Subject: Sudden stalling
Date: Mon, 05 Aug 2002 12:22:34 -0400
From: pabloantoine
To: ozbrick

I have an '86 740 GLE and a '95 850 GLT, both normally aspirated.
I read all the posts about Sudden Stalling and I noticed that nobody
checked the item that was the culprit for the same problem on my 740 GLE
several years ago. CHANGE THE FUEL FILTER! See if muddy gasoline is
flowing out of the old one. If it is, there you are.

I had experienced absolutely the same stalls, with engine starting
without problems in 1-2 minutes, sometimes stalling at highway speed and
restarting (very scary though). I tried to diagnosticate in every way
and the mechanics always proposed something new. Up to that moment I had
been proposed to change relays, module (!), ignition components etc.
Thank God they were all so expensive I always postponed -hoping that
these stalls would become more "explicit"
Eventually the stalls became so frequent that I had a good chance they
will repeat with a mechanic. And it happened!
A honest mechanic told me that it feels like fuel starvation and
proposed to change the fuel filter to begin with and let me drive for a
while to see if the stalls happen again- a cheap item and a common sense
operation.

We noticed immediately that the car still had the original Volvo filter,
after 80k miles and 11 years of life! When he removed the filter there
was something like mud flowing out... The car never stalled again with a
new fuel filter.

I cannot guarantee this is 100% your solution, but is 100% common sense
to begin with before any further $ operations.

Pabloantoine