QuestionHi Jason, 1989 volvo 240 DL Wagon. I've had the car for almost 2 years, 1 year ago I replaced the main fuel pump when the engine quit completely. Other than that it's been great until about 1 month ago while driving along quite normally and suddenly the engine died. Check engine light came on and with trouble it restarted but only briefly 3 times then wouldn't restart at all. Gas gauge showed 1/3 tank but the symptoms told me it was out of gas. I put in 1 gallon of gas from a can, spent some time searching under the hood for obvious things with nothing found. Went back and attempted to restart, it started immediately but still with the check engine light on. Switched it off and restarted several more times and every time it was OK. On about the 4th restart the check engine light went out and stayed out. Car ran perfectly after until 1 week ago.
Now twice in a week it's died suddenly while driving along. Both of these failures have had exactly the same syptoms and results. Each of these times the check engine light has come on, I'd coast to the side of the road and the engine again restarted first attempt with the check engine light remaining on. I'd drive on again for a couple of miles to my next stop where the car would sit for maybe an hour and on the next start, the check engine light would go off and everything would appear perfectly normal again.
At all times the engine was either completely dead or running perfectly OK. One other odd, and not sure if it's at all related, happening is or was - Previous to all these problems, at normal morning first startup, the engine would run a little rough and after what seemed greater than normal movement of the accelerator pedal to induce it to rev up, it would clear and run fine. Now since the first time it quit about a month ago, at normal first morning startup, it runs fine immediately without any need to rev it up to clear at all ?
I am not a mechanic but do have a lot of mechanical and electrical knowledge so you can talk dirty with me.
Questions - What's the problem ? you can laugh. I have a Haines manual which does have quite good info but I can't find anything that tells me what triggers the check engine light. A chart or similar that gives all scenarios for the light to come on and go off would be very helpful. Any suggestions at all would be very much appreciated. I did look at the brickboard site but it doesn't seem very user friendly, what's the trick with that, I gave up quickly on that one.
AnswerFirst off, I wouldn't try to diagnose the problem through the engine light. In my experience, those things go off when you sneeze in the car, so narrowing it down will probably be difficult. Right off the bat, I'll agree you probably have a fuel issue. It sounds like you might have a clog in your fuel filter. Sometimes what happens is a chunk of something floats up into the intake and stops the flow, until you stop, releaving backpressure, and allowing it to float out of the way until the car runs again. This causes the off and on randomness you're experiencing. If that turns out to be ok, I would check your fuel pump relays. Those have a reputation for failing more often then the pumps themselves, and because they're electromechanical, those have a way of failing at random times as well, which can cause your pumps to literally turn off and on.
As for Brickboard, it is a difficult site to navigate. Here is the direct URL to the 240 section.
http://www.brickboard.com/RWD/?model=200
You can click on the post a new topic question and ask your question without signing up for an account. Hope that helps!
