After filling up our 1999 s70 car turns over and starts but doesn’t get enough gas to keep going. This started 2 weeks ago, went to start the car and it wouldn’t start, realized it was very low or out of gas. I added about 3 gallons had a little trouble getting it started but assumed it was just due to low gas, got it to the station filled up and wouldn’t start again. After about 5 minutes of cranking it on the power fading out, me giving it gas, I was able to get it started. I decided to drive it 10-15 miles before turning it off just to get fuel back through the lines. It started fine until my son filled the tank with gas this week, he drove it 3 miles to school without trouble. When he went to leave school it did the same thing, turned over but not enough gas to keep it running. I was able to get it running after about 30 minutes of messing with it and drove it directly to the mechanic. I told him what was happening and got a call yesterday saying it was a security issue and the car was not recognizing the key. Does this sound right? Why is it not happening at other times? My mechanic is Volvo certified and I am sure he probably got a code saying that whatever the key thing is was an issue but I don’t feel like this will fix the problem. Thoughts?
A little history on the car we bought it off a family member who let it sit for years. It only has 38,000 miles on it so we spent $1000’s of dollars fixing everything we knew to be an issue and some things that we knew should be addressed just because it sat so long. One thing I am not sure if we did was empty/drain/clean out fuel tank. This was my first thought or a bad fuel pump. The car has been fixed up for about 6 months but was only driven on short trips about once a week until my son got his license about the time this started happening.

 

Sounds more like a fuel pump relay going bad. Try this ......buy a spray can of starting fluid and keep it in the car. Next time it dies or won't start spray some starting fluid it the air intake (removing the air filter and spraying a 2-3 second burst works well) then try to start it. If it starts and runs for a few seconds you have a fuel delivery issue. If it doesn't start you have a spark issue. Hope this helps.....