My turbo wagon had been sitting for two days in my driveway. I hopped in to got to the store, turned the key, it instantly started like it always does, and then died about one second later. Batteries hot, checked fuel pump fuse, refuses to start. Tried three or four times. Turns over but won't fire. Lifted the hood after third try, and heard a humming sound, even though the ignition was off, coming for under the plastic housing where the throttle cable goes. Took off the housing and saw it appeared to be coming from the constant idle speed motor, or whatever is cylindrical, about four inches long and an inch and a half in diameter. But as I stood there feeling the vibration and humming noise coming from it, it quit. Nothing. Disconnected the throttle valve connection and looked at the flat pins to see if any were corroded, and they weren't. Tried to start it again. Still a no-go. Desperately need to know where to look. I live out in the country and am miles and miles from a Volvo dealer. Is there an in-line fuse somewhere outside the regular fuse box I should be checking? Whatever could the cause be? Dick

FYI on ebay - Fuel pump relay/used. I have purchased from this party and they are quick and reliable. $16 & free shipping from Oregon.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/VOLVO-850-S70-V70-OE-FUEL-PUMP-RELAY-9434225-93-97-/280560056220?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4152aeb79c

Good morning, 'old' man. Well, is it the relay or the pump?

Klaus

Hi Klaus--finally got jump started this morning with a cup of nuked instant coffee, and then went out with my paper clip and jumpered 15 and 87. Wouldn't start initially, but I let it grind a bit and the rpms started to slowly come up and then it finally took off! What a relief!

I have only one other question--can I drive thirty or forty miles or so to my friendly Volvo dealer (or a junkyard) with the relay removed and only jumpered between the two terminals? I don't know what role terminals 31 and31b play.

Thanks again to all you BrickBoard enthusiasts out there who posted in response to my crisis! What a wonderful group of people! Dick

In case of accident or rollover, the relay will turn off the fuel pump. Same when the key is in posII and engine not running. That is what 31 and 31b are for, to communicate to the ECM.

Find a better wire than a paper clip if you are going to travel for 30 minutes or so. You don't want to hit a bump and have the clip fall out! A short section of 14/16 gauge house wire comes to mind.

What happened to you with the short start is it ran out of residual fluid in the rail. Your injectors are OK. Then it took a while to push the air out of the line and fill back up with fuel.

Order a new FP relay and keep on rolling.

Klaus

Ideally you don't want to leave it jumped, the relay puts the pump into different categories based on load/rpms. If it were me, I'd try the relay in again and see what happens. In my experience the relays don't just up and fail they tend to be intermittent, so I'd give you 50-50 odds on getting to the junkyard (the dealer is way, way, to expensive. If you want a new one, buy it online..) without problems. If the car stalls out you can always jump it..

Also, while it is unlikely that you have a failure elsewhere, if you have an multimeter (or an ohmmeter and a voltmeter..) you can check to verify its the FPR, at least as far as the pump not running goes... Ignition off, check the middle right terminal with the ground and it sould read 0 Ohm. Then use a voltmeter and check the middle left with the ignition in position II and it should show 4-5V.

Tmannian--I did put the relay back in a few minutes ago, turned the key to II and heard the fuel pump come on for about five seconds. Car started right up. Why, when I jumpered it with a paper clip, was it such a long and labored start up? Obviously, pressure had to build up. Why didn't the jumpered relay allow the pump to repressurize the fuel rail in just a few seconds? This car sat for two days without driving--very unusual given my driving habits. A leaky injector, letting the fuel rail bleed down? If so, why did it instantly start and then die? Residual fuel in the cylinders and no pressure in the fuel rail? If so, why didn't the fuel pump rebuild pressure after just a few seconds? Live gets complicated when you get past sixteen. Dick

Lets see, there's a chance it could just be a bad one-way valve letting fuel go back so it'd start based on whats in the rail then have nothing for a moment while pressure builds. Then again it would start after a few cranks if this is the case, or at least should.. You get a little air pulsing through the line when the fuel is coming back up, maybe it starved it for a second..

