Volvo 940 Wentworth, Turbo Estate, 1993 - Cutting Out, Please Help

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REB

I have a 940, Wentworth, turbo estate (1993) that has an intermittent
cutting out problem ....as it would appear lots of other people have,
having had a read through your forum and others on Volvo issues.

This has now become a real puzzle and no one has been able to solve it
despite a year of trying! Can anyone here please help?

Specifically, I can be driving along and the car just looses all power
and cuts out. All lights come on the dashboard and sometimes
diagnostic codes are being written but sometimes not. When they are
written there are 2 - 121 which I gather is air mass metre and
another which I'm told means 'knocks' sensor. It will restart
immediately but the fact that it does this is becoming a real danger.
It has now been behaving like this for nearly a year ..... and it all
started with a warning light on the dashboard and a code that signified
an emissions fault.

Since this first happened, the following parts have been changed and
work carried out:

- new coil lead
- new ignition AMP
- new relay
- new pick up lead
- new CAT senor
- throttle housing cleaned & adjusted
- throttle valve cleaned
- air flow metre connections cleaned
- idle valve changed

Whilst the dashboard warning light / emissions issue was resolved
(never appeared again), the cutting out problem that then started is
still happening and the above work has made no difference whatsoever.
When it happens, the cutting out seems to take place when the car is
slowing down e.g. when I approach a junction / roundabout and use the
brake to slow down and / or clutch to drop down gears. But only
sometimes!

I noticed that some people who have had this type of problem found it
to be the hall sensor in the distributor. However, I have been told
that the distributor on my car does not have one ... it is simply a
flywheel pickup.

I'm so tired of spending out on new parts only to find that my car
still cuts out that I don't want to replace air mass metre and
'knocks' sensor only to find the same .... especially as the
diagnostic codes for these only get recorded sometimes. I also gather
that air mass metre will have to be an original (and so very costly)
part because no one produces copy parts for it. Is that true?
I am of course very concerned to discover that so many people seem to
have had this cutting out problem with their Volvos .... and that the
pattern for its occurrence is identical so as not to be just
coincidence . Has anyone out their approached Volvo HQ direct to raise
this as a design fault?

Having been a Volvo driver for years I'm so fed up that I'm about
to ditch my 940 and abandon Volvo's for ever.
 
REB said:
I have a 940, Wentworth, turbo estate (1993) that has an intermittent
cutting out problem ....as it would appear lots of other people have,
having had a read through your forum and others on Volvo issues.

This has now become a real puzzle and no one has been able to solve it
despite a year of trying! Can anyone here please help?

Specifically, I can be driving along and the car just looses all power
and cuts out. All lights come on the dashboard and sometimes
diagnostic codes are being written but sometimes not. When they are
written there are 2 - 121 which I gather is air mass metre and
another which I'm told means 'knocks' sensor. It will restart
immediately but the fact that it does this is becoming a real danger.
It has now been behaving like this for nearly a year ..... and it all
started with a warning light on the dashboard and a code that signified
an emissions fault.

Since this first happened, the following parts have been changed and
work carried out:

- new coil lead
- new ignition AMP
- new relay
- new pick up lead
- new CAT senor
- throttle housing cleaned & adjusted
- throttle valve cleaned
- air flow metre connections cleaned
- idle valve changed

Whilst the dashboard warning light / emissions issue was resolved
(never appeared again), the cutting out problem that then started is
still happening and the above work has made no difference whatsoever.
When it happens, the cutting out seems to take place when the car is
slowing down e.g. when I approach a junction / roundabout and use the
brake to slow down and / or clutch to drop down gears. But only
sometimes!

I noticed that some people who have had this type of problem found it
to be the hall sensor in the distributor. However, I have been told
that the distributor on my car does not have one ... it is simply a
flywheel pickup.

I'm so tired of spending out on new parts only to find that my car
still cuts out that I don't want to replace air mass metre and
'knocks' sensor only to find the same .... especially as the
diagnostic codes for these only get recorded sometimes. I also gather
that air mass metre will have to be an original (and so very costly)
part because no one produces copy parts for it. Is that true?
I am of course very concerned to discover that so many people seem to
have had this cutting out problem with their Volvos .... and that the
pattern for its occurrence is identical so as not to be just
coincidence . Has anyone out their approached Volvo HQ direct to raise
this as a design fault?

Having been a Volvo driver for years I'm so fed up that I'm about
to ditch my 940 and abandon Volvo's for ever.
Click to expand...

Well you've had a code for the air mass meter for a year, and haven't
changed it yet? Other than cleaning the connection that would have been
the first thing I tried. What I don't understand if you don't want to
spend money on unnecessary new parts, you've changed a bunch of things
not related to your trouble codes?

