Greetings,

Hopefully someone can help me with an ongoing problem with my 1986 245 DL. About a 10000 miles ago I was driving down the highway, when I all of a sudden lost power and had to pull off the road. After 5 minutes, the car let me start it again so I cleared off the road and got a tow home. The main fuel pump had already been buzzing like crazy for a while, so I replaced in tank pump and the filter. Replaced the timing belt, drive belts, and replaced a few bushing before getting back on the road. The old Volvo has been driving well enough to satisfy me until a few weeks ago.

-----------The symptoms I'm dealing with now are a normal start up, but then sputters out so I have to rev it a couple times until it idles. Sometimes it will bumble and sputter at a red light or a drive thru, but ultimately start up and idle pretty well. The puzzling thing it when i'm coasting at my desired speed, I feel a slight pull for just a second like it's losing power. It's a similar feeling to when the car completely died 1000 miles back.

-Fuel pump relay seems to be clicking normally, but maybe it's failing?
-Clean Idle control valve, didn't change anything.
-Cap and rotor done a couple years back.


~Could it be a faulty fuel pressure regulator? Although there was no indication of gas leaking, but it did smell like gas.
~Could it be the spark plugs need to be replaced?
~Could it be a failing catalytic converter?
~Could it be the timing belt is out of alignment?
~Could it be as simple as a faulty aftermarket (china) in-tank fuel pump filter sock, that's not letting enough fuel through?


Any feedback would be much appreciated. My guess is it could do with the fuel or electrical issue. Exhaust or vacuum leak are other possibilities.
Thank you, Cheers

 

Hello Jasper,

I am Keri, new to the site, and just bought my first Volvo a couple months ago. I bought my 240 (1992) off of Facebook which was a mistake, regardless I am having the same issues. I am not a mechanic nor do I have the money to afford one so I really don't know how much help I can be but tell you what I have replaced. Again I say I am no mechanic so all I have is what my father taught me, the Haynes book i bought, smarts, and youtube. When I bought the car the head gaskets needed to be replaced so I ordered the gaskets and my ex replaced the passenger side gaskets but not the driver side gaskets. Now I am not going to lie and say that didn't help tremendously because it did but then I started having a bunch of other problems. She wouldn't start at first, had to rev up the engine and when she finally turn over it was rough idle. She also had no power, would spit and sputter, would flat out die if stopped completely and also when hitting bumps, RR crossing, or anything like that. So I started replacing the fuel system because I noticed it wasn't so bad when I had a full tank of gas. I have replaced the fuel regulator, fuel pump & filter inside tank & outside tank, all fuel lines. After all that it ran smoother but still would stall out. I boyfriend took it to his coworkers and they adjusted the idol and now she hasn't stalled out once.
I can still fill the power try to fallout every couple days or so, so something still isn't right but she hasn't died and runs much smoother. Hope that helps. I still have TONS of issues with her but at least she gets us back and forth to work. LOL

 

Keri, a 240 only has one head, its an inline 4 cyl, so there's no passenger vs driver side head gaskets.
there is no idle adjustment on a 1989+ 240, they use LH2.4 fuel injection, and the idle speed is hard wired in the ECU (Fuel Injection Control Unit).

now, the 1986 240 of the original poster, that uses LH 2.2, which /does/ have an idle adjustment screw on the throttle body, there's a specific procedure to set it correctly, and if thats not followed, the engine could be running way out of the target operating conditions, so it should be left alone unless everything else is sorted out and the idle is still wrong.

Jasper: air leaks in the intake path can cause your symptoms. or a non-functioning in-tank fuel pump, IF the power loss happens more frequently when you're below 1/3rd tank and/or nailing the throttle hard accelerating through midrange RPMs when fuel consumption is highest... I know you said you replaced the in-tank pump, but many replacements have been found to be mis-wired such that if you connect them the way you THINK they should be connected,, they are sucking rather than pushing. See the extensive article on the 240 in-tank pump on In the Tank - 240 Volvo Tank Pump and Sender

 

1. Pull the relay apart and check for cracked solder joints, they usually fail after driving for a while or a hot start
2. diaphrams in fuel pressure regs do leak - (and run very rich if at all) pull the vacuum line make sure no gas is coming out of the rubber line to the intake manifold
3. Plugs should be replaced every x miles - but when very worn cause hard starting problems
4. No, the catalytic converter is a ceramic honeycomb in the exhaust, they do break free, bounce into the shape of a bell and block the flow of exhaust, but you hear a noisy rattle first
5. No if the timing is off if would run bad all the time
6. Sure or more likely the main pump is damaged/wornout from having to make up for a bad feeder pump, simply check fuel pressure and volume. When was the last time the MAIN fuel filter was replaced?

If there is a white 25 amp blade style fuse connected with a red wire to the positive battery terminal - that powers your fuel system - and a poor connection there will cause all sorts of problems.