Just joined this forum after I bought a 95 850 wagon 5 speed. I'm generally a SAAB person and I'm a member of a saab forum, but I figured I would try out a volvo. The car is in pretty good shape overall, and it has about 250,000 miles on it. There are two main problems with it that I would like to try and fix as soon as I can.

1. Every couple of days or so, the car will start and then sort of sputter and die. Doesn't matter if it's cold or warm. It will usually take about 5 minutes of turning it over and working the gas pedal before it will start again. I think it's not getting fuel because it will crank and catch but then sputter and die. The car idles and drives fine any other time, but it just happens every so often when starting.

2. There is a rattling noise sometimes when you start of in first, but once it gets up past like 1500-2000 rpms it stops. It's after the clutch is fully engaged. It sometimes happens in second too. It sounds like its coming from the front left of the car but I'm not completely sure.

If anyone has any ideas or if any of these are somewhat common problems, I would really appreciate it.

 

Next time it won't start try squirting some starting fluid into the intake to see if that lets it start. If she fires up and turns over a few on it's own you know you're starving for fuel and it's time to check the fuel filter, relay or pump. Also pull the coil wire off and see if you have a good crisp spark to a good metal ground. Hold it about a quarter inch off the metal. Also check to see if it's as good at the end of one of the plug wires.

 

As for the shaking, check your mounts. There are two that fail often. One at the top of the motor near the brake fluid res. The other is under the front of the motor near the passenger side front tire. You have to pull the tire, pull the splash gard back to see the mount. They will tear apart after several years but are designed to keep the motor in place.

 

This would be that upper motor mount mounted near the brake master cylinder. The blue material is an aftermarket polyurethane replacement for the stock rubber insert. That insert can get pounded out of position or torn.

 

I had a smilar problem with my 850 when I first bought it, I would drive it then suddenly bye bye birdie... thankfully it never let me down on a freeway or somewhere bad, always after I parked it. Anyway, in my case it turned out to be the Crank Shaft Position Sensor...

 

Thanks for all the help guys. I've replaced the top mount since I bought it but haven't looked at the bottom one yet. How hard is the boottom one to replace? The top one was really hard to press in and required some serious rigging to do so.

The thing is that it doesn't happen to me while driving. It's only when starting, but I suppose there isn't a way to check if it's the CPS except to replace it, or am I wrong?

Edit: Sorry I miss read your post. Your's happened after you parked it?

 

Thanks very much. Ill definitely try that next time it starts acting up. So you basically just replace the relay with a paper clip?

 

And, after scrolling throug posts on here, is it just me or are the fuel systems in volvos the weak point? It seems like all the issues on here are related to the fuel system one way or another. I could be wrong but that seems to be the only downfall I see to these otherwise well-built cars.

 

Yes and NO !!
You use a paperclip to test the circuit to see if your relay is bad. You could be really cheap and pop it in there every time you wanted to use the car and pull it out when you park but after a few days I'd think the cost of a relay would be the lesser evil.
With a paperclip in there the pump will be running non stop until it's pulled out.

 

Yes, it never failed while actually driving although you can imagine that in the back of my mind I feared that it would when I was in traffic. when ever I stopped and turned off the engine it was a crap shoot whether or not it would start up again right away. I have to mention that the problem got progressively worse where at first it would fail to start sporadically then more and more often until it got to the point of having to wait a good while for it to cool down before it decided to work again. Electrical components have a tendency to work differently under extreme temperature conditions such as on the engine block so keep in mind that electrical resistance also rises with temperature as well thus creating failure of components. this is what I assume happened to CPS. I tested the resistance through its terminals when cold then when it failed to find that was the problem.

Art

 

Haha sorry I knew that. I guess i should have put "temporarily" in there. What I meant was that you just put the paper clip exactly where the relay was. I was planning on buying a new relay if that solves the problem. I'm somewhat cheap, but not that cheap haha.

 

That's good. There is always that one guy out there who thinks he can just pop it in there and doesn't need a relay and then wonders why the battery is dead in the morning !!

I think it's the cousin of the guy who picked up his lawn mower and tried to trim his hedge. YUP, that's why that sticker is on lawnmowers telling you not to put your hands under the deck. I think the lady with the hot coffee in her lap was their sister.

 

Haha very true. Like I said I don't have a lot of money (I'm a college student), but I would rather pay $40 and do a job once then pay $20 and do a job twice.

 

Does anyone have any idea what this is? I know it's not supposed to be like that and looks to be related to the fuel system, so it might be the cause of this problem.

 

The chances are good that the plastic vacuum tube was broken at some point. The line leads to the fuel pressure regulator and should have just a 90 degree elbow at the end of the tube. Looks like they used a chunk of hose to make up for what likely broke off.

Sorry for the picture quality but that's the end of the fuel pressure regulator poking out from under the passenger side of the fuel rail between the intake runners. You can just see a small part of that yellowed vac line on the other side of the intake runner on the right of the regulator in the upper right corner of the picture.

 

Could that be whats causing the random sputtering and no start? I checked the fuel pump in the on position and it sounded good. Is there any way to test a relay with a multimeter to see if it works?

 

It looks like they did a quick and dirty fix with fuel line due to the sidewall size of that hose but as long as it's not causing a vacuum leak it isn't a problem.

After it's run for a couple minutes you should take it apart and check to see if you can see or smell any gas in that line. If you can then the diaphragm inside the regulator has ruptured and the engine will suck raw fuel out the tear in the diaphragm and into the intake and could very well cause the problem you are describing.

The purpose of the hose is to raise the pressure in the fuel rail under low vacuum conditions like open throttle to allow more pressure on the injectors so more volume of fuel flows through the injectors. Under high vacuum it should choke down the pressure as there isn't much volume needed to idle the engine.

 

Yeah last time it happened I was actually driving. I pulled over and I could only check the fuel pump because I didn't have Torx bits to unscrew the relay cover. The fuel pump seemed to work fine. It buzzed for about 5 seconds and then shut off like it should. After a few times it started so I couldn't check the relay. I guess I just have to wait until the next time it dies before I can check the relay.

 

After one incident, I just removed the screws and left them out just in case what you described ever happened to me. The lid will stay in place just fine for the most part without them. I just wouldn't drive through a ton of rain or a car wash or something with them out.

Of course, now that the relay is replaced I felt comfortable screwing them back in and leaving the screw driver at home.