1987 760 only starts once a day! :-(

Hi people

Hope this hasn't come up before and I missed it....

Last week we bought an '87 760 wagon (turbo, although the turbo bit
doesn't work... ahem, anyway....) for $650. On Saturday it died :-(
major overheating, leading to me noticing the rubber grommet that the
temperature gauge lives in had either blown out / popped out / was
never there, and so adding 7 gallons of coolant made no effect, except
to make the floor green!

Anyway, got a rubber grommet form a local repair shop and fitted it.
Coolant added this afternoon and the reservoir seems to be holding it
nicely.

Now to the reason for my post.... the car will only start once a day
(this is all since Saturday - it's Wednesday evening now - before the
weekend from hell it started fine every time, just needed some gas in
Park in order to idle "unaccompanied"). I'm assuming that perhaps it
needs to be practically "ice cold" (ie lots of rest between starts) in
order to start? Even a half mile trip makes it not want to restart.

Today we bought the Haynes manual so I'm thinking of checking the spark
plugs and (I think they're called) HF somethings?

Natch you can probably tell I'm not a techie (well, with cars anyway!
Give me a broken computer or a broken guitar and I'm fine! lol), so
what do you learned people think? Check the sparky stuff? Or maybe
there's another reason why it needs to be well rested? We went back
about 90 minutes after it ran and it still wouldn't start. The ignition
is doing its chigga-chigga-chigga thing but the engine just won't
start.

Any and all help (but PLEASE not "scrap it" cos we're really broke! We
really want to get this thing running!) is appreciated.

Many thanks in advance

Dave

 

Have you checked to see if it has a spark? How about fuel? You'll have to do
some poking around before anyone can be of much help. Could be a lot of
different things. Also if the turbo doesn't work I'm surprised it's even
driveable, is the turbo siezed? If so you're throwing away a ton on extra
gas for the low compression engine running without a turbo.

 

I'd think that it's probably bad news. I've heard of this happening
when the head warps, water get forced into the cylinder, drowning the
spark. After drying out, the car starts. See how much pressure builds
up in the cooling system after a couple of minutes.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

Here's a post I made last week, in response to the "1990 760 Turbo wagon dies at random!" thread:

I had a hot-start/run problem in my 1989 760 turbo that proved to be the
"charge air overpressure switch". Basically, it's a vacuum switch that cuts
power to the fuel pumps if your turbo is blowing too much boost.

It's the first powered link in the fuel system after the ignition switch,
and if it's faulty it's a real bugger to diagnose. I just bypassed it with
two alligator clips and a scrap of wire, and the car starts and runs fine
now. IPD doesn't sell it, and my local Volvo dealer was no help in trying
to order one.

The Haynes manual (which only covers up through '88, I believe) had the part
living up under the dash around the brake pedal cluster, but by my 1989, the
Volvo engineers had moved it to a strap on the coolant overflow tank under
the hood. I suspect it was the dramatic heat cycles that killed it.

Best of luck!
--Dale

 

here's today's update....

drove the car from yesterday's dying location (about half a mile) back
home.

started fine, needed some revs at first to stop stalling though. this
was happening last week before the overheating episode too.

as soon as i pulled over outside the house i heard a hissing sound
coming from under the bonnet/hood. got out of the car & saw coolant
running from under the engine. closer inspection leads me to believe
it's coming *not* from the reservoir or the radiator area at all (the
rubber grommet recently fitted is still in place) but from the back of
the engine, underneath the distributor. the reservoir is empty (i added
about 4 litres 24 hours ago and the car has done literally no more than
a mile and a half since then).

naturally i've not checked the spark plugs yet as there's an obvious
coolant leak. any ideas where i should look? the doesn't seem to be any
wetness towards the front of the car.

oh, by the way did i mention that the AC doesn't work and the blower
doesn't blow? is that related perhaps?

again, many thanks in advance, and thanks for the replies so far

dave

 

Sorry James, to reply to your message:

- i've not checked the spark plugs yet
- there's over half a tank of fuel
- don't know *why* the turbo doesn't work, i just understand that it
doesn't :-/

the previous owner apparently drove this car every day to and from
work, and also from atlanta down to columbus GA every weekend with no
problems. all he said was to keep an eye on the fluid levels. on
saturday we did about 50 miles and the thing died. granted we didn't
check the levels (d'oh), but the two dipsticks are showing good levels,
it's just the coolant that's disappearing / flowing to the nearest
drain.

 

The only thing in back that could leak is the heater pipe/hoses so check
those first. If they're ok then you've got a blown head gasket and/or warped
cylinder head. If that's the case then it's a good time to rebuild or
replace the turbo as well since you'll have it out.