Well since I bought the T5R my wife has been driving the 97 R. She told me it was not running right and it was hard to start every once in a while. So I took it this morning just to check things out. I noticed it acting like it was running out of gas several times, then when I was on the off ramp from a major highway it started really cutting out. It was the middle of rush hour and I thought I was going to get stuck on the ramp since it was going up hill. I made it off the ramp onto the top of the overpass where it just quit. I was able to drift off the overpass to the side of the road.

I had it towed to the local Independent Volvo repair shop, since I have AAA. I'm guessing it's either the fuel pump or filter, but it's been slow starting and went through a new battery fairly recently. I figured I would at least let the people that know what they are doing and have the equipment diagnose the problem. I guess it could be the alternator, but I did not notice the lights coming on when it was cutting out.

 

Hi Jim,

>Car Quit On Me
Next time, you quit on the car[8D]!

Just kidding.

As you've owned & worked on many 850s, you have better knowledge on 850s than many of us here, so I believe you may want to wait/contact Tech, if he's available.

Engine quitting is one of the most challengingproblems to troubleshoot without certain equipment, as it is a combination of mechanical & electronic systems. Also, since I am not sure about the maintenance history of the 850, I haven't got the slightest clue as to what could be the suspect. I can only suggest that you attack the most obvious/simple items first, which you know without my saying. Fuel pump could very well be the culprit, but fuel filtersdon't seem to cause much problems; I replaced one on a '93 Ford F-350 before I left Chicago, and the filter was of original, which was there for 14 years/100,000 plus miles but did not cause much problem, except the gas mileage might have suffered. So, it could be MAF sensor, ignition-related, fuel system related etc etc... Pulling codes may reveal something.

Sorry I'm not much of help in this case.


JPN

 

They just called and said it's the fuel pump. $561 to replace it. I was pretty sure that was the problem, but not certain. Now I'm wishing I would have had it towed home so I could just fix it myself and save some money. Probably about $200 would be my guess. I really trust the place that is doing the work though, and I think they are honest and they definitely know what they are doing.

 

It definetely sounded like it was the fuel pump dying on you, and I guess you've confirmed it.

It stinks that you gotta get it replaced over there because it's definetely a DIY job (and especially since you're pretty handy).

 

Dang Jim this same thing happened to me today,

First i was at circuit city and the car would not start, then it started but i had to give it gas to get it to start. then when i was driving out of the parking lot it jerked a little and then died! I have only had the car for a couple days so i thought i just ran out of gas, so i got it started again and i drove across the street to the gas station, and the prob seem to go away, so i wrote it off as "out of gas" but then today i was driving home and it did it again at a light i put it in neutral and reved it and i got home. the car has almost 105k on it i guess i should change the fuel filter and the fuel pump.

wheres a cheap place to by theses parts or should i just go to the stealership?

~J

 

^Fuel filter you can get at any auto parts store.

As to the fuel pump, I went Ebay. But you can also look for Walboro pumps.

If you want, I'll try to find the guy I bought my pump from off Ebay...So far, it's been pretty good.

 

Hello V8SRSLO,

105k is a low mileage on 850s, and I personally would replace parts with OEM, unless you plan to get rid of the car within the next year or two. There have been many poor quality auto parts floating in the market, and they are almost guaranteed to fail prematurely. I believe the fuel pump & filter are of Bosch.

I personally use FCP Groton of Connecticut as the primary source for parts:

http://www.fcpgroton.com/volvo850fuelsystem.htm

Other people, like RedTurbo850 has suggested, have been using different sources too so you may want to shop around.

Also,the timing belt is one of the most important items on 850, so be sure that it has been replaced. The replacement interval is every 70,000 miles or 5 years (I do mine at every 60,000 miles).

Good luck,


JPN

 

Hi JPN, good to see you back. In response to V8SRSLO:

My car suddenly wants to die sometimes when I am stopped
at a traffic light and the engine is idling. It never quite dies, it always
recovers (so far) but I'm afraid this is the first sign of trouble.
I've never had a CEL or code stored for this problem.
I started researching this on the web and found a lot of information
on 850's stalling/dieing, it seems to be a common problem and
many times it is not the fuel pump.

Before you change the fuel pump you might want to go to
Matthews Volvo Site, go to the 850 Forum, and look under
"Official Engine Stalling Thread". This may be a page or two
back depending on the date of the last post. There are 22
pages of posts on the problem that you are having.
Common causes seem to be:
1. If it only happens when you let up on the gas it may be
a dirty throttle body.
2. If it happens only once in a while (comes and goes) with
no particular pattern it may be a bad fuel pump relay. This
seems to be very common. You may have a problem one
day then the next day the car runs fine and the problem goes
away for days sometimes.
3. If it starts having problems at all speeds and is difficult to
start it may be the Camshaft Position Sensor.
As JPN has said there are many possibilities. If tech were
here I'm sure he could give us all a quick answer.

Good luck, let us know what you find.

