Surging at Idle and missing on take off

60'srfun · Post by **60'srfun** » 19 Jul 2007, 08:59

I have a

sony2000 · Post by **sony2000** » 19 Jul 2007, 13:53

I suspect a spark leak in the distibutor or leads. Look at it in the dark. Or throw some water on it in the dark.

nikolayy · Post by **nikolayy** » 02 Aug 2007, 11:05

I am experiencing the same problem......didi you find solution for the problem.....anyone any idea

I am going to relace the spark plugs...

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 02 Aug 2007, 14:40

Check your wires....they may be your problem...but plugs are also a good thing to change if it's been more than 40K miles the last change (recommended interval is 50K by Volvo). I would NOT throw water on it to look for the spark...a good way to fubar your electricals.

FUBAR · Post by **FUBAR** » 02 Aug 2007, 15:09

I second that you shouldn't throw water on it. I too suspect it could be the spark wires, same idea as when you have to play with headphone cable to get both earphones to work, you may just have a bad cable in 1 or two of them. I had that same problem on an old bavaria bmw 3500 (I thought it was a carb issue at the time). I'd take this opportunity to upgrade to high performance while you're at it. I hear iridium plugs show noticible improvements on our cars. I use the ngk plugs and I could tell the difference.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 02 Aug 2007, 15:19

There is has been much discussion here about which wires and plugs are best and strangely, many who have tried higher quality (at least price) wires and plugs have had disappointing results. The consensus here and on other boards is that for the pre '99 FWD Volvo's, consistently good results are achieved with either Volvo plugs or plain 'ole Bosch Copper plugs gapped to the owners manual specs (on 850 and first generation 70 series it's .028 inches) and Bougicord wires. All of these items can be found at www.fcpgroton.com for much better prices than the dealer.

sony2000 · Post by **sony2000** » 02 Aug 2007, 21:24

Aren't the wires having each a coil to fire them. Or like my old outboard having a coil for feeding two cylinders on a three cylinder motor. There was always a spare sending unit. Anyways I think they are combined units that look like a tree and the trunk decends down onto the spark plug. (I meant to say spray not throw water.) Even check that it hasn't detached from the spark plug, the spark will have a distance to jump.

lukevolvo · Post by **lukevolvo** » 05 Aug 2007, 20:04

I had the exact same problem with the same year and model 2001 s60 non-turbo. The rpms surged up and down at idle. I was told it was maybe an oxygen sensor but that didn't pan out.
It turned out to be a clog in the PCV system. The bottom line to the vacuum cannister was completely full of carbon deposits. I cleaned it out but I had to remove the intake to get to it. The idle problem went away, but I still have a noise somewhere in this system but the car runs smoothly. If you remove your oil cap with the car running and there is a vacuum on it then this could be your problem.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 06 Aug 2007, 06:49

Like I said in your other post, vacuum on oil cap is normal.