Volvo 960 mk 2 / ignition & electrical problems.

[AntoineBa]

Dear All, I am soliciting your help. Some months ago, while parking the car, the engine started sputtering and shaking, and then died. I was afraid it may come from the timing belt, as it was very loose, but I have now changed the whole timing kit, and checked the compression for each cylinder, which were fine. Today, I tried to restart the car, but the engine is running very poorly, shaking a lot. I tried disconnecting the injectors one by one, to see which cylinder is working or not, and it seems that the engine is only running on two cylinders : cylinder 2 and cylinder 6. I did the test very quickly, as I did not like the spectacle of this suffering and shaking engine.

Ignition modules look OK, I tried swapping both with a extra one I have. The problem seems to be electrical:

It seems to be an electrical issue:

- With ignition on (engine not started), using a multi-meter, I measure 0+ volts between the green/red wires of all coils plugs and ground (battery negative terminal or engine block), instead of 12v.
- But if I disconnect the cable attached to the negative terminal of the battery, then I get 12+ volts between the green/red wires of the coils plugs and battery negative terminal. But still 0+ volts between the green/red wires of the coils plugs and the engine block. With ignition «*on*» or «*off*», no difference.

I have checked the following ground points : on the chassis close to the battery, on the firewall close the cams sensor, on the engine support, below the intake manifold, and at the bottom of the engine block, battery side. They all look OK. I also have swapped all relevant fuses and relays. No difference. The coil pack loom was replaced about two years ago with a new one from Skandix.

Do you have any idea of what could be causing this*?

The car is a 2.5 sedan from year model 1995

Regards,

Antoine