 

go to s40 concepts and go to the how to forum. buy some throttle cleaner and take an hour and clean out your AIC, wouldnt hurt....

 

When the fuel pump is totally gone, like mine did yesterday, it will not start back up. It didn't give a whole lot of warning either. Once it stalled completely I was able to get it started once and it was running to rough to drive for a few seconds, then it stalled and would not start again. I really wish I would have had it towed home instead of to the shop. Once it was at the shop I was kind of committed to them doing the work.

 

Hi JT, nice to see you again too. I was on a trip for 11 days with no access to the internet so I've been trying to catch up.

After hearing people's stories on fuel-related systems, I personally feel that the fuel pump on 850 should be replaced at every 100,000 miles/160,000 kms/10 years. Here are my reasons:

1. Danger of suddenly losing control on acceleration, especially when you're merging a freeway or at a stoplight in a congested traffic. Or worse yet, not being able to start the car atthewrong part of the town, especially for female drivers.
2. Frustration & expenses of towing.
3.The time lost, which could've been used on something else otherwise.
4. Danger & frustration of getting stuck in a harsh weather.

I assume many people would hesitate spending a few hundred dollars/pounds/yens, etc... on a car that is not exhibiting a problem at the moment. However, some items will fail sooner or later, and fuel pump is one of the items that must not fail at certain situations for possible danger to the drivers & passengers.


JPN

 

yeah agreed the car like i said just went over 100k and i want to make it as reliable as possible. so i wanna change:

Timing belt
fuel pump
fuel pump relay
fuel filter
flush tranny
flush coolent

and completly clean the motor and look for any problems early, im not afraid to work on my car im going to buy some sort of service manual and get started soon.

thanks for all the help guys, im on a sharp learning curve but you guys are making it easier!

~J

 

My 94 had 206K on it and I never changed the fuel pump. I don't think you should spend $600 replacing something that might be perfectly good. I know I never would. I do see your point though and I was praying when mine went out yesterday that I would at least be somewhere where I could get off the road and not block traffic.

Changing the timing belt is necessary because if it brakes, you are doing damage to the engine. If the fuel pump fails, you just need to have it replaced and you are fine. When you drive cars that are 10-15 years old, you are going to have problems. The fact that mine has 167K on it and still had the original fuel pump is pretty good if you ask me. I do keep up my AAA membership though just for cirumstances like this. Towing cost me nothing.

 

the car has 105k should i still at least change the fuel filter soon?

 

Fuel filter is a maintenance item which should be changed regularly. Not sure what the exact mileage is, but I would defiinitely think that if it's original you are well past the point where it should be changed. My point on the fuel pump is that it is just too expensive to be a maintenance type of change. I mean you could say the transmission is eventually going to fail, so at what mileage should I put a new one in so that it doesn't go bad on me?

 

Yes, it should be changed. Dealer recommends 60k, but you probably want to make that interval shorter. It gets dirty pretty quickly.

About the fuel pump, it's a very very easy install and I got my pump off Ebay from SuperPartsInc. The guy was very helpful and so far, the pumps been good. However, one thing about their kit is the hose seems to be slightly short, so it's hard to get on perfect, and you HAVE TO make sure the clamps on the hoses are very very tight. It will fall off otherwise.

And one more thing to check the fuel pump. If you bang on the tank w/ a rubber mallet or something, you may be able to get the car started by jarring the pump a little bit. If this works, your problem is definetely fuel pump failure.

And in response to JPN about getting the pump replaced every 100k. He's got some valid reasons, but I was talking to some guy yesterday as I was getting my tires installed, and he was telling me about how he recently went to the volvo dealer and they were telling him that they just had a 850 w/ 375,000 miles and it had original fuel pump, water pump, and a bunch of other stuff!!

 

Relay isn't necessary or if you really want to fix it, I'll find the link where you can solder it yourself and you can save yourself at least 40 bucks. If you have a solder already, the mod is something like 5 bucks.

Edit: Here's the link.
http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/cha...?p=32573#32573

 

It seems that I'm the only one to go for theconservative side when it comes to safety.

I think the 850 with the original fuel pump that had 375,000 miles was one of the luckier cars. Electrical devices have large differences in their life span and some go for a very long time, while others fail a lot earlier. 100,000 miles/10 years may be too short a life for a fuel pump, but if it were my car, I would put the new one in anyway and keep the original as a backup.Many of my conservative strategies come from my aviation side.

An alternator is a good example. While many people have the original unit that has many miles & years, mine completely failed at approx. 140,000 miles/12 years without warning. I was stranded in the middle of a busy intersection at night and had to navigate the car with momentum alone (no power assist to the brakes & steering). And when the car lost momentum, I was not able to move the car by myself, as you all know that Volvos are really heavy. I was stranded for about a half hour, until someone stopped to help me push the car off the road. I then had to call my colleague from a local macho-type bar. Now, would you put your loved ones in a situation like this? I wouldn't.

Anyway, just wanted to remind people of the worst case scenario. It is usually too late to regret.


JPN