850 Difficult to Start

[Rainbird]

Hi
A friend of mine has a 1994 2.0 estate which is having episodes of being difficult to start. She mainly does short runs around town in it and some days it is fine, but on others struggles to get started. So far it has always got started, but she's getting worried that one day she'll get stuck.

Basically the problem is that when she tools around town and parks to run an errand, the car is then difficult to start and takes a long time turning over before it fires. She also made the comment that it seems more difficult to start when it's wet.

Does anybody have any ideas of where to check? I initially thought is might be a fuel vapourisation issue, but don't know if Volvos are susceptible to this, but the comment about the weather, to me, suggests a possible ignition issue with something getting damp.

Apologies if I'm asking something that's asked a lot on the 850, I don't know the car's mechanics too well. I just get asked the question because I have an old Landrover and am usually seem underneath it!

Many thanks for any pointers
Peter

[jblackburn]

I'm afraid none of us know the 2.0 engines very well, but on our cars, these issues are usually caused by either 1 of 2 things: the EVAP purge valve sticking open and flooding the intake with gasoline fumes, or a bad coolant temp sensor (just under the thermostat; near the PS pump on the left side of the engine).

As a first check, next time it won't start, disconnect one of the red lines in the picture below to the valve highlighted in this picture. If it starts right up, the valve with the red arrow pointed at it needs to be replaced (it may be circular, depending on the year of the 850).

[bobsnow100]

Sounds to me like it would either be bad spark plug wires, car needing new distributor cap and rotor or a failing ignition coil.
All these can cause hard starting and more so when damp.