Volvo 740 Stalls - Electrical Goes Out, Then Comes Back
 

I own a 1990 Volvo 740 Base GL Sedan 4D 2.3L l4 MPI, Assembled in Sweden. It has around 70k miles on it.

I have been having a very weird stalling issue with this car. The car stalls mainly when making a fair right turn soon after the car has been started. It stalls, and all of the electrical goes out. 2-3 minutes later, the electrical comes back, and the car runs just like nothing happened. It otherwise drives like a dream.

I've replaced the fuel pump relay twice, and both the radio suppression relays. I've tested them and they work just fine.

It almost seems like there is a built in kill switch that triggers from the inertia of the vehicle turning; like it has a crash detector that shuts everything off in case of an accident.

Any ideas? Would appreciate any and all help!

bad ground or power cable/attachment ? maybe even a bad ignition switch

those relays wouldn't cause all electrical to go out, they'd just cause the engine to stall, everything else would still work.

Strange! With 70k miles, if correct, this car should be pristine; no worn out ignition switch for sure... Is the battery securely tied down? On Some models the battery slides and shuts off the motor by touching some relay attached on the fender but that's rare. That was on Turbos anyway...

no 22 year old car is pristine, unless its been kept in an air conditioned vault

I just checked that and apparently the battery wasn't tied down and the power cable wasn't attached properly... Last time I have someone else install a battery in my car! I will update you if it persists (unlikely)!

Thank you!

the correct volvo batteries have a flange on the bottom and are 'clamped' to the battery tray, either a screw clamp or a slider clamp depending on the model and year. but a lot of crappy places will just sell you a generic battery that doesn't have the flange, and you end up having to use a nylon battery strap to keep it secure.

Easily solved. If you just ask for Group 47 (smaller), or 48, those are the two sizes that fit there with the notch.

yup

but a lot of non-euro-centric places don't stock those sizes

Thank you both! My battery does have a flange, and the clamps are keeping it in place! I took my car for a test drive and it works flawlessly now!