Greetings everyone. My 89 740 wagon seems to be on strike and I can't quite isolate the problem. It's been three years since I've needed to troubleshoot a 700 series problem. This car has been so reliable with basic maintanance and it's never left me stranded--until now.

Background:

Northeast, cold snap began last week. Noted the temperature gauge was running cooler than usual. Cabin temps took a while to counteract chill. Wrote it off to unusually low temps.

Wednesday night: Exceptionally long, slow trip home from work. Usual 40 minute commute was a two-plus-hour ordeal. Defrost couldn't keep up with ice forming on wipers, had to pull over several times to remove ice. Top safe speed on interstate was 30 mph (in my world, not in others' worlds). Finally arrive at daycare, turn off engine, load up the kiddo, restart car, get home safe and sound (finally). Turn off car for the night. Temperatures plummet to between -20 and -25 degrees F overnight.

Thursday morning: Snow removal, front doors frozen shut (no surprise there). Decide to stay home to recover from the commute the night before.

Friday morning: Turn key. Car starts slowly (slow crank due to frigid weather of course), runs very roughly (engine shaking car) and stalls after about 30 seconds. Still cranks, battery is fine, but the engine just won't catch.

My (obviously) feeble attempts so far:
(1) Try the lighbulb trick to warm to oil pan and wait for temps to rise--no longer have "slow crank" but still won't start.

(2) Pulled plugs (no, I don't have a garage). They smelled heavily of fuel and were damp fuel so that pretty much elimiated my "frozen fuel line" theory. Walked a mile to the hardware store and ordered a spare set of plugs (NGKs). Took old Volvo plugs inside to allow them to warm up and burn the fuel off them and let the cylinders "air out." Inspected plugs more closely and decided to jut use the new ones.

(3) Walked back to store when plugs arrived. Put in new NGK plugs. Car still turns over on four cylinders roughly, but won't "catch." May have fouled the new plugs too. Gave up for the day and read everything I could find in the brickboard archives so I didn't have bother anyone with a post.

(4) This morning: Friend suggested trying to start with the juice of a jump since yesterday's fruitless efforts may have weakened the battery. "Whatever," I thought, "couldn't hurt"--Same deal: CHugA, CHugA, ChugA, four-beat slight catch, CHuga Chuga, four-beat slight catch--Volvo just can't seem to get that last little "umph" to start (even roughly).

One thing I noticed while wiggling through the snow and over the ice: The 4-5 inch diameter hose that runs from the air filter region back to the engine is loose at both ends, crimped in the middle and has some pitting in the middle of it. It was loose and I reattached it, but I'm wondering if I should slap some duct tape on it until I can replace it and/or if it's supposed to be that loose. Wondering if the trip home Wednesday night may have knocked it about or been it's "last straw" so to speak.

Any ideas out there?

Hoping the 740 ceases its "park-in" on its own as the temperature rises (which some of my previous 200 series Volvos have been known to do),
mlb

I'd like to thank everyone who helped me get my Brick running again. It may still have a sensor issue, but it finally started.

I spent most of yesterday detaching and cleaning sensors to no avail by last evening (game called due to darkness). Most of them just had a coating of road salt on them, but I cleaned them anyway. I even checked all the fuses for good measure and to muse a while about the no-start puzzle--Had it suggested a problem that I just didn't pay attention to? Dad suggested it was a cracked distributor cap.

It was a balmy 29 degrees F this morning. I had arranged for a ride into town to pick up a cap and rotor this morning. Before I went to all the trouble of pulling the cap and rotor to make sure I was getting the right part though, I wanted to try one more time. I decided to reinstall the Volvo plugs since they were clean and dry (the NGKs probably got fouled by yesterday's last attempt--they did). Switched plugs, turned the key and--viola--it turned over, caught a tad roughly, compensated and ran so silently I thought it stalled. It was like it never had a no-start problem at all.

I let it idle for about 40 minutes just to let the dry gas get through the fuel lines in case there were some ice crystals in there (first thing I did when it wouldn't start after the cold snap). Began shovelling the driveway while listening for any strange behavior from the idling Brick. Intermittently after it was at running temps, it hesitated a hair but recovered smoothly each time (O2 sensor going maybe?). The hesitation was so subtle I doubt I would have noticed it if I weren't half-paranoid about it stalling. Any other make of car would be a full-paranoid, but I love Bricks. The real test will be starting it cold in a few hours.

