I have 1998 S-90. Lately, I've been noticing the car surging just a bit (RPM goes to about 1000, but comes right back).

Today, car started fine on my way home. Felt the car surge slightly again, but this time RPM was about 1100 with the car in gear going down my stree. Once stopped in driveway, I put the car in neutral and the RPM started going up. At 3500 RPM I shut the car down and would not start immediately after (cranks fine, but no start).

Any suggestions as to what may be wrong?

Have you done any maintenance recently on your car? I had (sort of) similar issue with my wife's S90 after I cleaned throttle body and flame trap. When I tried to reassemble everything to the original condition, I was not very careful with the throttle cable and it was stuck on the side of the throttle pulley. This caused some violent surging at idle and while coasting.

Raphael

Morning Raphael,

No, no maintenance within the last 5 months (except for oil changes). I started noticing the problem a few days ago. This morning I was able to start the car, but now I have a "Check Engine" light and the cooling fan runs continously as to where I have to either pull the fuse for the fan or disconnect the battery. The car is not running hot as I can touch the engine & cooling hoses (they don't seem abonormally hot).

Yeah, I remember now: I also got Check Engine light after my wife drove couple days around town with throttle cable stuck on the side of the pulley.

Well, since you have Check Engine light on, your troubleshooting can be simplified now. All you need is a Volvo scan tool that can retrieve the fault code stored in the computer. You can then check the fault code against the list of code in a volvo book to find out what part is giving you the trouble.

If you want to do it yourself, you need to have either a Volvo Scan Tool or a PC based software package with an OBD-II connector. You can buy Scan Tool from any Volvo dealer (big $$$) or from Volvo parts supplier like ipdusa.com. I went the other way and got myself PC based software that I can run on my laptop connected to the OBD-II port in my S90.

Another alternative is to find a shop that can retrieve the fault code for you. You would probably have to pay a little (or a lot?) for this service. (My Volvo dealer once retrieved the PNP fault code on my car and I had to pay $80. After that I decided I better get the code retriever myself.)

Find out the fault code number and post it here. Somebody on the board will most likely be able help you after that. Good luck

Raphael

Autozone will pull codes for free. Its part of their wide selection of tools that you can borrow. It even tells you what part you need or where the fault is coming from as well as a code number.

Brandon