S40 V40: Fuel Starvation? Electronic Gremlins? Ideas are welcomed

[coffeejunky]

Originally Posted by rigo3t

Hi Coffeejunky,

Thanks for all your insight on this data, I wasn't sure if what I was reading was right or if it was supposed to be more stable.

I will go ahead and do that tomorrow. I will check the coils tomorrow and all cables and connections everywhere.

There's only one issue though, I can't get the data that you ask for while driving because I can't drive the car. The moment I stop at any point it just switches off. Also, if I start it up and don't apply gas immediately the car will not hold idle and just stalls, so for now that won't be possible. I'm hoping tomorrow I will find something awkward somewhere and be like "oh... ok... there's a mouse nesting in my coils" (that would also be a problem anyway) and just get it fixed. As for the MAF, I'm hoping it's not going to be damaged because I can't find anywhere around me to get a MAF or even the ignition coils...

Well any reading is better than nothing on the MAF.
For the coils, you can risk some of the Chinese made ones off of AliExpress. Not sure if they will be any good. Advice is generally to use genuine Volvo ones though. If they are just cracked you can fill the cracks using epoxy putty.

As for a MAF, you might be best off getting someone to buy you a used Volvo one in Europe then shipping it over to you; I have never heard any success from people using non-genuine MAFs.

[rigo3t]

I checked the readings of the MAF as per your suggestion and these are the screenshots:

http://imgur.com/a/ZpVyf

I took off the MAF and sprayed some electronic's contact cleaner, it did help a little bit in that the car started and stayed on! But it will still die off immediately if I press the accelerator pedal and let go. (Rev it to 1500 - 2000 RPM and let go)

This reinforces the possibility of a faulty MAF. Also, as I remember carefully. A few days before the final failure; if I would be idle at a traffic light, and throw the car into neutral, it would start oscillating from 850 RPM to 1500 RPM and back down and so on, kind of like a sine way cadence. If I would put it in drive it would settle at around 1000 RPM

Then for the coils:

This was a MAJOR disappointment. The coils seem to not be at fault here, which is great, but they are terribly installed... Whichever monkey who worked on my car before I bought it, glued (gray engine sealant) the coil cables to the coil...

Pictures here:

http://imgur.com/a/wr0uU#0

This means when I get new coils I will need to wire them up again with new cables and put the harness endings brand new for the new coils.

I wasn't able to take out the spark plugs to look at them and check the gaps because I don't have a socket extension, I will need to get one. There's also a little amount of oil on the first cylinder (from right to left). Once I cleaned it up from there and cleaned the coils with some contact cleaner the engine light went off, and the car seemed stable but it still stalls if I press the gas and then let go of it.

Also, I see that the (engine cam chamber?... where the cams are) is sealed to the top with that same gray sealant instead of a fine smattering of anaerobic sealer, which could also explain some oil leakage from the cam shaft ends on the right side of the engine.

All in all, not terrible news, but it seems there's a bit more to fix than I'd hope for or have the budget for.

Do these MAF readings seem correct? These where at around 900 RPMS to 1000 since I have to keep my foot on the pedal and that didn't let me have a solid stable reading, although for the most part it's consistent.