Engine: D5: Engine dies! HELP!

[Guy57]

I have a Volvo S60 D5 185 saloon, it is a late 2007 model with 145,000 miles. Car runs perfect but engine completely dies intermittently for no apparent reason. Extremely dangerous as it will not restart for between 3 minutes and at one point 20 minutes (with several attempts to start). No fault codes appear, no limp mode kicks in, NOTHING! All dials behave properly, no jumping of needles, fuel pump in tank can be heard buzzing with ignition on but engine won't start. Last failure resulted in several cut outs in the space of one hour with vehicle travelling only a few metres between cut outs, in the middle of a busy street.

I checked fuses and cleaned slight verdigris on one fuse holder under bonnet but it still cuts out. Garaged car for couple of weeks in disgust, set up a fuel pressure gauge just before the high pressure pump entry point(from low pressure pump in tank) the running pressure is approx 4 bar. Have taken car on various runs in order to get it to cut out and therefore check delivery pressure when engine dies but it WON'T cut out! Car has full service history, changed fuel filter as per suggestion in one of this forums threads but no difference. Nearest Volvo dealer is over 80 miles away, cannot risk driving car as it is highly dangerous, wife will NEVER drive car again as breakdown first happened with her and situation was frightening as it cut out on a busy road. At my wits end as this car is absolutely brilliant apart from this issue which I am disgusted with. I cannot use the car and I couldn't even sell the car to rid myself of the problem as the car is just too dangerous to drive and I would not want to give someone else this problem. So basically I have a very nice looking, expensive ornament in my driveway!! Any help would be gratefully received.

[Brendan W]

Can we eliminate low fuel level? Fuel gauges are known to get stuck and let you run out. Secondly the in tank pumps can fail to deliver sufficient fuel at below quarter tank - something to do with the crossfeed pipe not working.

[Guy57]

Thanks for your response, sorry I didn't reply sooner, I was trawling the threads for any relevant info.
The fuel level is not the problem, tank has been at full capacity and its cut out also cut out at half full.

[outnumbered]

could it be the CEM water ingress

[Guy57]

It may be Outnumbered, could you elaborate? I don't know about the CEM water ingress.

Thanks.

[Guy57]

Had a look at a CEM/water ingress thread on here and it seems to suggest that I would be getting fault codes showing when car cuts out? I don't get any codes whatsoever but I know how erratic this sort of thing can be and I will be checking for ingress at CEM for sure, anything is possible and I am grateful for any suggestions.

Thanks again.

[TXC]

Okay, so before you make a rookie mistake of starting at step 7, and skipping to point 12, then back to 4 etc...

You say it keeps cutting out, then in same post it wont cut out??

Whats actually happening?

This COULD be many things, but likely only one thing. Can you reliably get this to fail?

1: Battery terminals and main power/earth point connections. (please dont look at the battery, touch the terminals and reply "looks all o.k") remove and clean, or at least disturb them.

2: The fuel pressure test is a good one, but you say it now wont cut out???

3: Access to a scan tool? Even a multimeter?

What actual tests and checks have you already done?

[Symes]

If you can't now get the engine to cut out it would tend to suggest either:

- The 2week rest in a (dry?) garage has allowed something somewhere to dry out.
Or
- You have dislodged some wiring when installing the fuel pressure gauge.
Or
- You have removed an airlock or other blockage when the gauge was installed.

Try and get hold of a code reader, it should help point you in the right direction.

Can you plan routes where a failure would be less dangerous/disruptive for a week or two whilst you rebuild confidence in the reliability?

[Guy57]

Thanks Symes, I agree with all your suggestions and after reading the water ingress problems it does make sense that something is drying out and curing the fault. This would explain also how I cannot replicate the fault in any road situation at present as it is currently dry weather and vehicle will not cut out until water does its nasty job again!

As I said in my first post,there are no fault codes present in the system at all which means what ever is happening is not outwith the parameters programmed into the ECU's. If it was any sensor on engine the system should also go into limp home which it never has.

When I fitted the pressure gauge I also checked the engine bay wiring harnesses and found nothing wrong. ("Looks all o.k" TXC)

I did read the earlier threads about the power distribution module connections causing cutting out faults on earlier D5's and just in case this was a similar thing I stripped this out and checked terminals etc. NFF and car continued to have problem.

I am going to strip out CEM and check for water ingress and make sure all is sealed up on rebuild.
I will be using safe routes on road tests as you suggest also.

I will report back with my findings and thanks again for all suggestions and support, it has given me hope and the car might now get a stay of execution!

[Thassos]

Hi Guy,

Could it be water in the fuel? not that ive had this happen, when you open the wheel on the bottom of the fuel filter do you get fuel out or some water?, this kind of thing where a slug of water works its way thru the fuel supply might perhaps be a possible cause?

CEM and water getting into it, also worth exploring, although i dont know if it has the ability to shut the engine down, certainly the sealing around the box that fits over the hole (on Ph2 cars), and more importantly the drainage of water that comes thru the scuttle panel isnt such a great design!.. i had mine to pieces to have a look, and there is an area where water can collect, until it reaches the height of the oval plastic drain tube (see red line on pic) such that if the rubber seal between the bulkhead hole and the plastic box isnt good, it can leak into the cem electronics below. I cut a slot into the drain to hopefully stop water collecting here (see green circles where water builds up), slot is arrowed in red..

Main problem if you want to get at this area is getting the wiper arms off !,, you definitely need a puller of some sort, as they dont usually come off without some special assistance !

What sort of temperatures have you been having there? does it seem to relate to very wet weather or cold conditions ? Let me know if you need any help on cem exploration, i have some other pics & info you can have. Good luck, when you finally track down the problem it'll be worth it ! D5's are great engines..(when they're running as they should be !)