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thank you all who replyed to my ealryer post:
http://brickboard.com/RWD/index.htm?id=832826
but things are worse then we thought, today after i read everyones kind words
we went out to check on the car and NOW THE BATTERY IS DEAD! compeletly dead i tell you!! when you unlock the drivers side door the other door locks dont even pop up anymore!! and the clock stopped!! someones got to help us!! I need someone in the san diego area who will come look at it fast! for little or no cash at all,
we just need someone who knows what there doing to come and JUST TELL US WHATS WRONG!! please!!!!! someone in my neighborhood will make sure its towed away soon i just know it, in my neighborhood you cant leave a car sitting for longer then 3 days and weve pushed it to other spots on my block but people are starting to figure it out...one more clue...the week before it quit completly, it drank up a full reservor of anti-freeze in one day! I went back and checked on it the next day and i had to refill it, it was empty!
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If it drank up all your coolant and you can't find ny hose leaks, you could have a cracked head. We had a cracked head in our 91 744 NA and it didn't really perform differently until a few weeks after we noticed the coolant loss. Then it started running so badly that my mom had to hold it at 4000 RPMs to keep it from dying on the freeway. But we didn't have any loss of battery power so I think you have multiple problems on your hands. Check the head for cracks if you have the resources to do so.
Good luck,
Eamon
--
'Where's your common sense?' 'It left me when I was 5' http://members.sounddomain.com/ladeadhead
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posted by
someone claiming to be j
on
Fri Jul 30 05:11 CST 2004 [ RELATED]
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I live in Pt. Loma. Where are you at in San Diego?
Would be glad to look at it for no charge if your in the area.
Joe
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Hey cool i dont live to far from you, i live in north park, near alice berney elementry and hilcrest..
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posted by
someone claiming to be j
on
Fri Jul 30 10:04 CST 2004 [ RELATED]
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Email me at jward@videosimplex.com and we can arrange a time. Saturday morning would be good for me.
Joe
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Without getting into the entire list of what could be wrong, the battery dying is an immediate concern you can do something about.
Options:
1- remove your battery and charge it with a battery charger, either a small "trickle" charger or a bigger 10A, 20A, 50A+ unit
2- charge the battery using jumper cables from another car. Do this with at least one of the battery cables disconnected on your car. You need just a 10mm wrench to disconnect a terminal.
3- buy a new battery. For about $70, you can rule out this as a problem. They come fully charged. If the car is killing the battery, you may have to temporarily unhook one battery cable each time the car is parked, then reconnect to start it and run it. This at least gives you time to figure out the problem without having to deal with a dead battery as well.
Chances are, something is left on, or less likely but still possible, something is shorted out. Make sure the ignition switch isn't sticking- they do that on these cars. If somethign like the power locks is staying on, pull the fuse for it until you can troubleshoot that separately from everything else. It's probably something dumb like someone left the glovebox open or the trunk light on.
Then, once it's turning over normally again, you can proceed with further diagnosis of your dead car. This is probably a minor issue compared to that.
Good luck.
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 230K, 88 744GLE- 220K, 82 245T-181K Also responsible for the care and feeding of: 88 745GLE, 231K, 87 244DL, 239K, 94 855GLT 189K
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It's probably something dumb like someone left
the glovebox open or the trunk light on.
this is possible but we usually remember to turn everything off when we leave the car for the night, i mean i actually turn around as im walking away from it to make sure i didnt miss anything..lol..i am hearing you out on the trunk light theory, and usually that light you have to turn on yourself when you open the trunk,its harder for us to get the thing to even turn on.. does it not turn off when you close the lid? i can have my dad jump the battery, how do i do that? you said disconnect one connection right? and then what try to start the car? or just let the running car sit next to the not running car for a while would that charge it?
and if so how long should we have the other car connected to our car to give it a good charge?
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a whole res of antifreeze? any leaks anywhere? before it stopped starting, did you notice a lot of white smoke coming from your car's exhaust?
--
Kenric Tam
1990 Volvo 740 base sedan (B230F)
My Volvo 'Project'
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yup a whole res, well you could see it wayyy down in there but it was almost gone..we never noticed anything leaking from the car (cause i always check that) we never noticed white smoke(billowing or over wise) but then again i didnt think there was a proublem that needed to be checked on in that department, the car ran fine the whole time. well besides the fact that for about a full week it was eating anti-freeze like it was something to do. I refiled everytime (which was about a couple times and topped off once), we would be able to get it going and drove it around for a while thinking whatever it was would kinda fix itself, then a few days later it just wouldnt start at all no matter what we did. It seemed like if we let it sit over night the proublem would take over again and we'd be back to square one(no start) for no apparent reason. I checked all fluid levels and they were good,eccept anti-freeze would be alittle lower then it was before(this is after the anti-freeze bindge)
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I can tell you right off that unless you have a hose leak, it is not going
to be "little or no cash". One of the reasons why it is nice to have one
or two oldtimers around so you can drive one while you fix the other one at
a leisurely pace.
Or as Aesop said, "It's not wise to put all your eggs in one basket."
