Good Morning,
My daughter was visiting us here in Southern California. On her way back to her home in the bay area her car completely died near Oakland.
She said it was running fine , and just quit- like she had turned it off. The engine quit, the radio shut off , there were no dash warning lights, and the gauges were at their low point- just like the car had been shut off.
She coasted off the freeway and called me, she described what had happened, and that nothing happened but a tiny click when she tried to restart the car. She also said the SRS light was the only one illuminated on the cluster.
She called AAA, and after 90 minutes they came, turned the key and the car started! Not wanting to drive across the Richmond bridge with an unknown problem she had it towed to her home in San Rafael.
I am driving up with a new ignition switch, I'll install that along with checking grounds, fuses and connections.
Any suggestions as to what else may be causing the problem?
The car is a 1991 240 with 180,000 miles and is her daily driver and pride and joy.

Thanks,

Dan

This initially made me think of the "hit a a bump and car died" or "railroad tracks kill engine" issue with the engines that have the +/red cable cross under the engine.

But the tiny click sounds more like the main EFI relay has bitten the big one.

I was trying to disassemble one intact to take to my electron microscope class for a sample and found out that the +12V rails in the relay are made of aluminum. That's probably why they croak so often. Aluminum has a relatively high rate of thermal expansion, so it basically wallers out the hole around it quickly.

Anyway, if you can find the main EFI relay under the dash (I think), you may want to replace it or resolder the joints as shown on this page: https://www.prancingmoose.com/volvorelays.html

Hi,

When the motor has died the lights come on with the alternator blinking on first.
If you turned off the ignition switch to position one and back to position two those lights should come on.

I agree with B.B. that it sure sounds like a “negative side” shut down from the battery or engine and body grounding cables since you had absolutely no dash lights?

So either way, no negative side or no positive power to the ignition switch at all would kill the lights in position two.
Did AAA do the look under the hood by checking the cables?
They may have wiggled something?
45 minutes or 90 minutes is a normal but long wait.
You would think Oakland would have lots of AAA tow clients to service such a large area.
The whole surprising thing might be the tow bill unless she has the other policy that pays fir a hundred miles.

In reading more posts and the sequence this sounds the SRS light is explained.
I don’t know much about the SRS other than they have to be allowed to discharge before any work in done because of a residual charge?
This is where things are a little bit deeper and I don’t swim in there. (:-)

Other places to check is … Power that has to come from positive post battery and alternator circuits via a smaller wire from the battery. The positive wire has a less beefy terminal on it and
goes to a terminal block on the fender.
It feeds the drivers side door hinge where a fuse panel is located down by the left leg.
That fuse panel is subjected to evaporated rain water off of shoes.
Corrosion can infect all the fuses in that panel as they have a very small contact patch onto the fuse ends.
I would clean the ends on all of them as they feed various circuits.

That panel cause me a momentary grief on a 1986 Wagon to my windshield wipers.
I was coming through S.F with a dark evening when a freakish heavy rain storm hit me.
Right as they quit running so did the rain. (:)
Using a flashlight I didn’t see any damp fuses and all looked good.
I had read from one of Art Benstein’s posts that says he gives them a spin.
So, I rotated or spun all the fuses in their places in their pronged holders to save having to pop them individually.
It took about one minute to pulls this off and the wipers came right back on!
So now I service all my fuse panels about every two- three years with a buff and a light dusting spray of LPS ONE or Two or any rust inhibitors of your choice.

You might want to show the daughter how to wiggle them just in case she doesn’t bring the car back to its roosting spot or it’s other caretaker. (:-)

As far as those other big cables there are two grounds, body and engine. If you check the engine take a gander on the starter terminal to make sure it is tight.
It connects the alternator to the battery there.

I’m glad she loves the car, I have nineties cars too.

Phil

Fuse and main power relay. Check both ends of battery cables. I recently replace my ignition switch in my Volvo 740. I took the bottom panel out under the steering wheel,. Glad I did because I dropped the screws so many times getting them back in. 240 could be different than my ignition switch. Accessed mine by removing the instrument cluster without disconnecting electrical plugs.

