I Saw The Crow (Engine Management Light) And Died..
 

First proper drive, and...

Two point five times it died.

The point five was after braking, half way round a roundabout, the management light flickered for a split second.

Other two times low speed, on/ coming off the brakes, engine just died, dash lit up.

Restarts and behaves fine after each incident.

The ATF is browner than Newcastle's finest (fresh stuff is on order), and I'm fairly sure the PCV is blocked as oil spurts from every orifice.

Wonder if either/ both of these could be causing the stall?

Although 2nd actual death, the ABS light came on and stayed on until ign off/ on again later in the run.



Edit to add - "The crow" is what a Volvo owning neighbour calls the light, after having it appear from nowhere on her estate.

A few things spring to mind, first is it low on fuel? Second, is the fuel dry? In other words, not half full of condensation? Third, fuel filter.
Fourth bad/broken earth on the engine from the battery or maybe even on the battery itself.
Fifth, is the brake servo and/or it's NRV/check-valve ok? If either is faulty and letting air into the inlet manifold during braking, the mixture will ecom too lean for the engine to keep running. Also worth checking the vac hose from inlet manifold to servo.

Could be a few other things but check those first. Also pull fuse #1 to reset the fault codes on the ECU.

Gearbox - what ATF have you bought? Also if the fluid is that bad, on no account, for any reason do a flushing change aka the Gibbon method.

Do a series of part-changes aka sump-dumps instead, usually 3-4 does it over the course of a few weeks/months depending on your mileage. If the current ATF looks like Newcastles finest, i'd do one part change, drive it a week and do another. Drive 2 weeks, repeat. Drive a month and do the third. See how it is after that month and decide whether to do a fourth part-change. Then do one a year to keep the fluid clean and fresh.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123538370254

Easiest way to do a part-change is invest in one of those pumps, reverse the car onto a set of ramps after driving 5-8 miles to get the ATF hot, switch off and remove the gearbox dipstick. Feed the long thin suction tube down the dipstick tube as far as you can get it (sometimes needs a wiggle at the bottom), arrange the thicker discharge tube into a (preferably) clear 5L empty tub, connect the leads to the battery and switch on for a few seconds then off. Repeat this on/off every few seconds until fluid starts coming through then leave on and go and have a coffee/tea while the pump does its stuff.
Come back about 20 minutes later and wait until the pump finishes pumping then switch off and remove the pump etc, putting the cap on the 5L tub and put it somewhere safe to settle.

Note roughly how much fluid came out and refill via the dipstick tube with a similar amount. Start the engine and let it circulate for about 30 seconds then drive off the ramps, holding the car on the brake cycle the box through N-R, N-D, N-2, N-1 and back to neutral/Park then pull the dipstick, wipe it clean and reinsert and remove to check the level, topping up to the cold full mark on double-sided dipsticks or the lower mark on single-sided.
Take for a few miles drive, return and recheck the level, topping up if needed to the higher mark or Hot full mark.

The benefit of reversing the car onto the ramps is all the dirt/sediment/condensation will run to the front of the box where the suction tube will be so you'll remove a lot of that stuff before the fluid. The old fluid is thin and burned (hence the colour!) so will have lost the ability to protect/condition the rubber seals in the box, doing a flushing change will dump all new, much thicker fluid straight in resulting in suddenly higher pressures on dry, brittle seals. Adding the new fluid in parts by doing the part changes introduces "seal-swell" (nickname for the product/additive in ATF that conditions the rubber seals) to the box that will start repairing the rubber allowing it to cope with the higher pressures from the new, thicker fluid gradually instaead of all at once.

As for the other reasons it may have cut out, the ATF probably isn't one of them although it has been known for old ATF to give misfire symptoms on some cars.Check your PCV system, clean the flame trap and make sure the vacuum hose on the inlet manifold for the flame trap isn't blocked - carb cleaner works well to clean these parts. Also check your EICV, with the engine of remove one of the hoses and spray carb cleaner inside it, leave to soak then repeat and let soak a few minutes more before starting the car to burn off the gunge that has been loosened. You may need to clean both sides of the valve, usually the inlet side is the main one that gets gummed up.
Whatever you do, don't touch the throttle stop screw on the throttle body - this is preset and shouldn't be touched. There is a procedure to reset it but hopefully it hasn't been touched ever.
Also do i recall correctly that you tightened the throttle cable? There should still be a little fee play in it or it can prevent the throttle butterfly full closing and activating the idle microswitch in the TPS - this can result in the mixture going lean as you slow down and that can cause the engine to stall.

