1997 Volvo 850 Base wagon

[andrewjllrar]

For over a month, my 850 won’t start. Ran fine one day, next day it didn’t.
Here’s what I’ve done:

1. Fuel pressure 45 at the rail.
2 compression good; 200 each cylinder
3. Hooked up a light tester on new spark plugs: good pulse
4. New timing belt has only about two thousand miles
5. MAF unplugged with no affect.
6. Replaced air filter.

If distributor cap and or rotor was bad, I wouldn’t get the light pulse, right? If it was injectors, would they all fail at once?

I’m stumped. Any help appreciated

[andrewjllrar]

Oh— and I did the “lawnmower” start procedure or putting the capful of oil in each chamber. Nothing.

[abscate]

Make sure you have the spark plug wires in the right place. There are bad diagrams out there

Open up the cap and inspect fir dampness. Just a bit will reduce spark to a no start.

A sniff of ether ( starting fluid) into the air cleaner will help you separate spark from fuel issues. 3.14 second blast will do it

[erikv11]

Similarly: do the fuel injectors actually mist out fuel when you crank it? There is a gray fuel injector relay up under the cowl at the radiator and it, especially the connector to it, goes bad occasionally.

You could pull the plugs and see if you smell fuel in the cylinders, or go farther and actually pull the fuel rail with injectors. Lay it on a paper towel and see if they dispense fuel when cranking. But be careful if you pull the injectors, there is risk of needing new injector seals or pintle caps.

You wouldn't necessarily expect good compression amidst a long period of no starting, because the fuel would eventually wash all the oil off the cylinder walls. unless there's no fuel getting in there ...