1st time dash lights and turned over nothing-fan was on and so was the radio so I could not hear fuel pump on or not. got out, checked for odor or something amiss

got back in car and with all acces. off I turned the key enough to listen for fuel ump,heard the fuel pump whirl/buzz and turned the key- all is well.

going down the road at speed, I lose power, safely pull over from the middle lane luckily and wait a second, turn the key, hear the pump,turn key more keep driving. I had some errands I had to run and was in and out of a few places, then went home.

93 940 wagon,auto, n/a motor- tune up 15k ago w/ timing belt also.

I have been keeping the tank full lately due to fuel gauge having a tendency to stick in the off position with low fuel amounts, say 1/4 tank or so, a tap over the gauge wakes it up- not sure if that is of any relevance- today the fuel level went to below 1/4 tank fwiw when this was happening.

any suggestions?

thx

- and there has been a whine under the center/rear of the car that gets louder from say 20-40 mph, but I can't hear it at highway speeds and if I am going 40 and coast in neutral the whine is there. Auto trans seems to be shifting fine, I do drive fast on the highway, it doesn't seem to mind, climbs hills nice enough, shifts well... I am waiting for a dry day to check the rear pumpkin to see if the diff is lubed well enough, but it looks dry and doesn't leak any

Sounds like a problem I recently had. Fuel pumps were bad (originals with 260k+ mi). Commutator was so worn that brushes were losing contact & pressure would vanish. After waiting a few, I assume cooling allowed contact to reestablish, engine would restart until it died again.

New pumps cured it.

I would first suspect the fuel pump relay - should be in the 700/900 FAQ's. They get heated up and cause all sorts of weird things - then back to normal after a brief rest. Simple to re-solder - most older Volvons have done it a few times.

Could be other stuff too, it's just that the relay is probably the most common. Crank position sensor going bad? Look in the FAQ...you'll be glad you did.

Good luck.

thanks

after reading it seems the tach needle dropped,there was no bogging or stumble, the car just went off-which was very odd as a first time volvo owner,usually chevy's or vw's die a stumbling death,not stealth like this-this was kinda scary in traffic and suddenly without engine power at all-crazy

I will inspect the ignition module on the fender tomorrow and replace the fuel filter, if that is not on the receipt for the tune up 15k miles ago when the timing belt was done.-I will also go to the junk yard and local Volvo guy looking for one of those to swap it out,maybe a crank sensor also if it is cheap enough-the upick place it should be pert near free,we'll see

will also keep a multi meter in the car so if it stalls again, I can test it to see what is going on, luckily, so far it has restarted and got me back home

...Symptoms very much like yours. It turned out to be an intermittent ground for the Radio (noise) Suppression Relay-RSR, which powers the injectors.

Details here in my PUZZLER POST.

And follow-up post with pictures HERE.

--
Bruce Young, '93 940-NA (current), 240s (one V8), 140s, 122s, since '63.