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Sudden Engine Stall

Help, Advice, Owners' Discussion and DIY Tutorials on S40 and V40. In this forum you'll find S40/V40-specific owners asking and answering questions on maintenance, ownership, repairs, tutorials and almost every do-it-yourself thing you can do to save money owning these Volvos.

1996 - 2004 S40
1996 - 2004 V40
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Toneman
Posts: 2
Joined: 21 October 2009
Year and Model: S40 2001
Location: San Diego

Sudden Engine Stall

Post by Toneman »

My S40- 2001 had a strange problem. It makes me uncomfortable to feel that the car is not reliable and safe.
I was traveling along the road at approx 30 MPH listening to the radio.
For a brief instant, the radio suddenly went dead and then suddenly returned to normal. About a couple of minutes later, as I came to a stop, the engine suddenly went "cold". All dash trouble lights went on as when the key is put in the ignition and turned to a position just prior to start.
There was no indication of a stumble or RPM fault prior to this "cold" halt of the engine.
My guess with such a sudden cutoff would be some sort of electrical problem.
I made a quick test of the battery by monitoring the voltage for an hour and was satisfied that it was good. (Voltage was 12.4 V)
Has anyone experienced this problem or has any ideas as to where I may start looking for trouble? :roll:
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keithatcpt
Posts: 51
Joined: 5 July 2007
Year and Model:
Location:

Post by keithatcpt »

Toneman wrote:My S40- 2001 had a strange problem. It makes me uncomfortable to feel that the car is not reliable and safe.
I was traveling along the road at approx 30 MPH listening to the radio.
For a brief instant, the radio suddenly went dead and then suddenly returned to normal. About a couple of minutes later, as I came to a stop, the engine suddenly went "cold". All dash trouble lights went on as when the key is put in the ignition and turned to a position just prior to start.
There was no indication of a stumble or RPM fault prior to this "cold" halt of the engine.
My guess with such a sudden cutoff would be some sort of electrical problem.
I made a quick test of the battery by monitoring the voltage for an hour and was satisfied that it was good. (Voltage was 12.4 V)
Has anyone experienced this problem or has any ideas as to where I may start looking for trouble? :roll:
It could be the ignition switch itself. You said that it was as if the key is in the ignition and turned to a position just prior to start. If the switch is failing, the car could act as if the key was turned to the off position and back on again.

That's where I'd start looking.

- Keith
2000 S40 184,000 miles
1999 Land Rover Discovery II (The Tank) 174,000 miles
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Toneman
Posts: 2
Joined: 21 October 2009
Year and Model: S40 2001
Location: San Diego

Post by Toneman »

Keith: The ignition switch and positive battery cable harness to the swithch were replaced. Perhaps an overkill but there was some high resistance on one of the cables.
That fixed the problem.
Toneman
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