Hi all, haven't been on for a while because my car has been running just fine. Until today!

I moved it this morning about 20 feet so my girlfriend could get her car off the drive and it started and ran fine. But when I got in it this evening, it started but didn't want to run properly, so I turned it off and tried again and nothing!

Now the battery is not in the best of condition and was about to be replaced. But because it's night time in the good old UK, I haven't done too much investigating as yet but, at the moment I'm thinking fuel starvation (fuel pump at a guess), although a bad battery will also do a worn fuel pump no favours.

I charged the battery for an hour, turned the ignition on and thumped the bottom of the fuel tank. It started andran on all five, although it didn't want to rev or tick over. So tomorrow I'll get a new battery for it and try again.

does anyone think that an old and ineficient battery would cause a worn fuel pump to not work very well? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

 

The battery might mess with it at start up. But once the car is running as long as the Alt. is charging good then it would be fine.

 

Right, I've spent a little time on the old girl this morning and I have got fuel getting to the engine! I took the schraeder valve out of the end of the injection rail, turned the ignition on and hey presto, fuel.
Next I took all of the spark plugs out and yep, all five of them are wet with fuel, so a lack of spark seems to be the problem. I'm guessing a sensor is down somewhere, but which one? That's why I'm on here..
Whilst I am here, I noticed an electricalcomponentattached tothe air intake pipe between the MAF sensor and the throttle body that continues to buzz for quite a while after the ignition has been switched off. What is it and should it continue to run?

 

Are you sure it isn't the throttle body buzzing?
Do you have another key to the car?
I wonder if it is the Immoblizer stopping the car from running.

 

Ok thanks for spending the time to try and help me out TechBut I finally solved the problem.
I started off by checking all of the ignition related electrical components, all checked out fine. Then I started to get mechanical, first thing was timing belt condition and timing, it was only replaced 10k miles ago so it should be ok and indeed it was.
Next thing on the list was a compression check and low and behold, three cylinders had almost no compression!
Now given that it ran perfectly on Saturday and again yesterday when I moved it and that the timing belt is in good condition and perfectly timed, I was pretty sure that there were no serious mechanical issues. So I fitted a new battery and cranked the engine, it spluttered and started, fired on all five but not very well. So I kept it running and when it warmed up it cleared and all was well. I figuredsome of the valves werehydraulically locked, a condition I've heard of but never experienced. Next job was to flush the engine using flushing oil (I did this four times before I was draining clear oil)!
So now with fresh oil and filter in the engine, it runs and performs better than it ever has since I bought it.
On speaking to my local Volvo dealer, this has been known to happen to 850s and 70 series cars when either oil changes aren't performed when they should be, or cheap oil is used especially on higher mileage cars (mine has 162000 miles on the clock)!
So once again, thanks for taking the time to help me.

 

No problem glad it is all ok now!!!