I desperately need ideas to get my car running

jolepatrol · Post by **jolepatrol** » 30 Apr 2011, 22:49

So my Volvo (1999 Volvo S80, beautiful white, and my first car) has been taking longer to start recently. Well a week ago my starter had messed up and we got that fixed in a few days by a local shop. Now to the real point of this....we put the starter back in, but now she won't start. She just cranks and cranks, but won't do much else. One of my parents friends came to take a look (he put the starter back in my car) and he checked what it could be since it was cranking fine. Well he thinks it's the spark plugs/ignition coils...so he buys a little thing to check the spark on the ignition coils. GUESS WHAT?!?! ALL of my ignition coils are either giving no spark, or very little...I honestly JUST replaced half of them not even a month ago...and what was weird is that before he showed me, he had done the test on them a few minutes before. He marked the ones that were giving sparks the first time and when I went out and he tested them again, all of them stopped working. I have a regular OBD2 scanner, but I can't scan it to find out what is wrong because the car needs to be on. I do know that it's throwing an engine code, I just can't get a way of reading it. The tach does jump to like 500 (I'm just guessing, I don't remember the exact number) and stays steady while I crank, but it just goes and goes...never actually starting. This is my baby, I haven't been able to drive her in a week!!!!

Post by **JDS60R** » 30 Apr 2011, 23:02

You can get the OBD codes without the engine running. You just need position 2.

If you ar enot getting spark you likely have a failure int he cam or crank sensors. Codes should point to one of them.

jolepatrol · Post by **jolepatrol** » 30 Apr 2011, 23:06

My scanner says I have to "start" the car. I try by putting in pos2 and it just says there's no engine codes. So I had a feeling it was that when she was taking a while to start even before the starter issue. Do you have an idea on what it most likely is? I'm actually having another friend who owns a shop to come look at it on monday (out of town), but I kinda need it for school so I'm trying to see if I can do this myself.

Post by **JDS60R** » 30 Apr 2011, 23:09

Scanner is wrong. I mentioned above what it most likely is. Cam sensor is the more common failure.

You obviously have to check for voltage at the coils. It could just be a fuse.

Post by **JDS60R** » 30 Apr 2011, 23:11

Is the security light on the dash blinking when you try to start it?

jolepatrol · Post by **jolepatrol** » 30 Apr 2011, 23:11

I'll get a second scanner to see what's up. You have no idea how excited I am for tomorrow!

Thank you! I'll take a look into it

jolepatrol · Post by **jolepatrol** » 30 Apr 2011, 23:13

JDS60R wrote:Is the security light on the dash blinking when you try to start it?

Nope...it's off. It's been having a hard time starting before the whole starter issue, I knew something was giving out but I was being lazy and look where it got me

PBGuy · Post by **PBGuy** » 01 May 2011, 02:05

Did you check the battery voltage? You may need a new battery.

jolepatrol · Post by **jolepatrol** » 01 May 2011, 02:44

PBGuy wrote:Did you check the battery voltage? You may need a new battery.

Yeah, the battery is good. She cranks fine...but it just won't get started. I had to take my battery to Autozone to get charged just to make sure it was all ok. Hope I can go out tomorrow and figure out what the problem is. Hate to see her outside sitting there :[

PBGuy · Post by **PBGuy** » 01 May 2011, 03:07

How old is your battery? I traveled to Europe for2 weeks, when I came back, the battery is too weak, it cranked a bit but not enough to start the Volvo. I called AAA to jump start my car but after I turned it off when they left, the car couldn't start again. If it's an old battery, it may lose the ability to hold charge. It's only $90 at Firestone. (Interstate brand)