'86 240 electrical problem?

You did not state location. In Europe cars from 1986 may have carburators or fuel injection for gasoline engines. Then there are the diesels...

If your is fuel injected, I would first check all fuses and make sure they are free from oxide problems. If all fuses appear OK, I would then suspect the fuel pump relay.

Please provide more info on what engine/fuel system you have.

This is US model with fuel injection for gasoline engines. Today I removed all fuses in fuse box at driver's side footwell and cleaned the contacts. All fuses appeared OK.

Thanks,

DaleB

Fuses can appear OK and have a ring of corrosion right where they contact the fusebox. When I had 240s, I made it a practice to change fuses at least every couple of years.

I also seeem to recall something about a fuel injection fuse somewhere in the engine compartment, or maybe that one was for something else?

If there is one on my '84 240 turbo, I have not found it (yet). But that car has K-Jetronic mechanical fuel injection. It does have an electric fuel pump so there is a fuel pump relay, but that's it as far as wires go. US cars did have catalysts and electronic injection also in early

80's I think.

That fuse was only on the LH injected 240s, so don't look too hard on your car for it!

The original poster's '86 would have this fuse, mounted in a corrosion prone holder near the battery. The other place to look when multiple circuits fail at once is the ignition switch.

Did you check the engine wiring harness ? I had all kinds of weird electrical problems until I replaced mine with a non-biodegradable one. This is a problem with all Volvo 240/740s up until about 1989- 1990. The first place to check is the engine harness connector wires on the firewall - a lot of times you will be able to pull back the outer sheath and see insulation flaking off and bare wires touching. Also check the alternator wires, mass flow meter wires, and the coil wires. - always pull back the heat sheath to check - if you see flaked off insulation or insulation with the consistency of soft wax, your harness is breaking down. If this is the case - replace your engine harness and ignition harness - 99% of the time this clears up the weird electrical gremlins.

Same car - same problem. Ignition switch. A little jiggle cures it everytime.

I have seen problems as well with the keyswitch spray it with contact cleaner?

also with the fusebox. I had a 79 that was intermittent and one day rolled to the siide of the road in the fog. it would dye like that unexpectedly and I got a deal on it because of the problem, the previous owner warned me that it happened to his wife and they couldn't figure it out.

it would crank and fire bt would not run.

I got a short tow home and traced the problem to a jumper in the fusebox. the wiring relyed on a U shaped metal thing that went between two of the fuses. I made a better jumper that used the prongs the wires go on instead.

as I remember there were two circuts one through a ballast resistor and one goes straight to the coil one is or cranking the other for running.

so what I am saying is don't just check the fuses, check those particular wires with a meter, and you may find a conection by the fusebox open or with resistence.

Phil

Milady's '85 244 had the same symptoms. After posting to this group one of the responses reminded me of the corroded FI fuse problem. There is a 25-amp fuse mounted on the left-hand fender next to the FI relay. Evidently it's very common for the fuse blades and the holder contacts to corrode to the point where electrical contact is intermittent. Common enough that ipd sells a weathertight fuse holder to correct just this problem. If you shop around you can source the same holder for a fraction of what ipd charges. In Canada there is an automotive electrical manufacturer named Pico. Their part number for this piece is 951-E. It cost me about $5 Cdn. Pico's web site is:

The previous poster's advice about the disintegrating harness is well stated. The harnesses on both my Volvos are falling apart, but we haven't had any electrical weirdness attributable to that (yet). At the time I posted my query, however, someone gave me the URL for Mr. Dave Barton, who runs a small business in SoCal selling slightly-used factory replacement (non-biodegradable) Volvo harnesses. See link below.

I contacted Mr. Barton and purchased a harness for my lady's 244. It arrived in short order, well packaged, and with detailed wiring instructions. There was no problem getting the harness across the US-Canada border. The harness is in excellent condition, as promised by Mr. Barton. I have no hesitation in recommending his service.

In my case cleaning the fuse blades and holder contacts with wet-or-dry paper and liberal doses of contact cleaner solved the immediate problem. For the moment, anyways. Since it's my lady's daily driver and she's unsold on the value of preventative maintenance, I haven't yet had a chance to install the new harness and the weatherproof holder. I'm sure that it will soon become a top priority some dark, wet, cold December night, rather than the sunny, warm August Saturday afternoon that I would have preferred to spend working on it.

Hope this helps and isn't redundant. Lyle Beaulac

82 245 B21A 85 244 B230F 81 Westfalia @#$$#% air-cooled piece of @#$^*&

Have you checked the fuel pump relay? Under the right hand side top of passenger footwell at firewall. The soldering on the board tends to decay after a while and lose connectivity. i used to have to reach under the dash and squeaze it to get my baby started again. Quite a feat when cruising in traffic! Once the fuel relay fails, the computer automatically cuts off the ignition to prevent any possibility of fire. Looks like a small white plastic box. Not uncommon. You could re-solder the board inside if your brave enough, or spend $20 and forget about it for the next 10 years.

RobC

89-245 DL Still Purrrrring