I'm going to have my mechanic check a few things this week anyway, and give it a complete tune up which I had planned on within 1,000 miles anyway. At least he has a warm garage, which is more than what I had yesterday cleaning what sensors I could remove completely at my kitchen table to stay warm and those I couldn't under the hood in less than ideal wind chills.

Many thanks to all who replied!
mlbarbin

I just put plugs in my wife's 88 yesterday, with similar symptoms, and then watched a 90 745 foul itself on a cold start today.
The Regina ignition cars (most 89-93 non-turbos) seem to be worse about this than the earlier cars- though my wife's is a Bosch car, and does this about 1 time per year. If you can get it to run again after, it's possible it'll clear itself out and the plugs will even survive once the excess fuel burns off.

My suggestion if it does it again- pull the fuel pump fuse until it runs and burns out all that excess gas. As you suspect, it's gas fouled- the new plugs are probably as wet as the old ones. My wifes plugs were soaking with gas. Probably could have got it to go, if we'd simply kept the throttle wide open, but I had a set right there. Even with brand new plugs it chugged a few times before it ran- and once it ran, everything was normal again. Only happens in the coldest weather, of course.

The problem seems exclusive to the NA 740's. None of my 240's have ever done it.
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 225K, 88 744GLE- 209K, 91 244 183K. Also responsible for the care and feeding of: 88 745GLE, 229K, 88 244GL, 146K, 87 244DL, 235K, 88 245DL, 236K

The holes and leaks in your air intake hose have leaned the mixture to the point it will not fire. Fix them (and order a new hose) then try again.

I don't know if this will help, but I found it in FAQ:

"No Start; Tear in Air Duct Intake Hose. [Query: David Smith, courtesy UK Volvo Club] For the last six months it has been getting harder to start. Up to now there has been no problem - has 170,000 miles. Fuses are OK and I replaced the distributor cap, rotor, installed a new wire set and replaced the spark plugs. I also noticed that one of the wires leading to the coil was also in very bad shape at the coil end. I snipped off some of the wire and replaced the female connector. I’ve been to two dealers who put it on the computer ‘scope’ - no problem shows up. One dealer cleaned the throttle body (dirty) and the other installed a new crank case sensor. A third dealer said it may be a poor ground (all seem OK) or a computer module. I said that nothing showed up on the computer analysis at two different dealers - and he said that it probably wasn’t the module in that case. Very recently it just wouldn’t start. It turned over OK and I unsuccessfully tried to jump start it from two different vehicles, a light truck and a V8 Chevy (using a good jumper set). There was spark from the plugs when turning over. We also sprayed di-ethyl ether in to the engine via the fuel injection system and engine fired OK when turned over. Tried again - turning over OK - but not starting. However, just three hours later it started up with no problem on its own and has run OK for 3 days. From what I can gather I suspect that it may be an ECU problem - but nothing has shown up on the computer scope at two dealers. [Later reply from David:] A local mechanic found a small tear in the large diameter air hose (has the bellows) that runs from the air mass sensor (and air filter end) up to the throttle body. He did a quick repair using a sealant. Since then everything has been fine - no more starting problems. It's very easy to inspect this air hose - just undo the clamps at either end - make sure they are tight when you put the hose back on! I spoke to another Volvo dealer recently - regarded as the best in Toronto - and they said that this air hose vibrates - hence the need for the bellows section. In addition the material used to make the hose does start to perish over time and this may lead to some brittleness and tears appearing. When that happens - it can lead to all sorts of problems they claimed. The replacement hose costs just $50 Canadian."

I copied this since you said you had a problem with the air bellows. The cold weather will bring out any weaknesses in your car. If you haven't done this for a while, clean the throttle body and replace all the other tune up parts, distributor and rotor, ignition wires, air cleaner (make sure air is getting through the air box and is not clogged with an obstruction. Check and clean your PVC valve and make sure the oil breather box is not clogged. Don't worry, your brick will be just like new with a little maintainance.
Keith
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1990 740GL Wagon 223k AW70L B230F 8 Valve Non-Turbo Rex/Regina