Reliable mechanic in south central PA?

[Boonestafa]

Forgive me if this is in the wrong section.

Anyone have experience with Flickingers outside of York pa? I’ve been fucking arround with a 95 945 without luck for the last couple years and I’ve had the ass with it. It has been exhibiting the classic ‘starts and idles fine, but stumbles, bogs, and dies when warm’ issue I see posted over and over with 1000 different solutions. I’ve replaced the fuel pump, measured the rail pressure (40), and blown out the return line. I replaced the radio suppression relay the and checked the injectors for pulse signal. The ignition is making spark and I have evidence the power stage has been replaced. I replaced the MAF, ect all without success. Last week I was checking the harness for the radio suppression relay and my 3 year old pulled the relay and connector clean off the wires. They sparked a tiny spark (enough that I would expect a fast blow fuse to go but not enough for a slow blow) and now the car turns over but acts like it’s not getting fuel (he also stole the adaptor for my fuel pressure rig so I can’t connect to the shrader on the fuel rail ). I just need to get it reliably running so I can start doing what I want to it and with 3 kids, college classes, and a full time job, I just don’t have the time/patience to continue to mess with it. Short of swapping the ecu’s I believe all of the most likely culprits have been addressed.. so I don’t know what else to attack. I’m hoping Flickingers is reliable and can get it running so I can finally get to doing some fun stuff with it. It kills me that I haven’t been able to sort this out but I’m frustrated. Any advice for local shops?

 

[oldschoolvolvo]

I have not used Flickingers, but they are definitely one of the few remaining independent Volvo shops in the area.

Any OBD fault codes? Are you following any sort of fault tracing sequence? If not, see if you can find a pdf of one of the LH2.4 Greenbooks. They should be out on ozvolvo.org/archive, but seems like the site is down at the moment.

 

[Boonestafa]

I have not used Flickingers, but they are definitely one of the few remaining independent Volvo shops in the area.

Any OBD fault codes? Are you following any sort of fault tracing sequence? If not, see if you can find a pdf of one of the LH2.4 Greenbooks. They should be out on ozvolvo.org/archive, but seems like the site is down at the moment.

Soo.. the last time I had the car running (two weeks ago) I got a 113 on port 2 (I think) everything else was all 111. I had measured the output of the o2 sensor and gotten ~200mv which would match being lean. The issue being that they car shouldn’t drive ok for 10 min then die if it was something like a seized injector or be so dependent on the outside temperature. It was in the 60s a month ago when I started back in on this project and the car drove fine for the 10-15 min I had it up and running after changing the fuel pump out. I come back a week later when it’s in the upper 80s and it wouldn’t pull out of the driveway. Frustrating.
Half the issue I have is that the car has never run right. I bought it off a buddies dad who had been shotgunning parts trying to fix it. I keep finding boxes of parts I got with the car with used parts in them indicating they’d been changed already.

 

[dl242gt]

You need to step back and evaluate if you have the money for a shop to get this sorted out. Like many of these old cars Sometimes when they screw up. You most likely have more than one thing wrong. So it can be very frustrating. Each system needs to be checked for health and that can add up at a shop real quick.

Take a look at your plugs. Are they lean or rich? A steady reading from an O2 sensor can mean the sensor is dead and can't give the computer a good reading. On the OZVolvo.org web site they have an archive of Volvo service information. That will help you get started checking systems and saving money.

 

[2turbotoys]

A steady reading from an O2 sensor can mean the sensor is dead and can't give the computer a good reading.

This is a problem. O2 sensor should be all over the place very quickly.

Stepping back for a minute is also very good advice, evaluate the basic systems one at time.

I would do some stuff that is free in the meantime, such as making sure the crank angle sensor harness is ok, charcoal canister vent hose is clean inside (can cause vaporlock on hot days), throttle body and its vacuum ports are clean, intake manifold gasket leak test, etc

 

[Boonestafa]

Thanks for the replies! I downloaded some of the the green-books recently after spotty info I’ve been extracting from forum post but haven’t seen any fault tracing sequences in them yet.

Before I get it confused for everyone. I have two distinct issues.
Short term: after continued troubleshooting of the injection system the car won’t start. The car turns over, has spark, but after prolonged cranking, there is no fuel on the plugs. I just changed the fuel pump a month ago and it ran on the cool 60 degree day. After a week of sitting, it was Back to exhibiting its long term issue. The day it went south i pulled the connector from the two wire temp sensor under the intake manifold, measured the resistance of the two contacts to ground ( ~2k ohm). At this point i walked away for a few min and when i came back, turned the car over and it wouldn’t start. I then Remembered the sensor was still unplugged and when i checked the harness i noticed some corrosion in female contacts. Applied some dielectric grease, reconnected the harness to the sensor and she started up fine. I then moved onto the radio suppression relay as previously i had noticed that the potting in the connector was failing and i wondered if poor connection wasn’t The issue. I pulled the relay and tried to jump out the relay. The car would turn over but wouldn’t start. I replaced the relay. No start. I pulled the contacts out of the connector and hooked up the relay directly. No start. I grabbed a spare relay. No start. I check the fuse panel and none of the fuel related fuses are blown. I measure the voltages on the connector and they look fine too me. I still have spark and the injectors are getting pulses enough to light up a Bosch injector test light. Once i get my youngest to sleep in going to go unscrew the return to the fuel rail and make sure it’s getting flow from the pump ( my 3 year old stole the adapter for my fuel pressure guage).

