Good afternoon,
I have a question regarding my 1996 Volvo Wagon.
I was helping my brother move yesterday, we parked the car in his front yard (so we could load the wagon with boxes). The wagon was parked on a hill, front end facing downhill. We loaded the car with several boxes, and as I was driving to the storage facility, the car started to sputter, lose power, and when I tried to give it gas, it sputtered and died out. It restarted right away, but kept having the power problem, and would sputter and then lose rpm power, and then shut off....

The check engine light came on after the 4th time of this happening. We managed to get the car to a garage, and they ran the fault codes - all the codes said misfire (in Cyl 1, Cyl 2, Cyl 3, Cyl 4, Cyl 5,and Random misfire. After the car sat for a few minutes, it started right back up, and I was able to drive home (about a 40 minute drive on the highway). The car ran fine for the rest of the evening, (did some around town short distance driving). After being parked for about an hour, when I turned the car back on, the check engine light had cleared itself.....

This morning, the car started up fine, and ran great, for about 30 minutes, but after getting on the highway, it sputtered and died out again..... I waited a couple minutes, and was able to start the car back up and it drove fine all the way back home...I came home for while, and then went out to do some intown errands....when the car started doing the sputtering and dying thing again..... It happened probably 6 or 7 times before I could get the car to stay running, and made it home.... the check engine light is NOT back on......


I have an appointment to have the fuel filter changed tomorrow, as my brother thinks it is possible from the car being parked at such an incline, that some dirt/junk from the fuel tank got into the fuel filter, and it is clogged......

This is the first time this car has ever had any problems....
when not sputtering, the car runs great....

I have been reading alot on this board and other Volvo boards, and the more I read, the more scared I become that my wagon might be headed for either a very expensive fix, or to the junkyard....

thanks for any input....

 

You might need plugs,dist cap and wires.

 

try changing your fuel pump relay, my car did that a few times, ive changed the relay a few days ago, it hasent done it since...but when mine would stall in that way it would do it about 2-3 times a week so im still not 100% sure the problems fixed. (the fuel pump relay is located where your fuses are, just remove the plastic plate thats held by screws under the fuse cap)

Alex

 

Car is missfiring, time to junk it?

When was the last tuneup?

 

+1 for tune up.

 

I just had the same problem on my '97 850 GLT. One weekend I'm getting 30 mpg on a road trip and the next weekend it starts misfiring something fierce. I did the relays, fuel filter, plugs, wires, cap/rotor, had injectors cleaned/balanced and then finally trip to the dealer. #5 had only 15 psi as opposed to the 155ish on the other 4 cylinders. Long story short: all exhaust valves replaced as #5 had one burned and #1 had signs of the stellite facing flaking off. $2200 repair tab but it runs like a scalded cat and my milage is back to 28 on my commute. Car has 170K on it, all records and runs synthetic 10W/30.
Good luck and do a compression/bleed down check.