Lack of power please help

bobsnow100 · Post by **bobsnow100** » 08 Sep 2006, 13:37

If you take out the spark plugs and check what they look like, it will tell you how the engine is running,if it is black,then its running rich, they should be a tan color. Could be your Oxygen sensor is faulty and telling your engine to run rich and causing this problem. Also I would check all vacuum lines.
Good luck

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 08 Sep 2006, 21:02

kvnbrbkr wrote: will a domestic fuel gauge that can be bought from autozone work on the fittings on the volvo. And does anyone know what the pressure is suposed to be at?

Yes, they are universal shrader valves at the end of the fuel rail. Should get right at 40 lbs of pressure there on a turbo'ed car...maybe a smidge less with an NA, but not much less.

kvnbrbkr · Post by **kvnbrbkr** » 10 Sep 2006, 16:48

My plugs look almost white in color and there are no leaks in the vacum lines. I have not bought a gauge yet to test the presure. Thanks for all the advice. Kevin

Tsquared · Post by **Tsquared** » 11 Sep 2006, 11:35

White indicates a lean air/fuel mixture. This typically runs to a hotter burn and can cause detonation leading to more severe problems. It is basically fuel starved - the fuel pressure guage will tell you if it is a fuel pump issue.

T

cn2000 · Post by **cn2000** » 11 Sep 2006, 16:18

Yup, sounds like she's lean. It's worth mentioning that excessive oil consumption can also cause white formations to accumulate on the electrodes, but this is usually visible as a thick crusty build-up. Probably won't be related to your problem, but make sure someone didn't put Autolites or some other kind of garbage plug in it.

Any time the long-term fuel trim gives signs of being lean check:

Fuel pressure (40-44psi)
Vacuum leak/Cracked Air induction hoses/MAF

The computer can only compensate so much for insufficient fuel delivery or unmetered air leaks.

Let us know how the fuel pressure looks when you get a read on it.

kvnbrbkr · Post by **kvnbrbkr** » 18 Sep 2006, 10:37

Fuel pressure turned out to be great. I brought my car to a sevice garrage and they think it might be the MAF. The only weird thing about that is that my check engine light didn't go off. Is it possible that it could go bad, yet not trip the check engine light?

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 18 Sep 2006, 17:48

Bad MAF's usually trip a CEL. If you have a turbo it will also give you a "turbo lack of air" or something like that code as well. It could be that it's just starting to go and not enough of an issue to trip anything yet, or it could be that the code reader they used can't read some of the codes on your Volvo.

kvnbrbkr · Post by **kvnbrbkr** » 18 Sep 2006, 18:37

Bad news. The shop I took it to decided to give up trying to fix it because they could not find anyting wrong with it. They even put a new MAF in and still didnt make a difference. The check engine light is not on, and I don't know were to go from here. Any more sugestions?
P.S. this is a non-turbo Volov.

bobsnow100 · Post by **bobsnow100** » 19 Sep 2006, 09:38

If you have an exhaust emissions test done than you could tell by the readings of what is wrong. Then you should be able to narrow down things. Check your catalaytic convertor also. Could be clogged or bad. Maybe your O2 sensor is bad which reads your exhaust and feeds the info to the ECU to makes engine adjustments

kvnbrbkr · Post by **kvnbrbkr** » 24 Sep 2006, 00:00

I finally found a shop that specialized in Volvos and they found that the timing belt was off 2 teeth causing it to run funny. Is this a common problem for a shop to install it funny? Ever since The T-belt was replaced 10,000 miles ago, it has been acting up.