1995 volvo 850 wagon - recently changed battery - since then (co-incidental?) engine cuts out when driving - car won't restart. Let it stand 10-15 minutes - starts - but may cut out again.

 

Next time when it dies, ck for spark and fuel pressure at the fuel rail (not at the same time please.... )

 

Violetta,
Mine did the same and it turned out to be the fuel pump.

 

Great line!!

 

I would like to know what brand of battery you've installed.

I would also pull codes to see what is giving you the trouble.

How old is your alternator? The average life of the Bosch OEM alternator seems to be approx 10-12 years/120,000-140,000 miles.

No-start/engine quitting during cruise can be due to a number of reasons:

- Faulty fuel pump
- Faulty fuel pump relay
- Faulty CPS (Cam Position Sensor)
- Faulty ECT (Engine Coolant Temp) sensor
- Faulty TPS (Throttle Position Sensor)
- Etc...

Note, that when you replace a battery, the new battery must be fully charged or it could sometimes fry the alternator.

See attached FYR.


JPN

 

Had the exact same issue with my 940. Turned out to be the power stage. I do not see the exact same type of unit on my 850 so maybe someone could confirm if the 850 has a similiar power stage->coil arrangement.

 

Thank you so much for the information - this is ridiculous but the car went in to the mechanic on Tuesday - couldn't find a thing - it was driven, stopped (by him deliberately!) many times, restarted etc - did not miss a beat. I have been driving it yesterday and today and still all well.

 

I have a bad feeling about the alternator. How many miles does your 850 have on the odo? If it's past 120,000 mark, I would consider getting a rebuilt Bosch alternator (not cheap but better than being stranded; approx $230 with core charge; I got mine at Pep boys).

Also, since your 850 is of '95, you can retrieve fault codes manually by yourself; no special tools/testers are needed. If you like to give it a try, let me know.


JPN

 

For what it's worth, my '94 850 had exactly the same symptoms, and it turned out that replacing the CPS fixed it ... a relatively easy do-it-yourself job.

The camshaft position sensor cost around $150 as I recall, so I bought it and put it in without being sure that would fix the problem ... luckily it did. Someone somewhere had mentioned that at around 130,000 miles this could be the problem, and my 850 was at 135,000.

As noted above, several different problems might cause the same result ...