Hello,

Just to begin, I'm a little new to the whole Volvo scene with some mechanical and technical knowledge, but not much experience.

I have a 1987 240 DL with 95000 miles on it, and lately it has been running terribly. It frequently stalls when in stop and go traffic, when coming to a stop. It will run rough, then the oil pressure light will come on, then it will stall and all the lights on the dash will light. 90% of the time I will slip it into neutral and restart it, and it will turn over after about half a crank, very quickly and easily. I then usualy put it back into drive and go on unitl it stalls again. The car runs almost perfectly if I keep it moving, but once I come to a stop it will either run very rough and jump back and forth, or just completely die out.

After it stalls, the other 10% of the time, the car won't crank right back up, but will if I crank the starter and then put the gas pedal to the floor. This is very similar to a problem that occurs when starting the car to leave somewhere. It won't turn over no matter how much you crank. I then attempt to crank and floor it, and sometimes that doesn't work. In the worst case, I must wait 5-10 minutes, then crank it, then floor it while cranking, and it will start up. Sometimes when I go to crank it (before flooring it), I immediately get a gassy smell, as if the engine has instantly flooded.

We have taken this car to three separate mechanics, and have had the fuel filter replaced, spark plugs/wires checked out/replaced, 25 amp under the hood fuse replaced, air filter replaced, distributor checked, looks new, and none of this made a difference to the stalling problem.

I came on these boards several times and was almost positive it was the fuel pump relay "dropping out". I charged the battery once, and it seemed to get rid of the stalling problem, but when it returned, I charged the battery (which didn't need much of a charge) and it stalled three times the next time I drove it. I then pulled out the relay, all ready to resolder/replace, being sure it was that, but when I pulled it out, it looked perfect, even new, even when looked at under a magnifying glass. Therefore, it was not this. I'm thinking it might be something with the alternator.

I am also getting pretty terrible gas mileage (around 16 or 17 mpg), and I think this is related to the other problems. I'm beginning to look toward the fuel pressure regulator, but am unsure on the exacts of this part (location, function, etc.).

One last symptom: Occasionally when I go to start off from a stop and hit the gas, nothing will happen, then gradually the power will come and run normally. Often, when this happens it will stall, and I will have to floor it to start it back up.

This problem is becoming very annoying and frustrating, mostly becuase of how intermittent it is and the fact that most of time after it stalls the car will immediately restart. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Jeremy.