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I don't know if anyone has ever had this problem with a turbo 850 not starting, but I thought it was not an obvious solution, so I felt it was worth rehashing.
It sat for a week,in my garage in Virginia. The last nite, I pulled it out so I could drive it to work the next morning. Well, that nite at my house, it got down to 24 F (that's cold as a witches t!t here). When I went to start it in the morning, no dice. I just assumed it was the battery, so I took my other car took the office and figured I could jump it in the afternoon.
Ok, so I get home from work, try to jump it, no dice. Hmmm. I've got juice in the battery, as my lights come on. I can hear the starter chugging along nicely, engaging the flywheel. I borrow my neighbor's plug in charger, and try to give the battery some extra juice (as it's 4 years old). The battery won't take a charge, and the charger, clips, and cables got really warm. Uh-oh.
So I'm thinking maybe the starter solenoid isn't getting enough current. I'm getting desperate at this point, so out comes the hammer for some love taps on the starter, maybe it will loosen up some crud and corrosion enough to get more current to it. I'm not about to strip the car down to get at it, as I replaced it 4 years ago and that was a PITA job with my buddy helping.
Still no start. I check the coil and spark plug wires, they are all sparking. Maybe I have no fuel? I check the fuel pump fuse, it's intact. My neighbor says pump the gas pedal while you start it. While I was scared to do this, I was really desperate. So I try this, after 5 seconds, nothing, 10 seconds, nothing, 15 seconds, nothing. 20 seconds, and there's some rumbling from the engine, like it almost wants to turn over. Then I see the tach rev to 2 grand, before it conks out. Dam it!
So maybe it isn't getting enough fuel. When did I change the fuel filter last? Well, I've owned the car for 75,000 miles, and never done it, so ostensibly, it's more than that :). I pull off the old filter (which compared to a NA engine, is huge, the size of a foster's can). [I didn't bother to relieve the pressure from the system, but I did disconnect the battery] Both hose are dry, but the filter had about 12 oz. of fuel in it, dripping out clean. I hook up the new filter, start the car while flooring the gas, and after 20 seconds, she springs to life. A 20 minute italian tune up and she runs like a top.
As a side note, the radio, which hasn't worked in years, now works. Didn't know they ran on gas too.
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'96 855 Wagon, 200k (and formerly 97 850, 120k)
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