I've been experiencing many of the same starting problems that have been discussed on the board for the last few months. Usuallly the problem happens when driving for short distances to go to the grocery or another errand. Return from the store, and guess what, the car will not start.

All right - I've replaced the battery. A couple weeks ago, I had the car checked at the shop and they can't seem to figure it out. But they did replace the Transmission Position Switch, believing that to be the culprit. I disagreed with them because from what I understand if that is malfunctioning, then the car won't even turn over? Regardless, last night the car wouldn't start again. I gave the shop a list of things to check including the ignition wires (which they said were fine), distributor cap and plugs.

I've been reading a lot about the Mass Airflow (MAF) Sensor and the quick test to see if that is causing the problem. My question is: where is this located on my 94 850 Turbo wagon? And what do I disconnect?

Any other thoughts on this?

CMS

Volvo Crank Position Sensors are available on eBay for @$65.00 US.
Short trips, (where you shut off the car and try to restart within a few minutes and the car won't restart) are most likely due to a faulty CPS.
Looking for info on how to replace mine as I have a similar problem.

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Imagine all the people...

Had the same problem and my fix was a new fuel pump.

the first thing to work out is if your getting sparks or not.....see the RWD faq for wrapping a lead round a spark plug lead witha neon bulb to detect spark without having to remove anything!

if your getting spark but no start then your left with fuel delivery or compression issues...if its cranking over fast..then you can also disregard duff batterys etc (they would crank slowely).....

fuel delivery is more difficult to check without pulling injectors...but after you have cranked it over for a bit go to the tail pipe and sniff it..do you smell petrol (strongly) if its getting fuel then you should get a fair old wiff of petrol...

I have once had the stickly lifter scenareo ...but only if it turnde the car over,,,fired it up then shut it down....what oil are you using....thicker oil would make it worse i would think....

doesi t make any attempt to fire (coughs etc) or is it absolutley nothing?...

perhaps with the answers to these simple diagnosis we might offer further suggestions (and you HAVE changed the distributor cap/rotor arm havent you...)

Does the engine turn over and not start or just not turn over? If it turns over I would suspect the crank position sensor. You seem to be having the same problem I had when mine went bad. If it doesn't turn over it could be the ignition switch.

Indeed the engine does turn over ... and over and over and over.

Crank position switch. What kind of cost and time is required to repair this?

CMS

Check the connectors on the cam positionig sensor, mine had a bad contact. a litle WD40 did it work

ahh about $100 for the sensor, 10 mins to fit it.

Mine was about $50 six months ago? Relatively easy to replace but some folks have had a problem with access to the connector and the seal leaking afterwards. Just be careful and you shouldn't have any problems. No alignments or timing adjustments needed. Just bolt it in!!

If your problem only happens on short journeys, then it is likely to be the sticky valve syndrome. I.E., cold thick oil is keeping the valves open resulting in poor compression and not baing able to start.
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Tek

We had the same problem and it drove us crazy. My wife refused to drive the car anymore as it would strand her randomly in many places (even on the bay bridge in San Francisco!!). Found finally a mechanic who was willing to keep it in his shop for almost a month and test drive it daily. We changed the battery, ignition switch, starter and the problem would persist. Finally, it turned out to be the alarm relay, which when changed took care of the problem to this day. So you may want to check the alarm system. The problem would happen irrespective of whether the alarm would be on or off prior to the car failing to start.
good luck