I have a '92 Volvo 940 Turbo. Brief problem background...

Last fall was the first time this problem showed up, I was stopped at a traffic light and it was raining, and my car completly just stalled out. I had the A/C, headlights and stereo (aftermarket pioneer) all running. The car would crank but not turn over, UNTIL I turned off the stereo, and other sources of draw. The car for the next week was having issues so I took it to a local guy who specializes in Volvo's. He had my car for a week, and couldn't determine any problem seeing as the car did not stall for him. The car since then has run without any problems other then the check engine light being illuminated.

However, now (06/11/2007) the car has stalled on me a few times in the last week. Each time the symptoms seemed to be reoccuring. The car would start once I turned off the various sources. I thought I had it pegged to a possible short from my stereo, so I had turned it off...then it stalled once again last night while the stereo was off.

If ANYBODY has some ideas for me I would greatly appreciate it, seeing as I depend on my car to get to work, and I'm also scheduled to drive to Boston this weekend...

In addition, if anybody is familiar with a good, and reliable Volvo mechanic in the Albany, NY area, please let me know. My name is Scott and you can shoot me an email at either scott.stieber@ge.com or stiebers@msu.edu .

Thanks,

Scott Stieber

 

Well, even if you DID have a short, once the car is running you don't even need the battery so even a big electrical draw should not make the car stall. Once you try to start it, then, yea, shutting off stuff makes sense to relieve the extra load... So, first, why does it stall? Is it fuel, or spark? How high is your idle speed? A lot of older Volvos with worn electrical parts kind of creep along and any little thing upsets the balance... If it stalls just at idle, I'd start by atune up, i.e. not necessarily replace but check, adjust, clean plugs, wires, coil, sensors, etc..

 

Thats the thing, I cannot pinpoint why it stalls, I had a very good mechanic look at it for a week last time I had this problem...he drove it everyday and COULDN"T get the problem to reoccur...now here I am and its the same thing once again. He said everything he checked was good and the car drove great. My idle is roughly 700ish rpm? however, when the A/C is on..this fluctuates. In answer to your question I would tend to say that the MAJORITY of the stalls I have had were when I was at a standstill...all except for one where I was driving on the freeway I felt the car begining to die and the gas wasnt responding...so I turned off my stereo and it picked right back up... I definatley think a tune up may be a good call seeing as I'm sure its in need anyway...any other ideas other then that? thanks!?

P.S...any idea what a reasonable Tune-Up should run? I'm taking it to a guy today who seems good, I just want some idea to know what to base his price off of...obviously if they need to replace things that will change the story a bit, but a general "all-around" tune up?

 

other years show this symptom when fuel pump relay is going bad. Locate your relay and when problem occurs tap on relay with thumb and forefinger if car now starts replace relay.

 

thanks, yeah i took it to a guy today who only works on imports. he essentially described my problem to the tee, and also after speaking with him i saw some related posts on here.. he believes it is the crank sensor which would make sense to me, he is also checking the fuel pump relay as well. I have had to replace my overdrive relay in the past, so it wouldn't suprise me this is just another relay gone bad. hasn't been replaced in past years and im at about 130k on the car. Thanks, let me know if you got any more ideas, right now im just waiting to hear back from him tomorrow

 

What did the mechanic say about the problem? Did he fix it? I've got a 740 that seems to have a small fluctuating idle. If I let it sit for a minute or two, the car will start fluctuating a bit more wildly with the car threatening to die unless i add throttle? Although this afternoon. I was sitting in a parking lot and it died on me twice. even with the throttle opened up. Please get back to me.

 

ok, essentially the problem was this...

when looking at the crank sensor it was old and the casing of the wire had cracked and separated so there was actual wire exposed...which could have been an issue of why moisture was affecting the car at times. HOWEVER, I did relplace the crank sensor, in addition to that we noticed that it was in fact the fuel pump relay that was bad, when we could get the car to start, simple tapping of the relay made it switch on. So crank sensor, but the real root of my problem was the fuel pump relay.

The cranksensor was $59 bucks and I think the relay was $40 something bucks. So really not a horrible fix. I just drove the car on a 400+ mile trip this weekend and its never drove better!