You dont have to know the eaxct measurement. Just as long as its about the same. Just put your thumb up as measure (depends on how big your thumb is). Ought to be enough.

Ok, misery definitely loves company. I can't thank you enough for having this forum!! I joined just because I found that somebody else was having the same problem with the 850 dying while I was driving it. It runs fine for weeks and then for no apparent reason while Iam driving, it stops responding to the gas pedal, sputters and dies. A moment later I can start the engine right up again and it carries on like nothing happened. Kind of scary (IAM the wife). I bought this car really to give to my son as his first car. He wanted a stick shift and no station wagon and something that could handle. I wanted him to live past his first year driving, so a Volvo was the obvious solution. I just need to get it reliable enough that it won't die on him. Can you make a summary for me in small words for a newbie how I go about fixing this problem. If it's better to email me for this than the forum I'm at bjburton@orionsdog.net, I don't want to break any rules ;~)
thanks again!

Errrm, i hope someone nearer to you can help you on this one.

But essentially, a few things are known to cause a stalling.

1) CMP Sensor
2) Flywheel Sensor
3) Fuel Injector Relay
4) Fuel pump
5) Fuel pump relay
6) IACV
7) Throttle butterfly
8) Evap Valve

And the above are in addition to the normal maintenance, like the air filter, the spark plugs, the plug wires, the distributor cap, the distributor rotor arm, the ignition coil etc.

Erm, i hope i am making sense to you. Am i?

Ok it warmed up again in Tennessee. All winter long didnt still once. Now I cleaned the IACV and hoped for the best but it didnt help a bit. Yesterday its stalled on me 2 times on the highway while driving once when i came to a complete stop at the gas pumps and would not start after turning it off and coming back to it after two minutes. I can not keep driving it like this. Any advice? I need to get to the bottom of this as cheap as possible. Oh yeah, sorry I have been away guys!

I think you wrote somewhere that you wanted to look at the CMP. So, how was it? Did anything inside it was broken?

If you are talking to me I replaced mine with a used one. Someone said to check the main fuel relay that I talk to outside of this forum, hes a swede living in sweden and owns 6 850's. Also he recommended replace the engine temp sensor.

Hey Guys, I have also had the frustration of the car not running lately. Hasn't stalled on me while driving though. My situation seems to be hot or cold, once in awhile upon re-start, it will start, bring the RPM's to 1000 as normal and then die right out as the RPM's drop to normal idle, just as if i turned the ignition off. Will not start until a few minutes later,then runs like nothing has ever happened. This happened to me once in the summer when i was driving the car really hard. Went in to the store,came out and no start. A few minutes later i drove away. It has been 8 months since then and has now happened a couple of times in a couple of weeks. The only thing different i have noticed is sometimes the temp. guage kind of fluctuates not real drastically but enough to notice the needle flickering. Has anyone with this stalling problem changed their temp. sensor? Any change?

Here are most of my plugs before i cleaned them off with a wire brush. I also sent an image of the valve cover. It looks like cracks in the metal but maybe its normal like my girlfriend said. They don't go deep it looks like the paint is cracked let me know what you think guys!

Here are most of my plugs before i cleaned them off with a wire brush. I also sent an image of the valve cover. It looks like cracks in the metal but maybe its normal like my girlfriend said. They don't go deep it looks like the paint is cracked let me know what you think guys!

Inspect your ECT (Engine Cooling Temperature) sensor. It is located below the thermostat housing. Might need to remove the top radiator hose to access it.

The usual common areas of problem are the connection bracket and the sensor's cables. If you do take it out, remember to soak the sensor tip in hot water and clean the rust out to free the sensor lead.

The 'crack' in the engine block looks OK, though i dont know if its normal cos i dont see it in any cars around here. Unless you are losing engine oil, and there are traces of leakage, then leave it.

What kind of plugs are you using? The burning pattern on the plugs look like they're are normal too. Notice the brown and the greyish brown color. Its expected to do that. But i may be wrong.

No leakage, what you can see on that is probably from missing the oil hole.

