hi guys! I have been in search for a car for awhile and stumbled upon a this red 1995 Volvo 850 20v for 400$ with an "electrical short" he stated he just replaced a numerous amount of items ie:-Fuel pump.
-Fuel filter.
-Water pump.
-Alternator.
-New tires (with only 10 miles on them, if that).
-New battery (should still be good).
-New Breaks.
-New wheel barrings.

I went out today to look at the car and inspect the "short" and it seems when you turn the key it does nothing but a small click it doesn't sound like the starter is engaging and it doesn't hard crank either just a simple click
I pull my car around and connecter jumper cables to it to see if was a dying or dead battery and it wouldn't hold a charge the dash lighst would slowly fade and do nothing as I turned the key

I just don't want to buy a money hog and I have read on here that it could be a maf or main relay or a bad starter

am I headed in the right direction and should I get it.......? I can do some mechanic work I have rebuilt engines and solved issues
I just am wondering if this is a black hole???????????????

 

If try swapping the ignition switch with a known good one.

 

Hi and welcome to the forum.

There is chance that it's as simple as a bad battery cable but if a charged battery causes the dash lights to dim without trying to crank it it's likely something else.

If you can afford it I would get it if it is turbo. You should be able to get most of your money back by parting it out, heck wheels and tires should bring $300 new. Sounds like you can't loose to me unless you have NO time to fool with it.

I would put a wrench on the crank bolt to see if the motor turns over by hand. Nothing like a locked up motor to start the day off bad.

 

I got into Volvos the same way. Now I've bought 4 of them for $400 each. The first two I bought did not run, but they were easily enough to get running. One had the plug at the main fuel injection relay disintegrated (redneck repairs for $1, but you can get brand new plug parts for $20). The other had an internal distributor fire which melted the rotor button ($15 part).

The last one I bought just to get a new set of tires.... Very likeable cars for the money.

 

P.S. If you have to ask wether the MAF could prevent the starter from rotating the engine, you kinda scare me.

 

I know it has nothing to due with the starter
Just another example of my ignorance to commas LoL my bad

 

Its when i disconnect the jumper cables and just the battery in the car seems to drain and fade fast
I only have constant power supply if I keep my other car hooked up to it

 

Still didn't say if it cranks or not?

 

No crank

 

Like Rspi said, parting can get most or all of your money back. You might even make some extra in the end. Here is my suggestion if you DO end up buying it. Start your jump car while it's connected and try to crank it. If it just clicks, it COULD be a bad starter. As far as the lights dimming, if the starter is bad and it has drained the battery entirely, then chances are, being a lead-acid battery, that the battery is dead and gone from being excessively discharged. Get the starter off and get it tested at any parts store. If it tests fine then the only other possibility is the switch or a relay if you can turn the motor by hand.

 

Take the battery in to be tested first. I can't tell you how many damaged batteries I have seen in the past year that were beyond jumping. The battery is likely TO DEAD to get the car to crank.

Most car batteries have 6 cells. If 3 or 4 of the cells are destroyed, the car won't start. 2 or 3 cells can power little things like lights but not a starter.

 

+1 with Robert above.
If you had jumpers and it still wouldn't crank then it's likely more than just a battery. But a bad battery in some cases can suck up so much juice from the other vehicle that the jumping car doesn't have enough juice to try and charge the jumped battery and work the starter.

We need to start someplace and trying to turn the engine over by hand to make sure it's "crankable" would be a good thing.
Next pull the battery and take it to an auto parts store to have them do a free charge and test to find out for sure if your battery is low on charge and if it's good or bad.
Once we know you have a good battery we can start trying to track down why it's not cranking but just clicking.

 

Sweet!
Will do, I pick the car up tomorrow
Ill get them tested

Can I do the simple odometer test
To find out if the battery is toast?

 

No because a simple test will not test cells individually.

 

I don't know if you really care about testing the battery, (a bettery doesn't cost much more than a tank of gas these days) but if you do, you can take to some low-class auto parts store and test it.

Another option would be to charge it up and then put a volt gauge on it. About half of life's problems require a volt gauge to solve. If it has about 12.5 volts, then all the cells are at least "present". If it has 10 volts, then one cell is shorted out.

Now, here's the hard part. If the battery is okay, then while cranking, it will drop to about 10 volts. So, if you hit the starter, and the voltage doesn't drop to about 10 volts, then you DID NOT send any electricity through the starter. There are a variety of reasons why that could happen, but the more likely case would be the starter itself has some internal problem.

 

What is the "simple odometer test"

As for the low-class auto parts stores they will either use a handheld tester that costs around five to six hundred dollars or the bench tester charger which runs over two grand. They are built to be as accurate and idiot proof as possible and I myself am grateful they spend the money so I don't have to rely on mine. I personally have both along with a multiple battery trickle charger.
While on the topic of idiot proofing, it's a good idea to be a little skeptical of a test if it doesn't come out the way you thought it should and get a second opinion from another source, different auto parts store, batteries plus, sears or even go back at a later time and have it repeated just to be sure.

You can always do the at home testing and it's better than nothing but by doing a little effort of removing the battery and taking a drive you get an exact answer instead of guessing that your system is loading a battery enough to give you an accurate measurement of it's health. That and testing it in the car and only going by voltage doesn't take into account a bad connection someplace in the electrical system or excessive wear in the starter itself or mechanical problems with physically turning over the engine.

That's why I vote for testing the battery individually whenever possible as it's normally fairly simple and eliminates any guesswork where you end up passing the battery only to spend a lot of time trying to find a problem that finally leads you all the way back to the battery where you started.

 

Do Volvo starters ever jam up like the older cars used to?
Sticky bendix spring.
A moderate tap with a spanner or mallet sometimes freed the spring or rock the car backwards and forwards in gear.

 

There is nothing special about a Volvo starter as far as I know.

 

No more than any other starter.
Usually they just get worn out and fail to crank due to a bad solenoid or worn brushes.

Rocking would work to free one if it's a manual but wouldn't do anything on an automatic.