Gentlemen, I have a fuel pump issue, but I deserve that and more! Here's the scoop:

I have a 91 240 sedan with 73,000 miles on it. I bought the car in 2002 because it was in exceptionally good condition. I bought the car for my daughter who was six at the time--yes, six. I drove it sparingly for about two years, then stored it. My daughter is now fifteen and will be driving soon.

Today, I took my daughter with me to the storage with some fresh gas, a new battery and some starting fluid. I installed the new battery, put a few gallons of fresh premium petrol in the tank, added two squirts of starter fluid, and behold, the car started right up and ran a bit rough at first, but after three minutes smoothed out and when up to temperature, ran perfect.

The issue:

The electric fuel pump under the car initially leaked fuel, but quit leaking after about 1 minute. The pump now runs constant and quite loud. I will replace it, but I wonder if I may have some other issue someone may be familiar with because the car sat for so long, or is there some other problem I may have caused the car having stored it so long, such as seals, etc? I will, of course, change the fluids and filters and keep a close eye on it for a few weeks.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks!

K Bird

 

I've had to replace fuel pumps on a couple of my Volvos. Your noisy pump under the car might be due to failure of the primary pump in the gas tank. Could be also that the pump itself is going out. You can hear the pump inside the tank run by listening at the fill spout while someone turns on the key. If it isn't running, that may be the problem. Replacing the pump under the car isn't all that hard; the one inside the tank is a little more difficult and may require a special spanner wrench to get it out.

 

I would also change all of the hoses and belts. Dry rot is a problem after storage and non usage. I would also do a stage one (plugs, etc.) tune up.