Hello,
I own a 1982 Volvo 244. I have owned it since 2005 and have never been able to sort out an issue that has everyone I tell mindboggled. The Car when I brought it had rust in its tank from sitting for about 18 months, ofcourse the fuel was rotten aswell and it smelled. When I was driving the car home about 25 miles into my 350 mile journey the car had a buzzing noise (almost like a swarm of bees) coming from the fuel filter/motor in the rear left side of the vehicle. The Volvo would also surge awfully like it was a kangaroo, it would then just slowly lose its power over about 1 mile stretch of highway. I would have to stay on the side of the road for about 10 mins or so, where then the car would somehow fix itself. I would then start it up and start driving again but not for long. The Volvo would start this process all over again, (I would have to sit on the side of the road for 10 mins each time). This happened all throughout my journey, it took me 3 days to get home. What I noticed was that to keep going when the car would surge I would have to keep the pedal down to the ground just to achieve 40 miles per hour. After I got home I let the car sit agaqin for about 5 months getting Volvo mechanics to see if they knew what was going on, they were amazed. After I while I thought this is ridiculous so I installed a new tank myself and got a mechanic I knew to put all new pumps and filters throughout the fuel system in and also test for any issues in the fuel system. We seemed to have fix that issue and now all the car will do is idle at about 620 rpm (quiet rough) and if you were to press on the accelerater there would be no response. If I were to put the car into gear there would be no acceleration whatsoever. I want to know if any Volvo professional can figure out my issue.

Thankyou

James
jamesbricolage@hotmail.com

If you push the gas pedal and the RPM's don't increase, I would check the throttle linkage and make sure the throttle body plate is opening fully when the pedal is floored.

when you push the pedal, assuming linkage is good, the throttle plate opens. this admits a lot more air. if there is no increase in fuel, will die, especially in gear, because it takes more fuel to accelerate under load than no load (neutral). the history indicates a fuel problem. i like the fact that you took care of the tank and filters. did you replace the filter sock in the tank? the only other filter is the big one about the size of an oil filter next to the main pump. i suggest you carefully blow out the fuel line with compressed air and check fuel pressure. pressure should read about 27 psi, 34 psi with vacuum to relief valve unhooked. may have a bad pump. but the strongest possibility is plugged injectors. from the history, i suspect the bad gas plugged them. they can be
removed in about 20 minutes. be careful loosening fuel line connection, fuel may be under pressure. these can be cleaned at a place that does diesel injection systems.
good luck

Hello,

Thankyou so far for all of your suggestions. I forgot to add that the injectors and filters/pumps and fuel lines were all replaced. I also forgot to all that when the fuel lines in the system were fixed a severly kinked hose was found and replaced. Could prolonged usage with such a kinked hose have caused inrepairable damage to the vehicle?. I do remember that the cars rear left side fuel pump would buzz like a swarm of bees, almost as if it was struggling to provide fuel to the engine (as a result of a kinked hose). To put a long story short, when I got the car I later realized I drove home with Rusted and rotten fuel in the tank, The car being "Out of tooth", only 2 out of 4 injectors working, Filters clogged and a kinked hose. I am still amazed that it got me home about 650km Australian/250-300miles US. Since then all of those above mentioned things have been replaced or fixed and still the vehicle continues to only barley idle at about 620 rpm (with pedal depressed fully), and has no response when put into gear. My local mechanic is now saying the vehicle may now only need a fine tune, although I dont think he is right. The vehicle wont even respond when put into gear so there is still something going wrong.

Hello Volvocrunch,

I also forgot to add, yes the sock in the inner tank was replaced.