past Thursday--into the red zone, but I live less than two blocks from a gas station and figured I would fill up Friday morning. Car would not start on Friday am, would turn over but not start. Bought enough gas to bring home and fill tank halfway. I still cannot get it to start. It turns over, but will not start. By adding some gas into the fuel injection filter, it will catch and run for about 3 seconds. I pulled the fuse box off and the #4 fuse for the fuel pump was lying loose on the bottom of the protective case. I bought new 8am fuses and replaced them. I still cannot get it to start. I did a lot of reading about bad fuel relays. I pulled it out, It has a date of 2000 and was made in Hungary so its not orignal. I pulled it apart and it looks clean, no apparent loose solder or corrosion.

Now my dilema is figuring out if I have a bad fuel pump and need to get that fixed--or if I have a bad relay (dont know now to tell other than visual inspection) or did the low fuel somehow create a situation where we now have to manually prime the fuel lines in order to get it to work.

any help would be appreciated.\

thanks

keith

 

Quick and simple test: Can you hear the pump/s in kp2 or when cranking? The relays typically run about $20 and tend to go bad between 10-15 years, might be worth a try.

 

My fuel pump replay is gone too. Previous owner put a wire in to jump from fuse 6 to 4, and it starts fine that way, if you really need to get it going. FCP has fuses and relays dirt cheap.

 

Update: After doing some extensive net research and this forum, I decided to go ahead and buy a new relay and take the chance on it. I really thought it was going to be a total fuel pump replacement and not looking forward to that. So I went to my local auto parts store and bought the relay--I had on-line priced it at 55.00, but they had it for 36.00 and with my 5.00 coupon, it came to 32 and some change. Came home and popped it in and BAM, started like a champ. I was elated.

The crazy thing is that I when I bought the car, the owner told me it would be easy to work on and repair--now I am about as inept as they come from a mechanical standpoint--but I did use my troubleshooting charts to isolate everything and ended up with the fix--I feel like a real shade tree mechanic-lol.

thanks everyone for the fast response-I have a large family (six children) two in college so I need my car to earn a living.

 

Also if time isn't an issue. Volvo Parts, BMW Parts, European Car Parts | FCPGroton.com has nearly all volvo parts for cheaper than local parts stores. Just for future reference.