I doubt injector as i think that'd be responsible for longer starts, not quick start then death..

The way I understand it you turned the key as usual, it started as usual, a second or two later it died. You tried to restart, nothing.

I'd say leave the relay in, and if it shows back up, jumper it and finish your task. Usually with the relay it'll be dead for 5-10 minutes (turn engine off, leave off for that long) then come back to life. I haven't taken apart a broken one yet, but I should, to see what the usual culprit is. I have a feeling its just not generating enough strength to hold the arm close.. Relays have a fun time failing intermittently in my opinion.

Yours should have a manufature date on it and I'm willing to bet that its original era. The coding is ddmmyy, so for a 97 I wouldn't be surprise to see 130996 on one side of the relay..

Now let me ask you, did you pull out the plugs? They'll tell you a lot. If you have a leaky injector, one of your plugs should be darker then the rest. If its not starting and the plugs are soaked, you've got ignition issues instead of fuel.


Finally, don't you realize this all could be avoided if you drove your car every day :-)!

Hi Tmannion! Thanks for the quick update. Yes, the relay is undoubtedly OEM. I bought it with 49K on the odom. Will drive it, maybe even let it set for a couple of days, and see if it does it again. Will throw in a bottle of injector cleaner (Chevron's) just to be on the safe side ala injectors. I changed plugs 15K ago and didn't notice anything unusual. I'm still puzzled as to why it started, instantly died, and then wouldn't start. I tried about four times, even let it set for thirty minutes or so. What I did not do though, was let it crank for more than four or five seconds. When I jumpered it with the paper click I let it crank for about ten or fifteen seconds, long enough to hear the engine begin to pick up rpms, and so continued to let it crank until it slowly started. Had I done that, it probably would have responded with the relay in it. Nice to know the paper clip trick when you pull off somewhere on the Alcan Hwy and it won't start. Thanks again for your very helpful and quick advice! Dick

You're on the Alcan highway? Not fair. That adds you to the list of posters living where I'd love to be...

Drove up to Whitehorse this summer and loved the drive. Want to go back to finish it up (as well as the dalton highway up to Deadhorse, and whatever private road I have to finish on, to the Arctic).

Lets hope it is not the fuel pump! You were correct, the idle air control runs whenever the ignition is on and does take a while to turn itself off - no big deal.

Turn the key to pos II and listen for the fuel pump prime. If you do not hear the pump run for 1-2 secs, check the fuel pump relay #103 in the fuse box.

http://www.brickboard.com/AWD/index.htm?id=1265592

Otherwise, if the fuel pump does not run when jumped, you will need to take up the carpeting in the rear and open the left inspection cover and jiggle the wires to the pump.

Klaus

Klaus--thanks ever so much for your analysis. I took out the FPR, removed the cover, looked it all over carefully, did not see anything suspicious, ran some paper between the contacts and put it back in. Nada. How do you jumper it to make the fuel pump switch on? I turned the key to the II position, but couldn't hear anything like what you heard with the old 140s and 240s--a good loud humming for a couple of seconds. Don't know if the 850s are like that or not. I do not recall though hearing a fuel pump hum when I started it before, so maybe my hearing is starting to go. Likely, as I'm 71. Dick

Heck, i'm only 65! I put a link in the middle of my post to show you how to jump the relay. Use it.

Klaus
You can eliminate the fuel pump relay from consideration by jumpering it out of the circuit.

Remove the relay (#103) and look next to the pins in the base. Molded into the plastic you should see the numbers 31, 31b, 15, and 87. Fashion a jumper wire and jumper between the socket connections that correspond to pins 15 and 87. If the car fires right up your relay is bad. If it still doesn't run then you may or may not have a problem with the pump. The only way to tell for sure is with a fuel pressure gauge.

If the pump and regulator is working properly you should see 43.5 PSI at the end of the rail.

...Lee

Could be the fuel pump relay. Try giving it a couple of taps. It could have started with residual fuel in the system and quickly died without any pressure. Or if you're handy with a soldering iron take the relay cover off and touch up any connections that look like they made be cracked.