Hello, wondered if someone wants to make a guess why my car started after being parked outside today, nose down, approx 25-30% slope w engine below gas tank?

Today I had to get the Volvo out of the garage so they could put in a new garage door, and after being parked outside, nose down, the engine kicked over and started. It was outside about 6-8 hours in that nose down position. The only "troubleshooting" I did was to once again take the 25amp bayonet fuse out of the engine firewall mount and clean it, about the sixth time I've done it.

Drove the car around about 45min, no problems, battery charge up, and I wondered if there is a check valve in the rear (in-tank) fuel pump, the relay behind the passenger's sidewall, or front fuel pump--between bad eyes, lousy reading glasses and frustration I didn't find check valves in the Bentley manual. If the system loses prime over time with check valve on verge of failure, where do I look for it and how to I dx the incipient failure?

Car has almost 198000 miles and front and rear fuel pumps are original to best of my knowledge.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, 240guy


Back in June people like LUCID and PAGEDA made lots of suggestions about how to diagnose my car's turning over but not starting. I got the Bentley blue service Manual, Bentley Stock No. L293, ISBN 0-8376-0285-8 LoC CC# 93-72726 and worked awkwardly thru the troubleshooting diasnostic tree since you really need two people--one to try to diagnostic step and the other to see if there is a spark, if fuel flows etc.