All,

I recently bought my kid a 1993 Volvo 240 Wagon as his first car. He loves it and we feel relatively safe that he's driving.

That said, we continue to have problems with stalling engines and dead or dying batteries. I just returned from a 16 mile limp home with it after finding the battery dead upon restart in a mall parking lot. I've looked on Brickboard and here (specifically, here: http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=649690) and can't seem to find an exact duplication of the issues here or a lasting solution.

I've already checked or replaced the following over the last 30 days:

Fuel pump relay
Battery (replaced last week)
Cat and oxygen sensor (unrelated to this problem; needed to replace to pass CA smog test)
Alternator (twice)
Replaced all fuses in driver's side fuse compartment with same voltage/color fuses.
Reseated fuses in fuse cluster attached to + battery cable.

Driven the car with the A/C, fan, radio, iPhone (via lighter) and headlights on and driven it with all off and still...the battery dies.

I plan on checking the ground (earth) straps next, but I have my doubts. This is a SoCal car and has a clean engine bay. I have trouble believing the ground straps are corroded or aren't making good contact.

During today's trouble, I noticed the following over the course of the drive home.

1. Radio, fuel guage, ABS and SRS lights cycle on and off. The fan works regardless but goes faster as the battery recovers.
2. Car will stall unless I keep the RPMs high.
3. Revving the engine seems to help with charging/power but not consistently.

Many thanks for your collective thoughts on this.

Peter Kaufman
1993 Volvo 240 Wagon
2009 Honda Odyssey
2007 Toyota Prius
2012 Toyota Prius