Long term issue: when warn the car has a stumbling idle and it bogs/hangs under ANY load. Seems to run ok when physical cold outside but still has issues after 20 min or so driving. I’ve pulled the MAF connector and it runs better at idle. Bought a cardones reman and it didn’t help. The flapper is removed from the air box from PO and the intake is capped. The previous owner replaced a ton of shit trying to fix this including most if not all the rubber hoses. All the plug wires. All parts of the distributor. The Knock/dashboard temp sensor/ fuel temp sensor. The ignition amp. All the belts. Ect. Recently I’ve replaced the in tank pump…and prior to the most recent starting issue confirmed 40psi on the rail. I also replaced the alternator with one i pulled from the junkyard and the battery charges now ( when it’s running lol).

Issue 3. I uhhh kinda bought leecat’s 760 turbo as a donor for the wagon And now i have …..5 cars in the driveway/garage and the wife us less than amused. I *promised * to have the wagon up and running before family vacation in September or she’s gonna go buy an suv. I do not want that.

 

[Boonestafa]

Update: starting issue turned out to be the fuel pump I bought off partsgeek. Despite being listed as a high pressure in tank pump it was in fact a low pressure unit. What threw me off was the fact that it started/ran/drove after install only to quit after sitting for a week .

Second issue with drivability was a combination of things. Flickingers diagnosed the faulty o2 sensor and replaced the fuel pump relay in the console. Irritating because after telling me that I remembered diagnosing it myself in my first post here years ago. They ‘ordered’ the part but it didn’t come in for three weeks so I picked the car up and did it myself with the part I bought years ago also. Dumb… but I was frustrated and distracted by life, kids, and the 4 other cars in various states lol.

Anyway. With renewed interest in the car I’ve been going through the various issues needed to pass inspection including the lack of Speedo which was just a trashed harness.

 

[Boonestafa]

 

[Boonestafa]

I rebuilt the harness using shielded twinax.. the first time reusing the connector with new contacts from Napa. Turned out that the contacts were too shallow and wouldn’t let the connector seat into the sensor… so I ordered a new connector with a pigtail and grafted it into my new cable. The shrink tube I used is self potting so I had to splice it outside of the shielding which it irritating. Once I get the car inspected I’ll probably rebuild the whole thing again properly.

While I was down there at the diff I realized I should probably just change the fluid.. but then I realized the gasket on the pumpkin was leaking. Sooo…

 

[Boonestafa]

Figured if I’m going so far as to pull the cover I should just strip it and paint it before remounting and refilling! I’ll post pics of that when I’m done

 

[Boonestafa]

One last thing.. I mentioned that I bought @leecatd8209 ’s 86 760 as a donor for the wagon. … after driving it arround for a few weeks and falling in love with it I had a moment of clarity and realized that I needed to stick to my original plan to +T the wagon and give the 760 the update it deserves if I’m not going to part it out. So she’s under the knife!

 

[cleanflametrap]

Figured if I’m going so far as to pull the cover I should just strip it and paint it before remounting and refilling! I’ll post pics of that when I’m done

Is that an aluminum cover or a steel one? I'm about 20 min south of Hanover. Just the mention of "twinax" caught my curiosity. Plenum rated??

From http://cleanflametrap.com/pumpkin.html

 

[leecatd8209]

One last thing.. I mentioned that I bought @leecatd8209 ’s 86 760 as a donor for the wagon. … after driving it arround for a few weeks and falling in love with it I had a moment of clarity and realized that I needed to stick to my original plan to +T the wagon and give the 760 the update it deserves if I’m not going to part it out. So she’s under the knife! View attachment 23383View attachment 23384

Uh oh. Stand-alone time?!

 

[Toybox]

Figured if I’m going so far as to pull the cover I should just strip it and paint it before remounting and refilling! I’ll post pics of that when I’m done

I initially interpreted that as "pull the differential cover, then strip and paint the whole car..."

 

[dl242gt]

We had a Volvo meet at The Fix in Doylestown this summer. It was a great time and the owner is a stand up guy who is a member here. Not as active as he used to be but still deep into Volvos. I would give those guys a try. Seemed like a good crew building cool stuff like an awd C30 and the owners 1800ES was really nice.

 

[Boonestafa]

Is that an aluminum cover or a steel one? I'm about 20 min south of Hanover. Just the mention of "twinax" caught my curiosity. Plenum rated??

From http://cleanflametrap.com/pumpkin.html

it’s aluminum! I’ve been surprised how much is used in these vehicles as I always thought they were just dumb steel boxes. Where you at in md? I just moved up here from New Windsor and work in Sykesville. I honestly have never heard of plenum rating as I’m mostly a lab rat and stuff I build never makes it into the Feild so I only care about basic function.. but it’s pretty heavy duty white wire!

 

[Boonestafa]

I initially interpreted that as "pull the differential cover, then strip and paint the whole car..."

Lol. Not quite yet. If I strip one of them to paint it’s going to be the 760!

 

[Boonestafa]

Uh oh. Stand-alone time?!

At the least! I’ve had a mini squirt in a box for a couple years that is going to go on one of them. Your head and turbo setup are going on the wagon for now. I’m thinking of trying a diy respray on the 760 in my garage and setting it up for corner carving the local backroads. I have a buddy that was gathering parts for a k-swap that I might replicate… I dunno yet but she’s staying together.