Hi I have a 93 850 GLT (non turbo). When I was driving on the highway today and just as i was taking the off ramp to my destination, my Volvo just stalled on me. The RMP's went from about 2000 to just above 0. My vehicle was still in drive at the time and i was doing about 80 kph. Then all the lights lit up on the dash. Quickly i pulled over, pulled it in park and tried to start the car back up. It started no problem. Now I was reading some threads about the same problem. Do you think that it's the altinator or something else that is causing it to do this. Sorry if this is a re-post. Please help me out it really scared the **ap out of me when this happened

Thanks

 

Hi there i too have a 1994 Volvo 850 a Turbo though, but i went through the same awful, kinda dangerous stalling problem. If you have the same lights coming up, oil, lambda and like pretty much everything, and what not then sudden loss of power, no engine rpm but other electrics like radio work etc, i could never tell that i was stalling because i always had the music on, but I watched the Rpm's and i also had no power steering so i found out quickly i was stalled. I would then after a few minutes, 5 mins max be able to restart the car, it should very likely be the (fuel pump relay), its located where the fuses are on the left side under a couple of torx screws, its a green or pink relay labeled 103, if its red/pink it might have already been changed or newer, I'm not sure what the colour difference does, but i replaced my relay with a 103 red relay from a 1998, or 1999 Volvo s70 same relay. I found and researched that its a famous problem and can be many things like cam shaft position sensor, vacuum leaks, fuel pump etc, but if you can hear the pump on start up when the car is just ON the pump should be fine, the relay after time becomes intermittent and switches on and off as it pleases sometimes aggrivated by turns and what not i think its to due the pump and gas slushing around? No idea its just probably electircal because I had it stall when just drive in a straight line. However, you have described the exact problem my car had and the Volvo Experts couldn't figure it out, it never stalled for them during roads tests or during a run in the shop, always did for me, its the Fuel Pump Relay* available on ebay, for cheap. Pay no more than $60 Cdn or like $55 US, as i think a new one is around that price.
A recommendation is to get the redish pinky relay one as it worked for me, i know it is newer than the green 103 relay since i got mine from the s70 and it was stamped 99 compared to 94. Let me know if it works but it for sure changed things for me, no more scare of ending up a road hazard or being embarrassed. Try that before you got too indepth but it sounds almost identical. Good luck!!

 

The EXACT same thing has happened to me recently, also with my '93... I had the alternator replaced a few months ago but that was for an unrelated problem. This happened to me 2 nights ago, on the interstate, cruise on 80mph and BAM, no power... I got it started straight away and got home however. Yesterday I pulled the codes and got a 314 and 324 from socket A6 (ignition) telling me the cam position sensor was going bad. I replaced it and have driven 150 miles since with no problems (knock on wood) and no codes thrown. That's my experience... Have you checked to see if any codes have been thrown in either A6 or A2 (fuel system)?

 

If it happens right after Highway driving and then car starts normal without any CEL codes set in, then I would also check the fuel filter. The mentioned relay is very popular to go bad but usually, it will result in no starts but once the car is running it should not give up. If the fuel filter is clogged then the engine runs out of gas for few seconds immediately after highway driving where the flow was high.
I bought the same relay (RED) from 'Partsource ' couple of months ago for $68 CAD.

 

Agreed it could be the fuel filter, after highway driving that makes sense but usually it doesn't cause it to stall unless really clogged, after i changed my relay it didn't or hasn't stalled since, that was almost 4-5 months ago.

It's most likely a fuel problem due to what you've described but check all the simple things you can, pulling out a spark plug wire to see if its firing, due use rubber booted pliers, check the fuel line/rail. Listen for the fuel pump to eliminate that, and the relay part is good to try because you can always buy it new somewhere like partsource if you have one of those, any auto parts store, check it out for a few days, if it still happens, return it. Best of luck, here is a list I found online a while ago that could be the some of the reasons.

Dirty MAF sensor/Bad
Clogged fuel filter (behind rear passenger wheel)
Bady fouled plugs
Bad distributor cap or rotor
Dying fuel pump relay
Bad oxygen sensor, replace wit universal ans splice wires if oem is too expensive.
Bad crank position sensor
Fuel Injection Relay < different than pump relay
Fuel pressure regulator
Bad throttle position sensor
Bad cam position sensor (Driver side of engine attached to cam with wires coming out of there)
bad fuel pump
Speed sensor
Idle air control

Now it could be many things, check on ebay if you need anything and want a deal, but by the sound sof your problem, i think realy is your best bet, at least try it with a wrecker one as it will cost you pennies

 

I also own a '93 850. I had the same issue about 2 months after purchasing the car, and with the help of the awesome guys on this forum, I found mine to be the fuel pump relay. I went through changing the fuel filter, to changing the fuel injection relay, which both seemed to help a little, but then the stalling started happening again. Once I changed the fuel pump relay, it hasn't stalled since, and it's been almost a year.

The stalling issue that I had was very random, and 90% of the time, the car would start right back up again and drive another 30 miles with no issues, or start up and drive another 2 miles and stall again. Was a very weird issue, but I would definitely check, as stated above, the color of the relay to see if it's been replaced, because if it hasn't, you'll want to replace it lol.

Good luck!

 

I changed the fuel filter about 10 months ago so i can't see that being the problem. I'll further investigate it while at work tomorrow. Thanks for the input guys.