Ran out of fuel!?
 

Picked up a lovely 2005 55 plate Volvo S80 163 D5 se lux 110000 miles at the weekend. Beautiful car and really proud of it!

It has a full service history.

I was travelling down from up north along the M6 and on to the M6 Toll. Fuel gauge was showing just under a quarter of a tank. When suddenly it cut out and I coasted on to the hard shoulder. No explanation given.

It felt very much like I’d run out of fuel?!

No fuel light came on and to be honest I was nowhere near the red. Range was showing 200 miles.

RAC were called and confirmed I’d ran out of fuel. RAC put 10 litres in and I then topped up at nearest fuel station. RAC man also said they had a previous record of the same vehicle running out of fuel a few months ago!

I strongly believe the low pressure fuel pump is at fault and not moving fuel over to the other side of the tank or scavenging low level fuel. I can hear the pump on a quiet morning but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s working correctly.

Apart from this issue the car is perfect in every way.

Ive decided to bite the bullet and have the fuel pump replaced for piece of mind. I’m 95% sure it will be an issue with the pump but their is always a niggling doubt that it could be some else.

Since fueling to the top the car has run without fault.

I don’t trust the pump but could it be anything else?

It s harder to start first thing in the morning than I would expect. It does start but just not on the first couple of cranks.

Filter blocked? It's just a guess though

Hi you have done the correct thing by fitting a new pump, as that it what happens with a bad pump, fit a new fuel filter at the same time ,
Dave

Pump
 

It’s booked in to do the pump but I’ll ask him to do the filter as well. The cars too good not to have it fixed. That first tank to the red will be a tense few minutes!!

Sounds like it's the pump but you say you can hear it running? Maybe the cross over pipework is disconnected inside the tank?
Either way, check or replacement requires the fuel level to be low enough to check and both floor mounted access plates need to be removed and the locking rings on the tank removed for inspection.
Thread discussion here on things to watch out for when replacing pump https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=271382

When mine failed, I could hear it running, the replacement was almost silent by comparison. What mine would do though is go into limp mode with acceleration. New pump cured all. That was a 2003 v70 D5 with 125,000 miles (ish)

Fingers crossed 🤞
 

Fingers crossed then it’s the pump then. I’ll get them to fit the new one.

Hopefully not too much of a large bill!!

Excited to get it working correctly though :teeth_smile:

The pump costs about £250 from memory - I diy’d it. Make sure you don’t have much fuel in the car when you take it to be done (less than 1/4).

Better take a 10 litre fuel can with you for the first one or two trips.
Just in case.

Got the car back today. All done. In tank pump replaced. Showing about a quarter of a tank and 200 miles till empty. I’ve never wanted the fuel light to come on so much in all my life! Fingers crossed! According to the computer that would be about 585 0r 600 miles per tank. Sound about right?