Hi: My first post. I have a wonderful 1996 850 turbo sedan, original owner, and it has run beautifully over the 13 years I have owned her. Just recently, about a month or less, when I drive it somewhere and stop to go into a store, I come out and it won't start. It doesn't get any gas as the engine just cranks and cranks. The battery is strong. So I try and turn the key off, and hit the gas pedal hard once. Many times this works and the car starts right up and runs great until I turn it off. It does not do this the first thing in the morning--it starts right up. Only after I drive it awhile. Lately, after several attemps at "hitting the pedal once" it does not work and I leave the car alone for about 20 minutes, try it again with the hit to the pedal, and she starts right up. I just hate to wait 20 minutes each time I stop at a store, so I wonder why the car is not getting the gas it needs apparently to start. There is NO check engine light on. Many thankls for any suggestions. It could not be the fuel pump because once the car starts, it keeps running beautifully.

 

My gut feel is the fuel pump is going bad. My wife was having similar problems with one of ours and so I took it to work one morning. Sure enough it quit all together on the way to work. I had it towed to an Indy shop and they changed the fuel filter and the relay and it was fine.

You might want to have the fuel filter changed if that has not been done recently. At least as the original owner you know what's been done and not been done t the car. Has the fuel pump every been changed? If not, you sure can't complain. When was the last time the plugs, wires, cap and rotor been changed too?

 

All good points made by Jim. Another possibility might be the fuel pressure regulation valve (PRV) on the injector fuel rail.

Personally I would hook up a fuel pressure gauge to car and leave it on there until the problem happened again (make sure you tie it up out of the way obviously..). Then the next time this problem happens, ck the fuel pressure.

If the fuel pressure is fine, then it's likely an ignition component failing intermittently...

 

Same problem in Dec08, incompetant volvo service dealer couldn't find or fix the problem, like u my volvo started fine only early in the morning...when i first mentioned the problem to the service dealer they let me leave the car at their shop overnight and will check it the next morning...well, next morning starts fine so they called me to take the car back and just did a oil change and that was that. It gotten so bad i thought it was the battery but the stupid thing was that IT WAS THE STARTER...get that replaced and you are fine. I did exactly what u did, and i kept on restarting with my key and in the end that killed my battery, which i thought was under warranty but it wasn't even though it was a replacement from a previous defective battery (u see the warranty only covers one replacement, so if the replacement to ur original purchase was bad...u are out of luck). By the way, i took the car to an old mechanic and he immediately said oh ur starter is out...cost less than $100 for the whole replacement labour included...while i spent over $500 for oil change, change of battery and diagnostics at the service dealer.

 

If you spent $500 on all of that you really got ripped off.

Just because the car runs once started, do not rule out the fuel pump. My family's Tarus' fuel pump went bad and we had the exact same symptoms but never felt fuel cut off during drive. Just like you, the problem got progressively and progressively worse over time and in cold weather (may explain the morning thing).

The starter also went bad in that car. When the starter went bad, the car would not crank at all. And for the starter, there was no signs of weakening, just one time it would not start.