Hi everyone, I have a 96 850 turbo that I am in love with. Yesterday while driving I felt a slight hesitation every mile or 2. I had purchased new ignition wires that same morning and thinking that this was just ironic, I got a check engine light after feeling more of that hesitation I mentioned. I pulled into an advance auto parts and decided to replace my wires with of course my new bougicord wires and clear whatever misfire code I was getting I actually had more going on than I expected. First code was, manufacturer ignition control or misfire. After that it was random cylinder misfire detected and after clearing all codes and replacing wires, the car is undriveable it boggs like crazy, itsmisfiring worse. Still same codes but manufacture control one comes on twice. I'm thinking new coil and plugs, knowing the ignition control module is part of the coil. Any suggestions would b greatly appreciated. Also if anyone is available to help, I'm in Orlando, FL. Thanks in advance.

 

I had two similar experiences, but I do not remember if the CEL came on. In both incidents the cause was me. When I first bought my 1995 850 GLT I unwittingly put 87 octane gas in it. The car ran like crap the next day and continued that way until I ran out the tank and replaced it with 93 octane. My fault. I discovered that my 850 will not tolerate low octane gas. The next incident was my fault again. I had the tank filled with 93 octane and decided I would add fuel injector cleaner to clean out the fuel injectors. Again the car ran awful. Before you spend more money replacing parts ask yourself if you did what I did. If I went by the diagnostic codes I would have replaced a lot of parts unnecessarily.

 

edwardh: you sure you got the plug wires on correctly? If so, start cking the basics: compression, fuel pressure, etc.

NCdad: if you car won't run on 87 octane there's something wrong; does it ping really bad? If so, knock sensors are not working...

 

+1 and +1 . . .

edwardh; check your MAF, too. If you unplug it and the car idles better, clean it or replacce it.

 

gdog, I could have explained this better. The owner's manual states my Volvo performs best with 91 octane but will run on 87 octane. We do not have 91 octane for sale in North Carolina. The AKI (anti knock index) octane ratings are calculated differently form state to state. For instance, here they sell 87-89 and 93 octane gas. I do know that other states rate the same gas as 85-87 and 91 octane. Thus my car will not run well on 85 octane. I wish that the octane ratings were uniform throughout the USA, and I wish that it were based on 85-87 and 91 formula. My engine has never pinged at all. It runs as smooth as a purring cat, and has a really cool sound when it revs up unlike other cars I owned.