Splutering engine please help

[tomturnipman]

I have recently purchased a 480 ES 2ltr auto, all was running fine till at a set of traffic lights the engine spluttered with the revs dropping down to 400 nearly stalling then going back up again. I managed to get home but then she spluttered once and died. Now it would not restart till cool. I have so many ideas as to the problem, the first thing I’m doing tomorrow is change the spark plugs that’s as far as my expertise go. Now I know that this car is very electrical orientated as a friend of my had his go wrong spent loads of money on the problem, then he had a car electrician fixed it for £12 of parts and hours work. So any ideas welcome.


Tom Rick
(Turnipman)

[martinholmesuk]

From the 480 FAQ

F.A.Q. - MY RPM IS TOO HIGH.

If your car suffers from a high RPM you can try using injector cleaner. Don't expect miracles right away, but let it do its work for some time. Just pour it in your fueltank and drive for about 200 km (read the instructions on the bottle). You should be noticing an improvement by now ...

You could also check the valve, which is connected on the inlet-manifold. It could be full of debris ...
Its connections are 2 tubes, and one connector on the bottom, don´t know the exact name for it. Clean it and your car should run fine.

A possible other cause could be the lambda-sensor...

.A.Q. - ENGINE SOMETIMES SHUTS DOWN

This is a very nasty and dangerous problem.
We know it already has destroyed at least one 480. What happened was that it had to stop for a traffic jam and when slowing down the engine shut down. The 480 had almost no more brakepower and crashed into the traffic jam with about 50 KMH!

So if you experience these problems, SOLVE IT! The problem was the sensor.
First check the wiring from and the connection with the enginetemperature sensor. If this appears to be in perfect order replace the sensor itself. One of the possible sideeffects when solving the problem this way is that an erratic idle you suffered from has also vanished.


Another possible source for an engine which shuts down sometimes is a bad connection with the battery.
Someone contacted me that his car shut down sometimes. He had just had the battery disconnected because he installed another CEM. By tightening the connectors on the battery everything was running fine, so if you have had the battery disconnected be sure it's tightened enough!


Finally Matthew Soulsby told me he has a Volvo 480 ES 1987 ("D" reg) and was experiencing idle problems and frequent stalls. The engine would sometimes soar to 3500 RPM when engaging the clutch. The problems have all been sorted when he had the automatic choke device replaced.

F.A.Q. - MY ENGINE DOESN'T RUN IDLE.

Ever complained that your engine doesn't run idle? You might have heard answers varied from 'that is perfectly normal, comes with the car' to 'well, as long as the RPM stays within certain limits you have to accept it'.

Rubbish of course! The 480 is a car, and all cars (yes, even the 480) must be able to run idle.

Then why saying that erratic idle belongs to the 480? Well, probably because it is very hard to find out where the problem is. There are many possible causes for erratic idle.

We have made a summary of solutions that worked for other 480 drivers. If your engine doesn't run idle, there are several possible causes and solutions:
BTW: The solutions are posted in a random order ...


You can use another air filter. Pelle has inserted a DIRECT AIR FILTER and noticed a much stabiler idle.

It can turn out to be a hose, connected to the EGR valve, located below the battery, attached to the battery shelf. Try to disconnect the small black hose thats connected to the EGR and hold your thumb on it and hopefully the engine will run as smoth as B18 should do. If you decide to close this hose, the engine may run more stable, but without EGR, which is bad for the environment.

You could check the valve, which is connected on the inlet-manifold. It could be full of debris... Its connections are 2 tubes, and one connector on the bottom, don´t know the exact name for it. Clean it and your car should run fine.

In this case the motor is the B18FT with the Bosch LH-jetronic system. The solution was to change the fuel pressure regulator. This unit can be found on the engine at the same level as the distributor and just behind it (towards the rear of the car). It has two tubes on it. A larger one which returns fuel to the tank and a smaller one which goes to the inlet manifold just downstream of the butterfly valve. In my case when I disconnected this small tube from the pressure regulator (engine running) fuel leaked from the regulator, not a jet of fuel but still enough so that when the car was parked for a while after running there was a build-up of fuel in the inlet manifold. The idle problems have also gone away, air and fuel was getting into the inlet after the butterfly valve which was messing up the settings (actually it was not possible to get the settings correct). Those of you with hot start problems it is worth a check, it only takes 5 minutes to take the small tube off. If you take the larger of the tubes off, or if you take the unit out, be careful. The fuel may still be under pressure and the exhaust and turbo are just below the unit. Be warned a new unit costs 110 EUR or the best part of 70 pounds for our almost European cousins in the UK.

You can try something in your fuel tank called REDEX GASOLINE ADDITIVE (fuel injection cans only). This will clean up dirt which is building up in your engine. Some people said this really improved their engine idle.

This is a possible solution when your car has problems performing a cold start. The ECM is getting a lot of data for the engine to run stable, among them is the temperature sensor. You can try to disconnect it and clean the connector's. If you reattach the sensor and start the engine you might notice that your problem is gone. You can change your sensor just to be on the safe side...

Just try the obvious first, like cleaning the throttle housing, and idle valve first. Check your plugs, and plug cables,distributor cap also. How about the air filter, is it ok? Any airleaks?
To find a airleak, spray starting gas around the hoses and flanges to the manifold when car is idling. Any increase in rpm's when doing this, indicates a possible airleak. WARNING, be careful when doing this, because the exhaust manifold is hot. These hoses get hard over time, and have a tendency to crack. If you do this, it would not cost you much, except for some of your time, and you can eliminate these items for your serviceman if it doesn't work.

This may be the solution if your car sometimes starts and sometimes doesn't :
To solve it you can strip the entire starter-circuit-wiring and have it renewed. This can sometimes help.

Matthew Soulsby told me he has a Volvo 480 ES 1987 ("D" reg) and was experiencing idle problems and frequent stalls. The engine would sometimes soar to 3500 RPM when engaging the clutch. The problems have all been sorted when he had the automatic choke device replaced.

A final problem cause may be the lambda sonde, I don't know anything about the details of this device since I don't have it...


Let's hope this info will solve a lot of erratic-idle engines...

[tomturnipman]

Thanx for that ill get on it straight away.

[martinholmesuk]

Hi Tom, Glad to help If reg you can sine into the main site and it has lots of good information that you can use. www.volvo-480-europe.org