Hi, I was driving my '98 S70 at steady freeway speed and the engine suddenly cut out. I coasted to a stop and the car wouldn't restart. There was plenty of gas and the temperature was normal.

Anyway, I had it towed home and I'm trying to fix the problem. The engine will turn over but won't start. My initial thought is that there is a problem with the fuel pump or the fuel pump relay. Has anyone else experienced this or have any suggestions?

PS: I apologize if this has already been discussed at length. I'm new here!

 

If your timing belt isn't broken, my guess would be fuel pump relay.
https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-...-stalls-55928/

And yes it has been discussed 1,000 times.

 

thanks for the reply rspi. I replaced the FPR and it didn't fix it so I took it to a local mechanic. Turns out it was... you guessed it, the timing belt! All the mechanic did was determine that the TB was broken, but he didn't remove the engine head / check for engine damage.

He gave me an (expensive) estimate that includes sending the head assembly to a machine shop to be repaired... and he tells me that if the pistons are damaged I'll need a new engine.

My question is, is there any possibility that it just needs a new timing belt? Or is it certain that there is engine damage? Keep in mind that I tried to start the car several times (stupid me) before and after replacing the fuel pump relay.

If it's just a timing belt replacement, I can do that. If an expensive engine repair is inevitable, then I may have to make a hard decision. I'm supporting myself through grad school right now so my budget is pretty tight.

Anyway thanks for your help!

 

Sorry man, these are interference engines; if the belt broke while running (or even while being cranked by the starter) at a minimum you got bent/broken valves. Your tech speaks the truth.

 

Man, I wish there was something easy that could be done. The sad thing is that so many people are driving around, not knowing that they have an old timing belt that is a time bomb, just waiting to pop and destroy the motor. Do you know when the belt was last replaced on that car? We like to know just in case it had premature failure. There is usually a sticker under the hood that says when it was last replaced. If you look in the front cover of the motor you can also see 2 rollers in there and the water pump. Sometimes a roller will come apart causing the belt to jump track. If that's the case you can see bearings in the area. Did the mechanic say why it broke?

Driving in excess of 40 mph would indicate that the motor rpm's were over 2,000. In that situation, chances are you may even have a piston or two damaged. Not sure what price the shop gave you but you are probably looking at $1,200+ from a shop.

If you get another one or this one fixed, you may want to take a look at the New Owner Questions in the 850 section. It tell a lot about how to keep these cars on the road.

 

Thanks again for the replies. The belt was replaced at 70k (current mileage is 118k) so it should have had some life left in it. I went back to the mechanic today to take a look for myself. The belt didn't really break... it looks more like it slipped off or one of the rollers came apart or something. Below is a photo of front cover. You can see how the belt chewed its way clean through around almost its entire path.



I was going about 80 when it happened so it sounds like there is most certainly significant engine damage. Anyway I decided it wasn't worth it to have it repaired due to the cost involved. Sad day for my poor car!

 

Sad indeed; that's a real bummer..

Would guess the tensioner or idler pulley let go..

 

Yeah that rusty res is definately some sort of bearing failure, in the future when doing a TB always do the tensioner and waterpump or it will come around on you.

 

@ kohalamtrd: As GDog said, a roller, tensioner or even the water pump come apart. 118,000 Miles on a 14 year old car is not bad at all. Chances are, when the belt was replaced they did the belt only and did not replace any of the rollers. That is normal proceedure, which is what I do unless the rollers are over 10 years old. I had a belt replaced on a 960 I picked up at 60,000 miles. About 27,000 miles later one of the rollers started squealing. When I pulled the belt at about 87,600, the idler was almost totally locked up, took 2 hands to turn it. The tensioner roller was spinning very freely as if it had no grease in it. Had it not been for the noise it would have broke and I would have been in the same shape. At the speed you were traveling I do imagine that the roller threw the belt into the cover.

Did you notice any squealing noise in the weeks before it happened? Did you notice if any of the rollers were busted, missing or seized when you looked at the car? (Just trying to see if you had any warning signs to help me and others).