480 ES Newb Serious Engine Issue! Please Help!

[480esVolvo]

Hello everyone, saw an F Reg 480 for sale and had to go for it...but there is a problem for which I need to determine the cause.

We have cold weather at the moment 1 or 2 Degrees Centigrade. Car starts and idles OK for a while, 2 - 3mins.

As soon as the car gets warmer, and you give some revs, the engine starts stuttering really bad for about 10 seconds and revs completely drop and car shakes a lot until the engine dies. It sounds like the car is starved of fuel. I can't check how much fuel is in the system, as the car suffers from the fuel gauge issues, e.g. it does not work, but there was a gallon of fuel put in the car to ensure it is not too low on fuel.

Can anyone advise on some first steps I can take so I can begin to restore this lovely car, but steps that will not be too expensive with christmas coming up and all!

All your help is much appreciated.

[glasgowjim]

Check the engine temp sensor (cold start sensor) especially for broken wires.

One quick way is to disconnect it and see if it makes any difference

search recent posts as there has been a thread on this already.

[glasgowjim]

Oh clean the idle control valve and check the crank position sensor.

Put a decent amount of petrol in and check if you are not getting a vapour lock in the tank .

cheap and quick fixes.

[480esVolvo]

Check the engine temp sensor (cold start sensor) especially for broken wires.

One quick way is to disconnect it and see if it makes any difference

search recent posts as there has been a thread on this already.

Ok thanks for the advice, I will do a search to find out the location of the engine temp sensor. Should be picking the car up on Sat/Sun and will keep the forum updated as to how far or not I get with the car!

[480esVolvo]

Oh clean the idle control valve and check the crank position sensor.

Put a decent amount of petrol in and check if you are not getting a vapour lock in the tank .

cheap and quick fixes.

I was thinking of adding Fortran in with the fuel and topping up the fuel also. Its hard to actually tell how much fuel is in the system as the info centre LCD apparently has a dry joint somewhere and so is tempermental, mostly not working at all!

[bigdickbuster]

Its hard to actually tell how much fuel is in the system as the info centre LCD apparently has a dry joint somewhere and so is tempermental, mostly not working at all!

Nothing special in the 480

[480esVolvo]

So, tonight I will be taking out the dash, to try and fix the ECI.

Will use the guide on here, so wish me luck!

[480esVolvo]

Fixed the Info Centre!

Cleaned all contacts and replaced back into dash, and also cleaned connector on alternator. Seems to be working fine now, and an added bonus, found out the car has 3/4 of a tank of petrol!

I have progressed with the engine, found out the coolant level was below minimum so topped this up. Car seems to run smoother, dont know why but it does seem too!

Now that the ECI works I have found that the engine temp when the engine begins to stall is 76 Degrees Centigrade and the oil temp 56 Degrees Centigrade. Apparently the car works fine in warmer weather, so can someone tell me where the cold engine temp sensor is, so I can check this part?

Thanks!

[Iroll480]

You can find the coldstartsensor just below the most rh sparkplug, brown connector iirc.
You can measure the resistance from the sensor to check ifd it is ok. The lower the temp. the higher the resistance.
At 0c it should be around 5800ohm, 20c - 2500ohm and at 80c 330ohm.

[avaconirl]

Hi and welcome to the club. With you're problem of car fluffing out when you are trying to warm up the car try all of the suggestions so far if these fail and if you're car has a catalitic converter remove the lambda sensor bolted into the exhaust as it comes down from the engine start up the car and see if it runs better. I hade a similer problem on my son's 97 318 bmw turned out to be the cat was stuffed or collapased after removing the cat innerds the car worked perfect. This is just a thought but it may help.

[glasgowjim]

the colour of the cold start / engine temp sensosr can blue or black depending on model of car and age. There is a difference in resistance between them its not just a colour thing !

As for brown well I dont know about that

however the blue /black colour is a fact

the colour relates to the plastic socket/plug surround on the top of the sensor.

[chriskay]

Just to clarify colours/resistances.
The diagram on the left is for the B18 EP/FT engine. (B6) that on the right is for the B18FT. (B16)
The first has 1 thermistor; the second, 2.
The plastic cap on the B6 is blue, that on the B16 is black.
In both cases, the connector is shown as red (but has probably faded to brown over the years).
If you measure the resistance of B6, the figures are as given by Iroll480, if you measure B16, each pin to earth (body of sensor), the figures are the same.
If you measure across the pins, the figures are double.

[480esVolvo]

Thanks very much everyone, just printed off the above and will do some investigatory work tomorrow!

Will update when Ihave taken a look!!

[480esVolvo]

Right, so went out this evening to do some testing.

First thing I thought was, lets give the car a good run first, as I knew previously it had been sitting for a while.

So, I kept the revs up until it got to 95 degrees, gradually started climbing etc to 101 then fan kicked in. Guess what, no issues at all when in 90s or correct running temp, so when it gets up to temperature, the car is fine, just drops and stalls at around 76 degrees UNLESS you keep the revs up until it gets past the problem area temperature and let it get up to 90s.

Something I didn't previously mention and that is that the exhaust is blowing at the top end near manifold, I heard it blowing when running it, could this be causing the problem? I suspect it might be as I had a Renault Clio with a blowing exhaust near top end before and the engine would drop out at times. Now I know the engine in the 89 480 ES is a Renault engine also, so I think that because the exhaust is blowing near top end/at manifold, the lambda sensor is perhaps not taking correct readings and so is causing the engine to drop out. Can I have your thoughts on my theory! Plausable or not?!

Thanks!

[480esVolvo]

Check the engine temp sensor (cold start sensor) especially for broken wires.

One quick way is to disconnect it and see if it makes any difference

Disconnected Sensor and ran really bad so think sensor is working or part working

[480esVolvo]

Put a decent amount of petrol in and check if you are not getting a vapour lock in the tank .

No vapour lock as car has over half a tank of fuel. Still need to check crank position sensor and Clean idle control valve, althoug does idle ok at correct engine temp so may not be the issue...

[Iroll480]

Now I know the engine in the 89 480 ES is a Renault engine also, so I think that because the exhaust is blowing near top end/at manifold, the lambda sensor is perhaps not taking correct readings and so is causing the engine to drop out. Can I have your thoughts on my theory! Plausable or not?!

You're right about this theory, an airleak in the exhaust system before the lambda results in the lambda acting up. The lambda gets the wrong readings (too much O2 in ther exhaust gasses) and tries to correct this by adjusting the fuel mixture. I think this is the reason of the engine cutting out at a certain temperature.

[glasgowjim]

Col you are talking total rubbish as usual !