740GL Won't start - Please Help!

[pyestudiocolour]

Hi Everybody!

I am very new to the Volvo community. After admiring and wanting a Volvo Estate for years, I decided to take the plunge and bought a 1987 740GL Estate last week and I have definitely not regretted my decision - superb car!
However my car has started to play up. It began yesterday when it was a bit hesitant to start - akin to a manual choke not being pulled out on a carburettor car (mine has the 200E injection engine though). After a brief delay, the idling righted itself and the car was fine. This happened agin this morning - the couple of seconds of rough idling before the engine returned to normal. When restarted later (warm engine) it seemed fine. This afternoon however, it wouldn't start at all. The starter spins freely and there is a spark at the plugs. If the car is left to cool down, it will start but when I remove my foot from the accelerator, it dies and will not start again. Is there anything volvo-specific I should be looking at before "delving in"? I have changed the plugs, oil/filter (last week) and the old plugs where in good nick with no nasty deposits. The car has done just under 100k with full Volvo service history. One thing I did notice was on the right hand side of the engine, about half way back, there is some sort of breather(?) with two pipes (one top, one bottom) and an electrical connector on the top. What is this? It was loose on my car so I tigtened it back onto the engine - there is also a little nut on it which seems a little loose, should it be?
Sorry for all the waffling on - please forgive me! I can fix most things on my trusty Morris Minor but am not sure where to begin on my new "Beast".

Thanks!

[740-estate-nut]

hi there,
well, I had the same problems.. I had a GL estate with the b200e...
I had replaced alot of things...plugs, filters, the lot./. but, I had found out that my fuel pump wanb't getting any power... I checked the connections, the relay and everything.. no joy..
So, I put a switch on the dash, and wired it up to the pump.. so, whenever I had to go anywhere, I had to flick this switch, then fire the car up.. this worked for a while before the car just died...
So, I garaged it in the hope I would fix it, but I bought a cavalier to keep me going... now I have a Turbo Diesel...
maybe the fuel pump is to blame.. check it out..
turn the key to the on position..(with the lights on on the dash) and go to the passenger side.. look under the car under the rear door... if you can hear a buzzing, then thepump is working.. but maybe you could just have alot of junk in the fuel lines...
I hope some of this helps..
Simon

[The Hun]

My father had some similar problem with his 740. Got new fuel filter at first, then the green(?) relay for fuel pump was checked. Local pro re-soldered all the connections on the circuit board of the relay. He said the big current of the pump melts the original soldering out after a while. Both fuel pumps were also checked, but the beast running ok now without further tinkering.

[pyestudiocolour]

Hi,

Thanks for those tips. I went out (in the rain) and checked the fuel pump this morning, and it seems to be pumping petrol OK. I checked all the relays (green one for fuel pump which looks to have been replaced c.1999). All seems OK there too. So feeling fed up and very damp, I called out the rescue service (comes with car insurance). The very knowledgable gentleman was pretty sure the problem is with the start jet an the fuel injection - giving symptoms akin to trying to cold-start a carb car with no choke. He towed the car into my favourite garage, where it is now being worked on. Will let you know the outcome. . .

Thanks again.

Hi there,
My 740 GLE has the same symptoms, from what I just found elsewhere on the community it could be a dirty Idle Air Control Valve (IAC). For details, open the link below and scroll down to the IAC section:

http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/faq/Engi...sicDiagnostics

Cheers,
Hans

[pyestudiocolour]

Hi,

Thanks for that suggestion - I'll pass it on to the garage where my car is still awaiting repair (nearly a week now!). That could be the component which was loose on my engine - maybe reattaching it has disturbed something. . .

Thanks again, Neil.

[pyestudiocolour]

Hello all,

Well, the car is finally back from the garage and the faulty component was the "Thermo Time Sensor", which apparently controls the fuel enrichment for cold starting. This part cost the best part of £80 (don't ask about the cost of the labour to diagnose and replace this, but I think it is fair to say it cost possibly more than the car is worth - but if we all thought like that, there would be very few cars over about ten years old still on the road!).

So all seems well again, and I thank you all again for your suggestions, and I hope my experience may be of some use to others with a similar problem.

Neil.