so my friend was driving his 2000 s40 1.9t when all of a sudden the engine cut out on him. the car will not start anymore. the engine turns over, but it wont start. we've tested the battery and it seems good and you can hear the fuel pump start up. we then started to test to see if it was getting a spark. all the spark plugs have less then 5k miles on them. one of the plugs that is connected via the slave connector (not sure what its actually called, but there are two direct ignition coils and two rubbery boot things that feed off the two main coils), wasn't really sparking, so we replaced those boot things. now when we try to start it we are getting the dark black new looking hose with the gold fitting in the picture blowing off from pressure and a small amount of smoke coming from the drivers side headlight area, kinda under/in front of the battery tray. (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_NE...it?usp=sharing)

im not really familiar with volvos and don't currently have any access to any type of Haynes, Bentley or whatever manuals are popular for these car either, so any help in figuring out what's going on with his car and what to try next would be greatly appreciated.

thanks in advanced.

 

I would remove the upper timing belt cover on the passenger side of the engine to check if the timing belt is intact and tight. If it's broken or very loose you have bent valves. That would explain the no start and smoke behind the headlight.

Should look like this. If it's intact and tight then check the timing marks on both cams:

 

thanks for the reply Hudini. i am going to go look at the car again today, so ill give the timing belt a check and see that everything is tight and properly aligned. if memory serves the part of the belt i could see looked fresh and taunt.

I had pulled some pending codes after i had made the OP, and they were for the CPS, ignition coil A, and the CAT. cleared them and none of them came back. no idea if they were old or not, and there was no CEL on at the time.

i had also started to do a compression test but the first two cylinders i tried (4 and 3) were showing absolutely 0 psi, not even the slightest hint of pressure, so i figured the tester i rented from autozone was broken and put that on hold till i could go get another one i knew to be working. and now that i think about it, he had mentioned that he had heard some knocking/clunking sounds for a bit before the motor gave out on him. more evidence toward a bent valve.

anything else i should be checking out if the timing belt and timing marks all check out? I mean there are so many directions to go with this, CPS, ignition coils, fuel pressure, bent valves, etc. and I don't want to have him just trowing money at things that might not need fixing or scaring him unnecessarily on speculating what might be wrong, so any direction/order on things to do would be greatly appreciated.

thanks again!

 

I agree with you. Test first, then replace if needed. This is an interference engine. The compression test will tell you if you have internal damage. My 2001 timing belt slipped due to oil from a leaking CVVT gear and bent 8 exhaust valves. No compression confirmed damage.

Check fuel pressure too. Hearing the pump run is good but not 100% certain. We have a known issue of long cranking times due to a bad fuel pressure regulator. Another issue is the IAC going bad. Symptoms include having to crack open the throttle a bit to start the engine then having to hold the throttle to make it idle.

I've never heard of the ignition system causing a no-start just misfires and poor acceleration.

Watch for oil leaking out of here and down to the timing belt. It should be clean and dry:

 

well took a look at it yesterday and was a good amount of oil on the timing gear and belt and really that whole area. when i was doing the compression test i could see the belt jumping up and slipping as it was cranking. rented a different compression tester from a different autozone and it too showed 0 psi on all 4 cylinders. so unless there is something magically different about how to do a compression test on volvos compared to my m3 im guessing a bent valve or two in each of the cylinders... so not good news for my friend.

hudini what did you end up doing with yours when it bent those 8 valves? rebuild ? and if so was it worth it, or would he just be better off trying to cut his losses and look at getting another car?

 

I rebuilt the head because it was the best option for me. I have tools and a garage so it was a matter of ordering parts and doing the work myself. The cost will be in the $500-$1000 range in parts. The car became my then 16 year old daughter's daily driver. She will drive it now until she graduates from college in 4 (fingers crossed) years.

You can see that it's not for everybody to rebuild. It's an old car. Things break. The 2000 model was kind of an odd year car with a different suspension and motor mounts than later 2001-2004 cars. If you pay someone to do the work it's going to be a few days worth of labor. Might be a good time to upgrade.