My 90-244 (155K) has a good battery with good and clean connections (and grounds) will not often start on its own. The alternator is getting good power and is charging the battery. The starter is getting good power and I cleaned the connections.

Here is what I cannot understand. It will start right up with a jump. Why, if I have a good battery and good connections will it only start with a jump? And, it starts right up. After that and I try to start it, it sounds like the battery is dead and soon all I hear is the solenoid clicking AND then I have to jump it. Walmart battery people told me it was my starter...I am not sure. Any info, as always will be appreciated.

Don

THANKS FOR ALL OF THE HELP! You know I have been able to depend on all of you for over three years. I have learned so much. I changed out the battery and it starts wonderfully.

Thanks again,

Don

"Here is what I cannot understand. It will start right up with a jump. Why, if I have a good battery and good connections will it only start with a jump?"

I'm not sure you have both a good battery AND good connections. Look at it this way —

The jumper battery supplies voltage to the outside of your starter cable connector and then to the cable. Your battery should supply that voltage to the inside of the connector — but isn't, for some reason.

If the battery and its terminal posts really are good, then the inside of the connectors must not be so good.

If the connectors are shiney clean inside, but only a jumper battery works, then your battery is suspect. Six D-Cells in series will show +12 volts on a meter, but won't start the car.


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

That you connected the negative (earth) to the battery terminal when you jumped the car - not onto another earth point - or rather 'ground' is preferred 'across the pond'!

Glen gave good advice. There is another battery cable problem which I ran into. The cable had corroded internally and there was poor conduction between the cable and connector. The cable looked ok and I cleaned the terminals thoroughly with no success. Finally I did a poor man's repair. Using a large soldering iron, I heated the point where the cable goes into the terminal and then ran solder down into the cable strands. I had to do it twice but now the cable has worked for years. I really should have put on a new cable though.

If you have a digital voltmeter, try measuring the voltage between the battery terminal and the connector and the terminal and the connection on the starter while someone tries to start the engine. You should measure only a small voltage. If you measure a few volts, the cable or connection to the terminal iss bad.

I second Glen Morangie's post - unless you 'know' your battery is good from a load test (not just measuring its voltage), it is the likely suspect.

Firstly you need to be quite sure the battery is good - an old battery gets an oxide deposit on the plates and can give out a reasonable voltage, but die instantly when under a heavy load like starting.

I assume you've cleaned the terminals OK - the jumper clips on top of the connectors will bypass any corrosion on the terminal posts.

If all that's good and swapping out the battery doesn't help (borrow one if you can) then it's possible, if one of the windings on the starter motor armature is disconnected, that the motor will stop at this point. Adding another battery will somtimes spin the starter with enough inertia to get past the faulty winding, so once it's spinning it's like the engine running on three cylinders.

You will probably need to dismantle the starter to check it.

See what you find and post again - volvo starters are more reliable than many.

In most cases if a jump start gets it going it's a sure sign of corroded terminals or dead battery. This happened to my brick a while ago - lights etc all good but no start. Jumped OK, recharged battery, seemed OK, no start. Changed battery problem solved.

Presumably you already know you'll need the radio code! and don't forget to switch off the radio when changing the battery - if your OEM radios are like the ones in europe they have the code on diodes rather than an eprom.