Hi. Someone suggested that the cause of an intermittant (occasional) non-start [spark good, fuel delivery bad ;-) situation] can be the fuel pump's relay. Can anyone tell me where this relay is located, and maybe it's appearance (is it like the OD and other small plastic box style relays?) -- thanks.

Much thanks to all of you, and apologies for forgetting to indicate the year -- it's a '93.

A year would be helpful here.

The Fuel Pump relay moved around through the years.

The others have told you where it is on the later cars. Here's a picture of where it was located on my '80. The relays in my '77 were different, but located in the same place as well.



Like I said, it depends on the year you have (something that should always be posted when asking a question anyway... heh heh heh...)
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If you listen to the radio in Portland, OR, you may know me as "Portland's Favorite Soul Brother!"

That's strange, our first Volvo was an '80 and it had the twin, aluminum covered main and fuel relays mounted just above the passenger's feet. I had some problems with starting and remember swapping these around before giving up and buying a new relay. Oh well, I guess Volvo doesn't have to be consistent if they don't want to be.

That '80 245 really sold me on Volvos. A lady ran a stop and t-boned the 245 on the passenger side. The accord she was driving looked like it had run into a tree. Our Volvo had a dent in the door which would still open and close, a dented rocker panel, and the right front wheel alignment was off, still drivable though. They totalled it anyway.

Earlier I was driving that same Volvo up on Santiam Pass at night when I came around a curve and into a rock fall. I couldn't dodge them all and straddled a basketball-sized rock (four adults in the car). We went up on that rock and we were airborne for a ways. After we landed, I stopped a checked things out. It was good enough to drive on to Black Butte. I drove it back to Eugene and to the Volvo dealer's body shop. They replaced the dented front cross member and steering rack. A pretty tough car if you ask me! If that had been our old Reliant, I think it would have been gutted like a fish.

Kjets had that green relay on the drivers side for the fuel pumps and no system relay. Yours sounds like LH if you had 2 relays.

It's possible that the '80 had the LH system, I can't remember. A lot of Volvo 240s have sat in my driveway since that first one. I wasn't really into wrenching on that first Volvo before the lady hit it with her Accord. We did have relay and fuse problems though.

It's a bit ironic. My '80 Volvo may have had the CIS K Jet system and now I've just bought my sister's '86 Mercedes 300E which has the KE III CIS system. It looks like I'll have to learn to work on that system after all. The newer Mercedes have the LH system but I think the simpler CIS sytem will be better on a car that old, less compexity.

Actually, very early K-Jet had 2 fuel pump relays ('76-'77). That is what I have in my '77 244 anyway.

I thought they stopped using 2 relays after '77 though.
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If you listen to the radio in Portland, OR, you may know me as "Portland's Favorite Soul Brother!"

Ken~ What year do you have? I know on both my 83 and 85 240DLs the relay(s) is(are) on the passenger side, under the felt piece that is below the glovebox. There are 2 square relays on my 83 which clip to a metal piece, the 85 has a larger 6cond. green relay that just hangs.
I too have the mysterious 'no start' monster living in my car - like you, have spark but the fuel pump doesn't run and the engine trys like hell to start. For now, untill I replace them, I keep a screwdriver in the car to give it a good 'wack' when its stuck and I have a no-start.
An easy way to tell if your relays are working - turn the key to 'accs'. You should hear a 'click' coming from the passenger side floor. If you've located the relay(s), you can feel the click when you turn the key.

Sarah and Rover, the Dog Hauler

That green relay is probably the problem. These relays start to give out at 6-8 years old. The newer ones are white, and use PN 3523608. If you are checking the junkyards, all 86+ 240s and all 740s use the same one. OEM relays will have a date code stamp right on them, so get the newest ones you can, and always keep a spare.
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 234K, '82 245T/M46-182K, '89 244DL/AW70- 212K Not too distant past: 86 244DL 215K, 87 244DL 239K, 88 744GLE 233K, 88 244GL 147K, 91 244 183K

Look up on the firewall just above the passenger's feet (R) side. You'll need to remove the knee bolster. Depending on which year model you have, the fuel pump relay will be a plastic box or, in older models, there will be two small aluminum cased relays together. The latter are the main relay and the fuel pump relay. The plastic box relay has both of these functions in one package.

If you have the plastic box type, you can pry open the plastic cover and slide out the insides. If you can solder, you may get the relay working reliably by resoldering the printed circuit connections. Try a search in the archives on "resoldering". Just don't get sloppy and bridge solder across conductors where it wasn't before.