Ok so today was hot. I stalled two times on the way to work when It was about 45 I think outside. I tried something before I left from work it was about 68. I let the car warm up. I let it sit for like 5 minutes or more and hoped it would stall in the yard instead of out on the road, it only seems to do it within the first 5 miles of driving. It didnt stall so I went on home. It didnt stall the whole way home and it normally would have. So I guess information for thought. I made a video I am going to post on youtube It is the strange idle I have going on that I cant compare to any other 850's cause I dont have access to any others. One other thing I mentioned before but want to again. The temp sensor in the car has not been registering all the time, most times it doesnt work. I thought maybe the engine temp sensor and still do but the fact that if I hit the dash a few times it will "usually" spring up and work. the link to the video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrryBp_nIjc

It seams like the ECT Engine Coolant Temp Sensor could be the problem since it acts up before the engine is hot/warmed up you can check the wiring besides the sensor to.

Dude,

Dont get me wrong if i say this, but the only things you'll accomplish by hitting on the dash is to break the top slot for the dash pad, or worse, the dash trimming. And that may cause the dash to squeak and irritate you more, and also cost you a lot to replace.

:)

But coming back to your issue, since you can see the ECT is 'somewhat' faulty, open the little piece of rod out from under the thermostat housing and inspect it.

I once saw a mechanic friend who used a mechanic's knife to clean the ECT sensor rod from the rust that have come to accumulate over a while, thus stopping the sensor to function like it is supposed to. According to him, the sensor is still salvageable, and there isnt a need to buy new. (Dont you just LOVE this kind of mechanics? - they help you save money! :grouphug: )

This is what he did. He first inspected the ECT sensor for cuts in the cable etc. Once everything OK, he put the sensor tip in hot water, not boiling hot though. After a few minutes, he used the mechanic's knife (any small knife for that matter), and slowly scraped the rust off the sensor rod.

I was there for the whole thing. He put it back under the thermostat housing, reconnected the bracket, refit the top radiator hose, filled the coolant and tightened the screws and cap. Put the key in POS2 and the temperature needle didnt flicker. Yes, it worked.

Try it out, X-Piece...
:)

Ive been wanting to do that but im busy with new job and enrolling into college. I did find a break through and I hope a lot of people read about this!

In the past I had to drive my dads truck and it started to overheat sometimes and I would have to turn the heat on high and book it home until he got it fixed. I havent had any trouble with overheating, but i thought about this on my way to work after stalling for several days in unsafe places, I decided to try it. For the past three days I have not stalled by putting the cold or hot air on. I placed the switch at about half way where it blows but you can barely hear it and like I said it hasnt stalled in three days. I usually stick it on defrost but it will keep it from stalling at any temp setting but it needs to be about half way. :clap: :beer: :haha: :grouphug: :banana: :460: :thumbsup:

hey piece-bro, what's up? long time no see. anyway, i just watched your video, weird thing is, i had an old vette that had the same idle sound. but on mine,the cam had busted in two. the sound that i heard was metal on metal as the cam wiggled in place and the lobes were bouncing around. hope that's not on your end. bears reply about the mechanic and the scraping is right because i also have seen a mechanic do this on a thermostat, on a mustang. i've been asking around and i'm hoping we figure this out with you and for others in the same boat. later bro,-

Well sorry to hear of your time issues. But congrats on your new job and college!

Anyway, dont leave it like that for months to come as you're effectively already stressing the fan by keeping it on all the time when you drive.

The more i think about it, the more i feel like your problem is just the ECT. Well, let's hope it doesnt escalate into something bigger in the meantime.

Cheers, X-Piece.



Greek,

Cool.
:thumbsup:

Greek Mason, thanks man for the asking around. I appreciate that very much. If thats the problem I know I cant afford to fix that so I guess im not too worried about it.

Bear I know this about the fan, it sucks. I am going to talk to my mechanic soon or I might do it myself I dont know if I really want to work on my car right now with so much going on. Also my girlfriend and I have been talking about selling her e30 bmw for a down payment on a C30!!!!! Only talking right now though.

Ok so the fan thing after 4 days stopped working is stalled yesterday and today only on the way to work, coming hope it was fine. On Monday I am going to tackle the sensor. How can I clean it off scrape it and sandpaper?