940 turbo volvo died on the way home......

Hi everyone my name is kasoma and i am new here. i am having a problem with
my 93 940 turbo wagon. i was returning from the county fair and while
driving about 55mph it suddenly died on me.i waited a couple of minutes
and it started up again. it did this abot three more times and then was
ok... but i kept it under 35. while looking under the hood today i noticed
a fresh puddle iof antifreeze comming from where the head and the timing
cover meet. this car was serviced by a local dealer called bruce cox
before i bought it in march. does anyone know what the problem is before i
take it to get it fixed? thanks!!!kasoma duplantis

 

The two things may or may not be related (coolant loss and engine dying).
For the engine dying, it may be the fuel relay. In the spring mine (1994 940
Turbo wagon) did the same thing yours did and died multiple times on both
interstate and secondary roads. I replaced the fuel relay myself in my
driveway with a new unit from Volvo ($50) and ~20-30 minutes of time, mainly
disassembly and reassembly of the center console.

I don't know about the collant leak, mine hasn't had that happen. If the
engine was overheated before you bought it, then the head might be warped,
or the gasket cracked, or something else. Take off the timing cover if you
can, and see if you can find the leak, then go from there.

NCMan

 

today i noticed
Not sure exactly where on the engine this is, could you please be more
specific?

Hopefully it is nothing more than a weeping thermostat housing gasket,
but it could be a warped head with failed head gasket.

 

The 2 problems are definitely unrelated.

Coolant issue:
Check to see if there are signs of coolant in the oil or oil in the
coolant....sure positive on head gasket failure. If not, look closer
around the water pump, they are bad to leak at the seal on the top
where it meets the head, especially on the B230FT. You may just need a
new seal and reinstall. Make sure you pry up on the water pump while
you tighten the bolts to ensure a good future seal. Check all the
hoses closely, and If you still think it's a blown head gasket and you
have no oil/coolant swapping, and no white smoke, do a compression
check, both wet and dry. If all are within 15% the head gasket is
fine.

Stalling:
The stalling issue is 1000% fuel pump relay, it is the big white one
behind your ashtray. 90% of the time the relay itself is not bad, just
solder joints old and broken from 15 years of heating/cooling rapidly.
When it restarts after the relay cools down (solder joints contract),
this is always the case. Pull the relay, carefully pry it apart, and
examine the solder joints. I'll bet you find that they have hairline
cracks in a ring all the way around one or two of the joints. Pull out
your trusty soldering iron and 'reflow' the solder joints to renew the
failed connection. Voila!

-Aaron

 

wouldn't it "sputter" a bit if it is
fuel related? vs. a sudden stop...
which would be more electrical
related..??...

 

well that looks like it solves one problem(dieing) but the coolant los
looks likes it coming from either the hose or the to of the head. is it
hard to change the water pump seal? our dodge crapavan had the timing belt
and the water pump some how connected and it cost a bunch of money to
fix.thanks

Kasoma Duplantis

 

Ah, sounds like the rubber seal between the top of the water pump and
the cylinder head has failed: pretty common.

Easy to fix, need not remove cylinder head, just the pump itself.

 

it definitely doesn't sputter when the fuel pump or relay fail. when
fuel pressure is lost, like when the pump loses power, it only takes a
few seconds for the injectors to clear the fuel rail. try pulling your
fuel pump relay while driving at highway speeds, it will die as if you
turned off the key.