--
George Downs, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Central US
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"one or two oldtimers around so you can drive one while you fix the other one at
a leisurely pace."
Well beings that im a teenager and my mom doesnt have a car, only my dad and there divorced and he lives far, i kinda cant do that...not everyone has two or more cars in there drive way, not everyone can afford that.I drive my family around in it, pick up groceries for my mom and all. i still live at home. My dad knows only older outdated cars hes not really any help..he tried to take a look but all he knew how to do was test for a spark with a screw driver and he got shocked..i just need someone to tell me whats wrong, i could proubly get my mom and dad to pay for someone to look at it but thats slim.My mom would be willing to pay for a repair but shes not willing to pay to find out what the proublem is, so im stuck..
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You are in a tough spot. I am about 1500 miles away so I can't give you
any help on either the car or much of anything personal, although I am MOST
grateful that my parents waited until I was 30 years old before they divorced.
But I have done what I can for you. I took your problem to the Lord and asked
him to bring someone into your life who can really give you some help and
will tell you the truth on the basis of real knowledge, not just guesses
(like we sometimes have to do on the Brickboard). I'll be eager to hear
how your problems (electrical and cooling) are resolved and maybe any others
too.
--
George Downs, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Central US
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I am no teenager anymore, but i still must ask myself....'how can you possibly afford NOT to have at least two vehicles?' Unless of course you have one where a loaner car is part of the warrantee...way out of my price range.
Here is what I would do for the least possible dollars to see what is up with your car.
Charge the battery, I use jumper cables and another car.
Using a vice grip(if you can olnly afford one tool this is it), or even better a star or allen wrench, loosen the outlet line of the main (under the car) fuel pump.
Turn the key on for amoment, fuel should go everywhere, dont be smoking.
If there is NO fuel mess the pump(s) are dead or not getting power. You can check this by wiring a taillight bulb in instead of the fuel pump. if it lights up withthe key on the problem is in the pump.
IF you DO have fuel, unclip the airflow meter from the air filter, and douse the filter with fuel(starting fluid, carb cleaner, gasoline,etc) reconnect the AFM, and immediately try to start the car. it should sputter and or run for a minute if you have compression and spark.
If it runs, you need to figure out why the injectors are not being triggered.
If it wont run, your timing could be way out, likely with the timing belt, or the rotor is loose on its shaft, or you may have a major mechanical problem.
Of course none of this will help if there is no gas in the tank. NEVER assume the guage is right, even if it worked yesterday. You wouldnot beleive the number of cars I've seen mysteriously stranded by an empty tank. I'd put in two gallons if there is any doubt.
Have fun and stay safe. Using some variation of the proceedure I've outlined, I am often able to diagnose no starts in under 10 minutes, but that comes with practice. Let us know what you find.
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I am no teenager anymore, but i still must ask myself....'how can you possibly afford NOT to have at least two vehicles?' Unless of course you have one where a loaner car is part of the warrantee...way out of my price range.
Because.. at least in California cars are really expensive.
Registration is a pain.. but the smog checks are rediculous. We just got the new dyno tests in my area. So everyone's amortizing their new spendy smog equipment. $80-$100 smog checks are the norm.
Gas is expensive. $2.30/gal is not unheard of for 87AKI gas. And unlike in many parts of Europe, most of that money goes straight to the oil companies.
Insurance is expensive. $500/yr is a lot to me. More-over most companies will profile people.. and the lower income areas tend to pay the most for car insurance (again, around here).
This angers me a bunch, because public transportation is such a mess.
I am extremely greatful to my friends and family for having a few cars that I can borrow between them. But keeping a second car around was prohibitively expensive.... andyet.. I'm still eyeing project cars. *SIGH*.
--
alex
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'how can you possibly afford NOT to have at least two vehicles?'
Thats easy be poor..lol.. no all kidding aside really "the cab" was given to my boyfriend and i, by my his well to do mom. If it were not for her we would have no car at all, my family and i really cant afford a car. Im surprised we've been able to keep this car running as long as we have, the only car my mom had broke a head gasket on the way back from a trip to huntington beach at 3 in the morning..about six years ago. She hasnt been able to afford a car since,(secretly though she hasnt really been looking) she works to pay the bills and keep a roof over my head, anything more then that is considered extra to her and not worth it. We are just humble volvo owners who try to do everything we can for the car, "the cab" has been with us through thick and thin,emergencies,fun times with friends,everything you can think of..we have so many memories in the cab, and we will not give up on it. No matter what the price, we would like to bring our first born baby home in it, when that day does come, we wont our volvo to live to see that day..and it is because of this that we do all we can for cab even though right now we are low on cash, i know that this is not the end of the cab...
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Thank you soooo much i will try all the things you suggested first thing in the morning, see? we have allll those tools i just needed to know WHAT and how to do it. we have two vise thingys, wire cutters and wire strippers, and tons of screwdrivers and socket wrenches...again thank you, i have been panicing this whole month because the car hasnt been working, i was thinking this might be the end of our cabs (the cars name)life. lol.
Thanks so much, and volvo for life to you and yours
Dara H.
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