I've had a long suffering episode of my '88 740 wagon shutting down while driving. This is been going on for months and the episodes have increased from once every week or so to sometimes twice a day. While I am cruising along at any speed or maybe coming to a stop, the engine will completely shut down like the key was turned off. No sputtering or other warnings - just stone cold dead. After I pull over and curse quietly to myself for 30 seconds, the car will start right back up and run fine for miles, although sometimes it will cut off again within a mile or two. I had a similar problem 1-1/2 years ago that turned out to be the pick up coil in the distributor (I had had the same problem with my '86 240 years ago so was able to fix it quickly). However, when it was the distributor failing, the car would stall and not restart for at least 30 minutes - apparently long enough to let the unit cool down. With the current problem, I can restart the car immediately or within 30 seconds. I left it with the local Volvo dealer for over two weeks and they were able to pinpoint a problem with the air mass meter, so I had them replace that. I also had a complete throttle body service done and now the car runs great. However, that didn't solve the cut off problem. After several discussions with the head Volvo mechanic at the dealer, he suggested that (among other possibilities) it may be the power stage unit. So, I ordered a new one (Hugo, not Bosch) and replaced it Tuesday. Cut off on me again this morning. Since this is such an intermittant problem, I can't afford the leave the car at the mechanics for months in the hope the problem will be replicated. I see from browsing the archive that others have had a similar problem. Any advice on what to replace next? Relays? My wife is holding the '86 240 hostage because she doesn't appreciate the thrill of merging into traffic at 60 MPH only to have the engine die. I like the 740 OK but miss my 240. Thanks for the help. Anyone want to buy a barely used power stage unit cheap?

OldBuildingMan

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