Car almost stopped on the road, '97 855 Topic is solved

[DennisCA]

I had a scare this morning driving to work as I was cruising a long the car suddenly stutters or hickups, then it does it again, the throttle does nothing, all the indicator lights light up on the dash, the engine has stopped. I have to start it again and I get lucky and can turn off from the road (pitch black road, no street lighting) and stop and look around.

There's a smell, and lots of smoke coming from the exhaust. I suspect unburned fuel made it's way into the exhaust...

I start the engine after letting it sit for 10 minutes, starts ok, stutters if I rev it. I manage to drive back at 60kph and get my other car.

I haven't had time for a post-mortem yet but I suspect the ignition system, rotor, distributor cap, wires, plugs, ignition coil. I know the rotor looked a bit gnarly last I looked at it but who knows. I plan to remove and inspect all the plugs and look into the distributor cap.

I've heard one thing you can test is to wrap duct tape around the end of the spark plug wires right where they go into the engine, if that works it means the insulation on the wires is bad. Or so I've heard.

Any tips and suggestions welcome. If not the ignition then it could be fuel related, fuel pump, fuel pump relay, clogged filter. But given what I experienced with the smoke and stuff I suspect it's the ignition system... No CEL light came on, not sure if it would, I'll try and read some codes but I don't expect to find any.

[abscate]

Time to stage zero. Cap rotor plugs. They last 50-100k miles at most, but much fewer Km if moisture ftom a cam seal gets in there. Other culprits are fuel delivery ( relay, pump) to evsluate

[DennisCA]

Yeah I can get volvo OEM distributor cap, bosch rotor and plugs from a local store, probably worth getting new leads too. For all I know it's all original equipment.





Or are there better plugs to get?

[DennisCA]

OK I am pretty sure I found the error. When I removed the distributor cap I found the rotor was loose, only attached by one screw!





Inside of the distributor cap looks like this.


So I am pretty sure this is the sole reason for this mornings problems. But I also note the leads are from 96, so they have never been changed, possibly neither have the rotor or cap.

I guess I will need to enlist the aid of some loctite!

[xanthefin]

Yeah cap and rotor are one main things due those issues. And as can be seen


I am not so stiff about spark plugs personally but those with "multiple spokes" many will favorite as its oem choice though i dont know all scientific details behind of the choice. But i know that if go chinese fake spark plugs which can be ended up in some store chain distributors and to end user and they will have internal resistance all over the place and other issues so those not good§.
They can end up in local stores through distributor errors by some sneak man getting quick bucks... and they can ruin name of real manufacturer. NGK has been ones which has been fakes going around places some times.

[jreed]

Impressive that the spark plug wires lasted so long. How many km/mi on your car?

[DennisCA]

About 223,000km. I was just out taking it for a test drive after reassembling with loctite this time. Works just great now. Also cleaned up the inside of the distributor cap with WD40 and a rag.

[BeerDeer]

Maybe this is what my car needs. (Similar problems)

[Clemens]

Maybe this is what my car needs. (Similar problems)

Stage Zero is a must for these cars to perform properly! They are 30yrs old by now.

When I got my 96R 9 years ago I did stage zero most everything, especially the ignition and fuel system. And I'm glad I bought everything Volvo or OEM, otherwise I'd have to do it all over again by now.

[Clemens]

For all I know it's all original equipment.




Or are there better plugs to get?

I think these plus are for non turbo volvos. You need the turbo plus. or NGK. But get Volvo, if you still can!