440 diagnostics

[volvo4me]

I have recently purchased a 440, a P reg, 1996 petrol, 1.8 fuel injection model, which has a rough engine. It revs fine in neutral.
I changed the spark plugs to Bosch Supers and changed the HT leads. The old spark plugs were dark brown. I have cleaned the engine compartment and sprayed the electrics with Damp Start.
As my Haynes manual for the 400 series (ISBN 1 85960 565 6) does not mention the diagnostics box, can anybody help?
Fortunately I have an old 940 manual which gave me an idea on how to do the tests.
The only plug-ins in the diagnostics box that work are 2 and 7. 7 is fine with three one second 'flashes,' but 2 just shows a continuous dull red light and pressing the test button does not do anything.
Any ideas?
Thank you.

[Martin Cox]

Might be worth checking the distributer cap and rotor arm. I've known the cabon brush that makes contact with the centre of the rotor arm to burn away completely on My 440. Athough it still ran, it didn't exactly improve the performance. A replacement distributer cap soon put things right.

A rough idle can often be attributed to air leaks on the induction side. There are some small rubber hoses that are notorious for perishing and leaking which upsets the mixture.

Martin

[veegard]

I have a 460 2.0 95 mod.
I have exactly the same problem... I found an overview of the slots, and I think that slot 7 was airbag.. Slot 2 is definately fuel.

I get the same dimmed light, so no help there..
But I have a bit of an odd ECU, have some slight electrical problems with it.. Have to "jump start" it bypassing the main system relay.

[chippie]

http://www.am.torun.pl/~ja/volvo/diagnostic-system.shtml

[volvo4me]

Many thanks for your information. I shall be checking the codes today.
Best regards,
Colin.

[Paul240480]

I've only just discovered this little box of tricks on my 480.

I struggled to get anything out of mine. If you have the same snag, use a bit of light sandpaper on something like a pencil tip to clean up the terminals, than spray with contact cleaner to swish the crud out.

I'm still getting 'my head around' this gadget - not too tekky me LOL

Good luck.

[ahal]

Might be worth checking the distributer cap and rotor arm.

Yes, that makes sense to me alright ... I had loads of problems with my 440 years ago and an invisible crack in the dist. cap was at fault. Replaced it for about a tenner and all was fine again.

I've recently begun to have the same sort of issues again, except even more severe ( car will tick over in a 'hunting' fashion, and stall completely during a sharp stop ). This time it's looking like the coil ... have got just about everything else done.

Not surprised the Haynes manual doesn't give any info. about the fault module. My Haynes manual has teabag stains all over it, I've thrown it in the dustbin that many times out of sheer frustration ....

Best of luck,

Anthony.

[Paul240480]

One other thought, thinking about PLUGS. I've tried, Bosch, Bosch Super Plus, Champion & BERU 4 electrode in the past. I found they all only lasted for about 3-4k miles.

I'm now on NGK,as reccomended on the 480-Europe site. They seem good so far:thumbs_up:

[volvo4me]

I liked the looks of the new 440 from the end of 1996 on, and recently had the opportunity to get one. But I now feel like the ex-pat in Bangkok who liked the looks of a pretty woman, only to discover he had a ladyboy.