1998 Volvo V70 cranks, spark no start Topic is solved

[Edgar21]

I know this subject line is similar to many on the forum but I have exhausted the posts I could find, so I'd like to share my tale of woe and intrigue.

Short version, after replacing the fuel pump, and fuel pump relay due to no start condition I now have fuel pressure at the rail, but the car still will not start. Good spark on all cylinders, and it fires with a bit of starter fluid (singed my eyebrows a bit). Used a noid light on all 5 injectors, no flashing. Compression around 180 on all cylinders. Not sure exactly the fuel pressure, since I don't have the tool, but it squirts out quickly when opening the shraeder valve on the rail. Do these cars have some sort of immobilizer system that would prevent the ecu from opening the injectors? The injector fuse is good (checked it + swapped for a known good fuse), and I replaced the injector relay as well for good measure, kind of at my wits end on this.

Longer version, I got the car a few months ago and replaced the clutch, once I started driving it I noticed that it would sometimes feel like it had a slight miss, especially on bumpy roads. This progressed to turning off while driving, but always fired right back up no issues. The other day I took it to the grocery (5 mile trip) and when I got back it took a minute or two of cranking in the parking lot to get it to start. Took it to O'reilly to have them test alternator/battery, turned the car off (foolishly) and it wouldn't start again until I returned the next morning and it fired right up. It died a couple times on the way back, and then wouldn't start again until the next morning, where it ran for about 30 seconds and then would no longer start, and now will not start at all. The fuel pump was bad, so that could be the cause of running rough and dying, but I cannot figure out what else is prevent this vehicle from running. It had a MAF code but I have heard that can be caused by a failing fuel pump.

Summary

replaced
Cam position sensor
Fuel pump relay
Fuel pump
Fuel injector relay
Fuel filter
new plugs (for fun old ones looked fine)

Currently considering
immobilizer? Maybe the antenna is bad? I tried with both keys no luck

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

[abscate]

Make sure the rotor in the distributor is in correctly. I had a no start on a 1998 from incorrect rotor mount that was similar. It would front fire on ether but not run otherwise.

That’s a tough one , though. No noid on injectors is either a signal or wiring break. I think M4.4 sequentially fires, misha wil know that as well as immob answer

[MoVolvos]

.
While you are trying to start the car do you smell unburn fuel in the exhaust. Careful not to saturate the CAT. As per abscate, I had an 88 Camry Wagon that someone left out one of the three screws for the CAP. This cause the CAP to sit slightly off and intermittently not start or had to crank for a bit before starting. When it failed to start I kept cranking it as I tested various things. It eventually damaged the CAT so the muffler was rattling.

Did you check to see if you are getting spark at the plug wires end?
.

[foggydogg]

Plus one on checking the cap and rotor, but...since you see spark on all five leads, it seems this is downstream.
A decent scan tool would tell you if there is a cam sensor signal. A cheap try would be to just unplug/plug the wire in case muck of ages has set in. I recall Robert facing a similar issue and that fixed his.

[Edgar21]

I will look at the cap and rotor and have a whiff of the exhaust, but I am pretty sure no fuel is being injected. I saw in a Robert DIY video that if I crank it with the spark plugs out I should see a puff of fuel coming out of the cylinders, and I did not see/smell anything of the sort while testing the compression. Does anyone know what sort of voltage I should see at the injectors? I'll try tracing those wires back tonight

[foggydogg]

I will look at the cap and rotor and have a whiff of the exhaust, but I am pretty sure no fuel is being injected. I saw in a Robert DIY video that if I crank it with the spark plugs out I should see a puff of fuel coming out of the cylinders, and I did not see/smell anything of the sort while testing the compression. Does anyone know what sort of voltage I should see at the injectors? I'll try tracing those wires back tonight

Sounds like that's diagnostic for no injector action then. Dr. Abscate may chime in with the logic path
for firing them.

[Edgar21]

I may have stumbled on another clue, blizzard tonight so working on the car is postponed but I plugged in my scanner and live data was showing 63.5 degrees of spark advance, which strikes me as quite high but perhaps is a bogus reading or typical with the engine off? TPS is showing 9%, thought maybe it was stuck in clear flood mode but no dice

[abscate]

Data with Engine off is often spurious so it isn’t too useful. My cam flanks on one of my cars gets reported as 160,000 radians or something crazy like that

[Edgar21]

Indeed it was a bogus reading, dropped to 4 degrees advance while cranking. Should I see the tach move while cranking? Its not moving at all and live data doesn't read anything.

Probed the crank position sensor and got 350 ohms which I think is in spec.

Rotor and cap look good, but replaced both (bosch) and put new wires as well for fun, no luck.

All module scan came back with VGLA 541 Ignition switch signal too low, took apart the column to have a peek nothing is obviously loose or corroded, screenshot attached. Some other codes for ABS, climate control, and evap, nothing new there

[Edgar21]

Also smelled near the tailpipe and pulled a couple plugs, no gas smell on any. With the key on I am measuring 6 V at the injector plugs