Had a scare tonight in the '84

[..P]

I was on my way home from Kroger of all places, under a full moon zipping along with a load of groceries. I did a little sashay wag back and forth on the highway just for the fun of it and all of a sudden the motor just died on me. As luck would have it, I was actually able to coast all the way down the highway and "into" my own driveway, ha ha. I live out in the country and I had enough speed up to coast at least a quarter mile.

Well there I was under the moon, out in the hinterland, about 1500 feet from the house and the car wouldn't fire up. It would spin but wouldn't fire. I walked up onto the ridgetop where I live and came back down with the Volvo and a spare fuel pump/DME relay. Before I put the relay in I tried it again, and it juuuuuust barely fired over. I put the new relay in and tried it again, and it barely caught fire and then ran.

Since I also think this might have been a fuel problem of sorts, I took the cap off the gas tank to relieve pressure, and I rocked the car back and forth. When I finally fired it up, I saw a flicker of the "ignition signal" idiot light, and then it was running like nothing happened.

I'm afraid to drive it tomorrow, so I'll be checking things out carefully before I take it out on the highway again.

I'm open for any and all tips, ideas, suggestions, regarding what would make the car die like that all of a sudden, then not fire at all, and eventually stumble to a start. Prior to that, car ran absolutely fine. I have a new battery with good connections, but I'm going to take a good look at that negative ground to the body. I'm kind of wondering about the coil too.

regards, P

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Dirty fuel filter maybe?

[SoCal Driver]

Been stories of crud in the fuel tank just floating about. Things like rocks and paper towels. Could have stirred something up that coverd the intake screen on the tank. The one's in the early tanks are smaller than the later tanks.

[..P]

The little tin foil top from a can of Techron could be down there, and if it got sucked into the fuel outlet leading to the fuel pump, then I suppose the motor would just die out. When I cranked the car it spun easily and eventually coughed to life.

I suspected it might be a fuel tank issue, becaue I rocked the car sideways for a while. You do those kinds of things in the dark, under a full moon, under desperation!

Strange that it chose to fire back up. Hmmmmmm


Guess I'll go ahead and change out the filter, no telling how long it's been in the car.

P

[fast924S]

Maybe you have a bad fuel pump

[..P]

It's possible I have a bad fuel pump, after 20 years and 165,000 miles of pumping. This is the first time it's done this, and I'll probably just change out the fuel pump and filter just to get those two potential culprets off the list.

thanks for the comment.

P