1990 Volvo 740GL 4 Door Sedan Starting Issue

Davant · Post by **Davant** » 27 Jan 2013, 08:27

My son's car is a 1990 Volvo 740GL 4 Door Sedan which has a Starting Issue. He left his house to go to work and drove about 500 yards and then car stalled. His first comments were "It acted like it was out of gas". Since then we have determined that we have spark - that we have fuel being pumped - and that the fuses are good. Another person who looked at it said he didn't think that the injectors were firing and that it might be that the timing slipped. What are the other possibilities and how do I check
to see if the injectors are firing? And, what is the firing order on the distributor cap (4) (2) (1) (3) ?

Thanks, Davant

In addition: What are the towing recomendations for this model? Can we push the car a few miles to a garage without harming
the automatic transmission?

Post by **billofdurham** » 27 Jan 2013, 11:53

We have had a rush of 740s with similar problems recently.

Check the radio noise suppression relay, which seems strange but it actually controls the injectors. It was fitted to stop them interfering with the radio.

On the non-turbo model the relay is mounted on the driver's side strut tower. You can change it with the radiator cooling fan relay as they are the same. If it works remember to buy another relay for the cooling fan.

As for towing, this is from the owner's manual:

Precautionary steps to observe when car is in tow

Steering must be unlocked.
Please check with state and local authorities before attempting this type of towing, as vehicles being towed are subject to regulations regarding maximum towing speed, length and type of towing device, lighting, etc.
Remember that power brake and power steering assists will not be available when engine is inoperative. Brake pedal pressure required is 3 - 4 times above normal and greater steering effort must be exerted.
Gear selector in position N. Check transmission oil level (see section titled "Transmission oil").
If battery is dead, the gear selector must be released from the P position manually. See page 6:18 for instructions.
Maximum speed: 20 mph (30 km/h).
Maximum distance with rear wheels on ground: 20 miles (30 km).
Cars equipped with automatic transmission/catalytic converters cannot be started by pushing or pulling the car.

Bill.

Davant · Post by **Davant** » 27 Jan 2013, 16:42

Hmmm. Where is the driver's side strut tower ? This is the non-turbo model we have. And, as for towing , Do you think it would be ok to push the car about 5 miles to a garage with car in neutral and staying under 20 miles an hour?

Davant

Post by **billofdurham** » 28 Jan 2013, 11:40

Hmmm. Where is the driver's side strut tower ?

This is in the engine compartment at the top of the suspension strut. However, my apologies as I misread the type of vehicle. On the non-turbo version the noise suppression relay and the cooling fan relay are side by side on the coolant reservoir.

740 radio suppression relay location.pdf: (197.78 KiB) Downloaded 202 times

If you can push a 740 5 miles you are a lot stronger than me. If you can get it above 20mph whilst pushing it you are Superman!

Pushing it that distance will do no damage to the car.

Bill.

Davant · Post by **Davant** » 29 Jan 2013, 22:59

Bill; We discovered the location of the relay after not finding it on the driver's side. It was at night and it took a while. We did not know which was which at the time but we decided to switch them. A couple of the leads coming into the one on the furthest left (the relay) were lose and almost disconnected by just touching the relay. It was very disconcerting changing them as we were in the dark in more than one way. There was some corrosion in both relays and the leads kept falling off reasserting them. Finally, one of the lead's connector heads (female circular head) broke off due to the green corrosion. At that point I made the call to push the car to the garage . My son was very concerned about doing this but it was around 9PM on a Sunday night and I had fiqured that this would be the best time to attempt this as there would be less traffic to deal with. So, we mapped out a route, predetermined hand signals for communication, put his Volvo in neutral-key on - lights on - and I bumbered up with my Honda Civic 1997 manual and we bumped our way to the garage and left the car, key and message info. At that time we did not have your updated info.

The next morning the mechanic (Steve) called and said .............