96 850 Turbo – crank 3-4 times then nothing, possibly solved

bugs11 · Post by **bugs11** » 27 Jun 2017, 11:02

TLDR – New positive battery cable didn’t fix issue. I think the root cause is fuel system related. Current plan of action; replace fuel filter and test the fuel pump relay and fuel pump. Anything else I should look at?

Car exhibited this issue last August. It would only turn over 1-2 times, then nothing. Hold the key in the start position and the behavior repeated – crank, crank, nothing for 1-2 seconds, crank, crank, nothing, ad Infinitum. This happened intermittently at first, seemed more prevalent when the car was hot. Removing the battery terminal lug from the positive cable and thoroughly cleaning the lug and cable took care of that issue at least until a week or so ago. All winter and spring car started easy and ran great; my daily driver for work. Then my kid comes home from college and starts using the car. I’m at work and kid calls, car won’t start turns over 1-2 times but no start. Kid has AAA, they come and get the car started. Kid says the AAA guy thinks there’s a loose connection at starter. Makes sense, old OEM positive battery cable was bad at the battery lug last fall, now it’s bad at the starter. I can’t clean up the connection at the starter so it’s time for a new positive battery cable. And guess what, this wonderful site has step by step instructions on how to manufacture a better than OEM positive battery cable.

Ordered necessary supplies, pick up 60/40 solder at hardware store, made and installed the new positive battery cable (easy-peasy). Charge battery up and check connections with DVM, everything is good. Turn key to start and no difference 1-2 cranks then nothing, after trying a few times it went to 3-4 cranks then nothing. Hmmm… search internet and find a post where a guy had same symptoms and got his car started by turning the key to the run position 4-5 times and letting the fuel pump prime the system before turning the key to the start position. Worth a try, first try the car cranks for 6-7 times, then nothing, second try cranks 6-7 times and coughs, third try starts but dies right away, fourth try starts rough but quickly smooths out. Took the old girl out for a test drive and she ran as good as ever. Current plan of action; replace fuel filter and test the fuel pump relay and fuel pump. Anything else I should look at?

msmcrae · Post by **msmcrae** » 27 Jun 2017, 14:28

It still sounds electrical to me, not fuel related. If you turn the key to start, the engine should crank whether it starts or not. Even if you have no fuel at all, it should crank. Cranking a few seconds and then stopping has to be electrical -- maybe you mask it by priming everything with plenty of fuel so it starts in the first second or two of cranking.

If AAA got it started, they probably jumped it so that it had plenty of amps going to the starter -- if that works every time it suggests a weak battery or corroded connections.

Ask your kid what AAA did -- maybe they jumped it, or used starter fluid, or tapped the starter with a pole? If you're sure the positive (and negative) battery cables are OK, it could be brushes in the starter.

Post by **tryingbe** » 27 Jun 2017, 21:59

Fuel filter and fuel pump relay will do zero for not cracking.

Post by **erikv11** » 28 Jun 2017, 06:47

For a no-crank behavior that is worse when hot, the suspects are all electrical. After battery cables I would look at the solenoid contacts in the starter. Drop in a used starter, easy swap.

bugs11 · Post by **bugs11** » 28 Jun 2017, 13:00

I'm obliged to agree that it's an electrical issue of some type. Logic dictates that fuel supply has nothing to do with the ability of the starter to crank. Last night the car did the same thing as before, but this time not even a full crank at first. I kept holding the key in the run position and after five or six tries it started. I let it run a minute or two then shut it off and replaced the fuel filter. Who knows when the fuel filter was last changed, but the filter on the car was a Bosch - same as the one I installed. After replacing the fuel filter the car started right up.

Starter was replaced a year ago last February with a rebuilt Bosch unit and the ignition switch was replaced March/April 2016 with genuine Volvo part. One thing I haven't checked is the negative ground to the engine, or the B+ cable to the fuse box for that matter. I did clean and lightly sandpaper the engine to chassis grounds and the negative battery cable to chassis ground when I installed the new positive battery cable.

bugs11 · Post by **bugs11** » 29 Jun 2017, 09:23

Not saying it was the fuel filter, but last night car started right up. Took it for a 34-40 minute drive around the country side. Was going to go out later and see if it starts but it was raining and I was working on something else; kids PC lost it's ability to connect to WIFI. Figuring out how to reset a PC WLAN adapter is kind of like figuring out why a 850 only cranks 1-2 times when trying to start.