Greetings to all,

I posted a message a few weeks back regarding a cold start/idle problem on a 1984 Volvo 244 Turbo.

Symptoms:

When cold the car would simply refuse to start. Starter would turn, engine would crank and spin up for a second [rev up to 1500 rpm and then instantly stall]. Repetitive starts would allow the engine to stay running a little bit longer, and studder and putt before stalling. Eventualy, after 5 or 6 starts it would turn over and idle up and down 1500-almost stall-1500-almost stall. It would do this for about 30 sec and then poof idle is 1000rpm and stable ...

Electrical testing revealed a failing relay. [Fuel pump relay] The relay has an input for battery voltage, and the relay has two seperate outputs. One goes to the fuel pump stuff, the other gives power to the Lambda Sond system + freq. valve + a few other little goodies. This contact was intermittent in the relay and prevented power from being applied to the LambdaSond ECU + the related components. At first the voltage was completly off, then after a few clicks of the coil it got a high resistance connection and applied ~10 volts to the ECU, etc..

Once the fuel pump relay was replaced [$58] the problem went away!