Have a dig round, see what you find and can cure, post your findings and any queries on things you aren't sure about and we'll get you up and running as you should be. :thumbs_up:

Definitely got plenty of fuel (and a still working gauge!).

Servo seems OK, no obvious hisses, doesn't lean to stalling point pumping when stationary, etc.

Bought some Comma "It's fine to use in Dexron 2D boxes" AQM stuff, was figuring on doing a series of part changes over the next few weeks. Starting today, had I not managed to misplace my 12v electric pump thing...

I can't rule out watery petrol, given I've only just got the car and there's little sign it's been driven a great deal for some time. Better invest in some meths, my iso stash is probably not going to be the best potion for this.

With the engine running I feel blowby from the filler hole - But not, even if I put the cap back on/ my hand over it, through the hose from the PCV. So today's (or maybe now tomorrow's) job is whipping that off and cleaning it out.

I'll drop a bit of slack back into the throttle cable. I didn't have it guitar string tight, but I certainly only left a minimum of play in it.

And then, whether the problem goes away or not, I think I'll start working through the list of things to pop off, flush through, replace, etc.

The previous owner had two of these. I can only assume this was the one that got to sit in the corner while the other one was treated to Playstations and pizza every holiday.

Comma AQM isn't bad ATF so you should be fine - if you have an AW70/1/2 box consider going for a JWS3309 compatible fluid in the future as that's what Lexus use in their boxes which are the same apart from a few minor details.

Cheapest way of buying meths is :

https://www.toolstation.com/methylated-spirit/p99550

That should treat up to 18L (4 gallons or just over about 1/4 tank) as the ideal ratio is 1:10 which i'm guessing you know anyway.

Definitely sounds like you have PCV problems, if your flame trap isn't above the inlet manifold (Volvo changed them so they were higher on later models) consider modifying it so it is - just need a longer hose to move it from directly on top of the oil separator. and maybe a bit of small bore hose to alter the length of the other hoses.

Not sure if you've told us how many miles it on, but if it's leaking that much oil and your pcv is badly blocked you will need to replace all the front seals. Cam,Intermediate and Crankshaft. If your rear main seal has gone it's a gearbox off job.

Spurt may be an exaggeration, but the thing leaves its mark anywhere it's parked up for more than a couple of minutes. And there's that horrid film of ick in various places, including the back of the head around the dizzy cap.

Just read up on how to check fault codes, and... Apparently there are none (1 - 1 - 1).

Not sure if that makes me happy I'm not buying pricey parts, or frustrated the system doesn't know what's wrong with itself.

Main issue is I can't replicate this cutting out, it seems to do it when it feels like. And I fear it'll choose to do it at a really, really, bad time...

Edit to add: I'm still puzzled/ troubled by the ABS light staying on after the second stall, even though it behaved properly after parking a few minutes later.

Did you check position 5 and 6 for fault codes?

[QUOTE=Exasperant;2739464]Spurt may be an exaggeration, but the thing leaves its mark anywhere it's parked up for more than a couple of minutes. And there's that horrid film of ick in various places, including the back of the head around the dizzy cap.

My B200F once had an oily film around the dizzy and back of the CH. Cured by replacing the cam cover gasket.
More recently, oily film around oil filler cap and over cam cover. Cured by cleaning PCV etc. and renewing the oil filler cap rubber washer.

Cam cover gasket could certainly be contributing to the ick, and has gone on the ever extending list.

Have just removed the PCV and it's worryingly clear. I say worryingly, because I was really hoping to find a problem..

Also quick test drive, the cutting out seems related to braking. Slowing "assertively" (but not harshly) from 40 sees it die at around maybe 20. Very gentle braking doesn't seem to provoke it, or at least not in a repeatable way.

In other news, while messing with the idle control pipework the ABS light came on and now refuses to go off.....

Did you remove all the pcv components or just the top hoses ?