You might check the alternator belt tension. I had a situation once on our old 144 where the belt became loose just to the point that it would turn the alternator enough to keep the idiot light off but not generating enough current to support headlights, heater blower, fuel injection pump, etc., etc. The car would run if I turned off the headlights and heater fan so, since it was night time, I tailgated the car in front of me all the way to the next funky little gas station. Noticed the belt was a bit loose so I snugged it up and that brought the electrical system back to normal.

Also, don't the 240's have some high current wiring running underneath the crank pulley that sometimes gets oil soaked, causing deteriorization and shorting? It recall discussions here on the BB about that issue.

***I'd speculate that --- if the battery is in good condition yet the Alt is not doing a good job charging, the system is running more off the battery...until the battery gets too weak....
....Then if the battery sits ----you said 90 mins wait for AAA----in that time it could recover enough to start the engine.******


Before you go and replace the ignition switch....Check the Alternator---
Pull out and check the Brushes---that Regulator Brush pack...easy to remove with the alt in the car.

If the brushes are worn down too far they won't make good contact.

Running with a stereo on, does she drive with the headlights on...all that will run down the battery.


The ALT idiot light in the dash won't come on in this case. Ask me how I know!!!

________________________________________________________________

I can tell from first hand experience that the warning light WILL come on when the brushes inside the voltage regulator start to reach the wear limit.

I looked at the electrical schematics, and I can only think of a few reasons why it wouldn't. Things like a broken bulb or wiring. However, this should also mean that the bulb won't come on when ignition is switched on, which, as you can see below, it is designed to do.



A draining battery doesn't typically lead to a sudden and total power loss. A bad ignition switch seems way more likely. However, checking the alt brushes is a 5 min. job at most, so IMHO should be carried out anyway.

Hi,

Before condemning the ignition switch, have a look at the junction block on the driver's side inner fender. It has a black plastic snap on cover. The power has to navigate this block to get from the battery to the switch.

A fault there once left my car dead at a downtown intersection of a major city. I fortunately located it moments before the cop idling behind me lost his patience.

Peter

I like your ignition switch guess. The second most likely suspect for a sudden stall out is probably a failing CPS (RPM sensor) on the bell housing, but the dash indicator lights would remain lit.

The SRS light is telling. It's one of the few systems that has a source of keep-alive power not on the ignition switch. Being able to easily restart and carry on is also telling. Let me guess that your daughter has a bit of stuff hanging on the keychain. Excess weight on the keychain can both exacerbate switch wear and as the switch wears it promotes poor/intermittent contact. The first ignition switch I had that wore out was the one where lots of stuff was on the keychain. Just going with a naked key can often help until you can get around to replacing the switch. If the SRS light happens to remain lit after disconnecting/pausing-count-of-60/reconnecting the battery then there is a reset procedure you can do at the OBD connector as described in the 700/900 FAQ.
--
Dave -still with 940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now

My first guess:
Clean, grease and tighten the battery terminals.
Check the charging voltage at the battery.

Bill

Thanks Bill, but would a bad battery terminal connection cause a car to quit while going down the freeway? Wouldn't the alternator be doing the work in that situation?

Dan

Hi Dan,

I've had a new car suddenly quit with a bad battery connection.
The dealer swapped out the battery, but the intermittent fault was a bad connection with the smaller +12V wire from the battery that goes through the firewall.
Dirty, corroded, loose battery terminals are trouble makers.

Check at the battery terminals that you have +12.6 VDC engine off,
and around +14 VDC engine on. Maybe the regulator is shot?
Check that the Alternator D+ connection is solid, and the alternator belt isn't loose. Check battery electrolyte levels, top-up with distilled water.
How old is the battery?

Good luck, Bill

Thanks for the replies.
The battery is a 2 year old Bosch- she does drive with the headlights and radio on all the time, and a heavy set of keys in the ignition.

I'll check the alternator brushes and output, and the battery connections while I'm up there.

Good point on the wire running under the crank pulley- I remember having trouble in that area years ago on my wife's 245.

Dan