About 3 months ago my 1986 245's mass air sensor died. car would start up but had no power. I limped it home, replaced the mass air sensor with a used one (both xxx xxx xxx 007)models from a local Volvo wrecking yard and all was well.

about a week ago the car died at about 65 MPH, had been having rough idle problems for a week or so before. when it died it was like I had turned the key off. no warning. would not start after that

I towed it home and over the last couple of days I have been troubleshooting it with help from parts from my wife's 93 240 and some from my local wrecking yard.

tried many different things to no avail. when trying to start it, it would cough (like it was flooded) but not start.

looooooooong story short...with the air sensor from my wife's 93 (xxx xxx xxx 020) in the 86 it will not start. coughh but won't start. If I run jumper wires to each of the injectors and manually "prime" the cylinders with a few seconds of fuel (using my jumper wires to trip the injectors for a few seconds each) and then try to start it with everything hooked back up, it will start (from the rich fuel I have forced into it) and will idle for as long as I want it to. It will not take throttle, however, which I attribute to the differences in the models of the air sensors (the 93 is an 020 and the one for the 86 is an 007). If I shut it off it will not start again until I use my jumper wires to manually prime the engine.

I went to my wrecking yard and bought another 007 sensor (untested) but it acts exactly as the one I have does. with the correct 007s in my 86, I can prime the cylinders and start the car. It will run until the raw fuel is gone and then die. it will not run after the priming like it will with the 020 air sensor from my wife's 93 in it.

At this point I suspect that both of the 007 mass airflow sensors are bad (both the one that was in the car when it dies and the unproven one I got at the junkyard.)

It will not, however, start unless I prime the injectors as described. back testing the two suspect sensors in my wife's 93 yeilds the following. The car will start but not run well and the check engine light comes on.

I'd like to be sure that the mass airflow sensor is the problem. I'm going to sell the car (running or not) so I'd like to make sure that the MAS is the ONLY problem before I try to buy another one.

any thoughts?