Hi,
I have a "M" reg 850 se estate, for a while now, it has been runing rel bad from start-up to when it is fully warmed up, it always starts from cold, but runs rich straight away, it pulls okay with my foot down but is lumpy on light trottle, it "hunts" when ticking over and serges from about 900 rpm to almost stalling and back again, I only drive about two miles to work along a straight clear road most mornings but if I hit traffic then mostly it will stall but starts again not to bad, but still runs lumpy, as I get to work it is running bad and will stall in between gears if i'm not carefull at best when I park at work the engine hunts and runs lumpy.
When it is fully warmed up it seems to run okay Cheers Steve.

 

A couple of things when was the last tune up?Is the check engine light on?Has this problem just started?Have you had any work done lately?

 

Hi thanks for the reply,

It's not been tuned and the engine light has never come on!!!

In case it is not obvious, I would like to do as much on the car as I can as I have worked on my own cars for ever. A while after I purchased the car this problem became obvious and as it is my first volvo I was unsure what was wrong, so I ask my pet mot garage if they could plug it into a computer and read the faults to see what was wrong rather than me guessing, and the said they had a chip or pod so that they could read the faults. In fact they did not plug it into a computer, they read the codes under the bonnet.

Later I got a call from them to say it was either the lamder senser or the temp probe, it was up to me but, they were going for the lamder well - £130 plus fitting £30 and it was no better, but apparently was ok on the exhaust emmision test but this was when hot.

They then said they would have another look and ended up changing the temp probe for a used one and tested the resistance in a kettle as it warmed up before fitting it, still no better.

My local volvo dealer will want £75 an hour so I would what to do as much as I can first.

I've seen that a temp gauge would cost around £17, any idea where to go for it?

Are there any other jobs I can do first?

Cheers Steve

 

I would try doing the simple stuff first.Tune up fuel filter regular maintiance stuff first.The temp sensor is pretty easy to replace to.You might want to try to relpace the o2 sensors also.
http://www.troublecodes.net/Volvo/
This link tells you how to pull codes so you can look your self.

 

Thankyou again,

Just to check, as stated above, i've had the lamder senser in changed, is this the O2 senser or is it somthing else.

Cheers Steve

 

That is another name for the o2 sensor.