Hello all, just found this forum and am hoping you folks will be willing to help me out. Just picked up a '95 850 for my wife a few weeks ago from the original owner. 115K miles with all service receipts. Seemed to be running great. Went out Saturday night, car ran fine, though the service light came on. Got up for church Sunday morning and the car won't start. It cranks normal, but won't fire.

I checked the plugs, which looked ok - but I went ahead and replaced plugs, cap, and rotor. Made sure plugs were gapped to .028 as it says in my repair manual. The car is getting fuel - I can purge the fuel rail valve and it will fill back up if I try to start the car. It's getting spark - I can put a timing light on each of the plug wires and it will flash. The distributor and pulleys are turning when the starter cranks, so I don't think any of the belts have broken. Timing belt was last changed at 75K, so it shouldn't be time for that yet.

At the suggestion of an acquaintance who has some experience with Volvos I replaced the cam position sensor. Once the sensor was replaced the car fired, ran for about 30 seconds and died again. Now it's back to where it was, cranking, but not starting.

If anyone has any ideas or knows how I can pull a code without towing the car to my volvo dealer, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

You will need a scanner to pull codes.On the air filter housing there is a mass flow sensor.Try unplugging it and starting the car up and see if it runs.If it is bad it will run unplugged but stall when you plug it in.Also with it unplugged it will idle but not run good over idle.Try that and let me know.

 

Thanks, I'll give that a shot when I get home. What type of scanner do I need for codes? I know OBDII started in '96. If the scanner for the '95 is reasonable I may pick it up. It'll be a good tool to have! Thanks again.

 

Do you have a box under the hood by the washer fluid fill? 1995 was a split year some had the OBDII and some Had OBDI.If you have OBDII then you will need a scanner to read OBDII.If you have OBDI follow the link and follow instructions for pulling codes.
http://www.troublecodes.net/Volvo/

It gives you the codes as well.

 

Not sure, I'll check it when I get home. Is the box by the washer fluid fill OBDI or OBDII? Thanks.

EDIT: NEVER MIND...I SHOULD HAVE READ THE LINK IN FULL BEFORE ASKING DUMB QUESTIONS! THANKS AGAIN.

 

Let me know how you make out.

 

Unplugged the Mass Air Sensor and it didn't change anything.

It is a OBDI car, so it's got the diagnostic box up by the washer fluid reservoir. Followed the directions in my manual and in the A2 slot it gave me a 1-1-1 code - all good. In the A6 slot the led lit up for the test, but it wouldn't give me any code. I tried a few times and I pushed the button once for a test and waited....and waited. Nothing. Any more ideas? I'm getting frustrated!! Thanks.

 

The next thing I would check is the exact fuel pressure.I know you are getting fuel up top but how much.
Something sounds weird.You have spark and fuel it should run.

 

Not sure how to do that...I'll pull out the manual and figure it out. I'm completely baffled at this point. Thanks again for the help. I'll get back to you with fuel pressure.

 

Find a fuel pressure guage that will screw onto the port in the end of the fuel rail.It looks like a valve stem for a tire.

 

Fuel pressure at the rail is 37#. From what I understand, that's normal. Plugs are wet when I pull them, so injectors are pulsing. Got spark, got fuel, put in a new cam position sensor, not getting any error codes...I'm baffled. What are the odds of the timing belt jumping a tooth? The car has 115K miles on it, belt was last changed at 75K.

 

It is possible the belt jumped but doesn't happen very often.It is very easy to check.Remove the side cover to access the timing belt.The half of the cover that is bolted to the top of the engine stays.If you look on the cover by the pulleys you will see a notched area on both side at like about 10 and 2.Match the cam marks to the cover marks.The you can look at the crank and see of the marks line up as well.

The other thing to look for is make sure there is no hoses for the induction system are off or have a big hole oi it.

 

Timing belt was tight...but the intake cam was a cog out of time. Took it apart, put it back right, and it's running fine now. Strange. Thanks a lot for all the help, I really appreciate it. Would have cost me a fortune to take it to the dealer!!

 

Im gald you GOT IT RUNNING.Normally they wont do that from one tooth off but sometimes.

 

Didn't seem to me like it should have had such a fit over that. May have been coincidental - I replaced the ignition wires at the same time. They looked fine...but you never know.

Have you ever seen a car run OBDI and OBDII? I never checked for the OBDII port because the book said it was OBDI and it had the OBDI diagnostic box, but I was in the car today (it's my wife's, I'm hardly ever in it) and noticed the OBDII plug on the console. How does that work?!

 

1995 was a split year for the OBDII and OBDI.You can read I beleive it is only engine codes from the OBDII.

 

Aarrrghh! Car ran fine for 3 months and now it's doing the same thing. It cranks, but nothing happens. Starter sounds like it's turning a little faster than normal...is that an indication of anything obvious? Thanks.

 

Could be either no spark or fuel.

 

It's got 40 lbs. in the rail. Need to check spark tonight. Thanks. How common is it for a coil to go bad in these cars? It's a '95 with 120,000 miles. Probably the original coil. Thanks!

 

Sometimes they will go bad.Another thing that goes bad sometimes is the cam position sensor. That is located under an aluminium cover towards the back of the engine straight back from the distributer.
Also sometimes the seal will leak oil in to the sensor and mess up the signal.