P.S. My '98 S70 was randomly, infrequently stalling, without leaving a
code. A new air mass meter made the problem disappear. Unfortunately,
and this is the same for all new cars, finding this sort of problem can
be a bit of hit or miss. The air mass meter was the 4th part I tried in
efforts to fix the problem - but if I had an air mass meter code like
you, it would have been the first.

--
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.)
 
REB said:
I have a 940, Wentworth, turbo estate (1993) that has an intermittent
cutting out problem ....as it would appear lots of other people have,
having had a read through your forum and others on Volvo issues.

This has now become a real puzzle and no one has been able to solve it
despite a year of trying! Can anyone here please help?

Specifically, I can be driving along and the car just looses all power
and cuts out. All lights come on the dashboard and sometimes
diagnostic codes are being written but sometimes not. When they are
written there are 2 - 121 which I gather is air mass metre and
another which I'm told means 'knocks' sensor. It will restart
immediately but the fact that it does this is becoming a real danger.
It has now been behaving like this for nearly a year ..... and it all
started with a warning light on the dashboard and a code that signified
an emissions fault.

Since this first happened, the following parts have been changed and
work carried out:

- new coil lead
- new ignition AMP
- new relay
- new pick up lead
- new CAT senor
- throttle housing cleaned & adjusted
- throttle valve cleaned
- air flow metre connections cleaned
- idle valve changed

Whilst the dashboard warning light / emissions issue was resolved
(never appeared again), the cutting out problem that then started is
still happening and the above work has made no difference whatsoever.
When it happens, the cutting out seems to take place when the car is
slowing down e.g. when I approach a junction / roundabout and use the
brake to slow down and / or clutch to drop down gears. But only
sometimes!

I noticed that some people who have had this type of problem found it
to be the hall sensor in the distributor. However, I have been told
that the distributor on my car does not have one ... it is simply a
flywheel pickup.

I'm so tired of spending out on new parts only to find that my car
still cuts out that I don't want to replace air mass metre and
'knocks' sensor only to find the same .... especially as the
diagnostic codes for these only get recorded sometimes. I also gather
that air mass metre will have to be an original (and so very costly)
part because no one produces copy parts for it. Is that true?
I am of course very concerned to discover that so many people seem to
have had this cutting out problem with their Volvos .... and that the
pattern for its occurrence is identical so as not to be just
coincidence . Has anyone out their approached Volvo HQ direct to raise
this as a design fault?

Having been a Volvo driver for years I'm so fed up that I'm about
to ditch my 940 and abandon Volvo's for ever.
Click to expand...

I can sense the frustration in the note above. The AMM, which is the only
one defined by code in the posting, wasn't replaced, and yet the same (AMM)
code reappears after a stall. I understand that there are times when one
part makes another issue a code for a different system, but not always.

Replace the AMM. Get one from a junk / wrecker / breaker yard if you don't
want to buy a new one from the dealer.

Skirting around a few hundred dollars (or pounds) isn't worth the
frustration. Clear part of your calendar, give the kids something
time-consuming to do, buy get the replacement AMM, pick a nice shaded spot
to work in, bring all your tools and a radio with music you like, replace
the AMM, relax, and go for a nice drive. If you cured it, then you are done
(with that). If not, then you have had a nice time and it only cost you a
small pile of money. Most of the people on this forum have had both
experiences.

Let us know how it works out.

NCMan
 
Mike,

Thanks very much for your help. Reason so many parts have been
replaced (and not air mass metre yet!) is because garage has kept on
saying that it is extremely rare for there to be any problem with the
air mass metre on volvos and that it is more likely to have been
relay... and then ignition amp etc. This has been a volvo dealership
specialist too. I'm not a mechanic myself and have to rely on garages
doing all my car work ... more's the pity. It's only after joining and
reading this forum that problems with cutting out and air mass metre
being the culprit are not rare at all.
 
Hi NCMan,

Thanks for your pointer on this problem. I've put a fuller response
back to Mike F as to why haven't had air mass metre changed yet but
seems like I'm going to have to insist that garage do this. Will let
you both know how I get on after this has been changed.
 
REB said:
Mike,

Thanks very much for your help. Reason so many parts have been
replaced (and not air mass metre yet!) is because garage has kept on
saying that it is extremely rare for there to be any problem with the
air mass metre on volvos and that it is more likely to have been
relay... and then ignition amp etc.
Click to expand...

The AMM is actually a very common failure on Volvos (at least of that
vintage), both the device itself and the connection to it. I thought mine
was going south a few months ago, but it was only the connector.

Mike F is about as Volvo-guru as anybody gets... I'd follow his advice over
the shop that hasn't succeeded any day.

Mike (the less experienced one)
 
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