After weekend conference with Deaf Teen Quest my daughters car won't start - I hear it cranking over the phone so it has some battery - anyone know what it could be?

I'm more of an expert on older Volvos and am still learning about this 2001 V70 xc - any easy things that are common no start issues on these?
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Bad Blue - '86 245 with 303,000 mi. (now for parts), Good Green 1990 245 with 178,000 mi., Blacky - '91 740 wagon with 180,000 mi., Mean Green - '94 850 with 222,000

Well this morning the dealership where it was left went out to the car and it started right up.

They tried it ten times without any problem

That's good news because now she's driving back to Columbus and it didn't cost anything except a loss of a day of work for her!

Bad news in that we don't know what caused it.

I'm suspicious of RPM sensor since I've had one of those be intermittent in a 240 before.

The car had been driven 6 hours starting with a full tank from Columbus, Ohio and it was close to empty when the trip ended in York and she parked it - 2 days later without being driven and still low gas level in the tank no start.

Towed to dealership after AAA tried to start it with jumper cables to no avail. Next morning starts right up! Interesting!

Assuming she gets it home I'll switch cars with her, drive it for awhile and see what happens.

Thanks Dan - I'll post again if it repeats and I figure out if any of your suggestions are the cause!

Jack
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Bad Blue - '86 245 with 303,000 mi. (now for parts), Good Green 1990 245 with 178,000 mi., Blacky - '91 740 wagon with 180,000 mi., Mean Green - '94 850 with 222,000

There are not many things that cause a no start with a cranking engine.
Fuel: pump or relay.
Spark: bad RPM sensor, ignition relay, throttle sensor, MAF.
Temp sensor: signalling a hot engine when it actually is cold.

I am sure there are few others, but this comes to mind right away.

Since it is that time of the year, "lawn mower syndrome". A condition that developes when at colder temperatures, the engine is started and stopped after just a few seconds, as to move the car out of the garage to get your lawn mower.
Not sure what the cause is but the engine loses some compression and will not start, it seems some, or all the valves are stuck in a slightly open position and will not allow sufficient compression to start up. The only cure is to have a strong battery and continue to crank about 2-3 minutes. With your foot firmly on the gas pedal to the floor (this cuts fuel to injectors). This allows the engine to recover enough compression to want to start. It comes back one cylinder at a time. It has happened to me about three times before I figured it out years ago. Then a search for lawn mower syndrome showed it happens a lot.

Let us know what it turns out to be.

DanR '94 964 387,000 miles (153,000 on the new engine)
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DanR

AAA towing the car to Lehman Volvo in York, PA, someone who was leaving the conference stopped and had AAA!

Hopefully the dealership won't charge an arm and a leg, she only has two good ones of those and she needs them both (especially the arm since her new 1st job is American Sign Language!)

Still would love to have any thoughts as I'm gonna continue to deal with this car when she gets back to Columbus.

jack
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Bad Blue - '86 245 with 303,000 mi. (now for parts), Good Green 1990 245 with 178,000 mi., Blacky - '91 740 wagon with 180,000 mi., Mean Green - '94 850 with 222,000