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240 Rainy day frustration

volvoboy90

sanna kärlek är svensk
Joined
Jun 1, 2011
Location
Dayton, Ohio
Good evening, everyone. I am (still) trying to diagnose a stalling problem with my 244.

'89 244+T lh2.4 T5WC-Z

My stalls now only occur when it is raining, or if, by chance I use my windshield washers. Definitely moisture related. After a significant length of driving, or the rain lets up, the issue goes away. Seems to be ignition related. Crank position sensor is only 4-5 years old. Ignition wires are bougicord, approximately the same age. Will stall when sitting, when moving under throttle, it will just cut right out. Fuel Relay is known good.

The reason I feel it is ignition related, is due to when it occurs, I can pump the throttle pedal, and the car will backfire, which tells me that it is still trying to inject fuel, but isn't getting spark.

Merhaps an ignition module? or perhaps the starter switch itself? One of the times this happened, while my headlights were on, I saw a fair amount of flickering (from all lights on my dash) before it conked out.

Trying to provide as much info as I can. Really need some help trying to track this damn problem down. I took a spray bottle and misted the entire engine bay and couldn't get a single hiccup, or stutter.
 
It’s likely moisture in the distributor cap. I’ve seen it on new(ish) caps too. Poor design IMO. Unless there’s a plastic/rubber gasket were all missing..
 
I do get two codes, one refers to faulty load signal between ECU and EZK, and another refers to a faulty coolant temp sensor.

I wouldn't think a soggy distributor would cause it to just cut out for seconds, like a complete ignition cut-off, and then restart seconds later and be fine for an interminable amount of time.

Sometimes I can run through the gears and it will spurt back to life, but even that can be short lived, as it can be likely to stall again pretty quickly.
 
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use a small spray gun to moisture plants in room. Easy done-simple and good.

nothing to believe into this and this.....


backfire: into the inlet or exhaust?

ooh, it is a 1989 240: wiring loom is gone, buy a new one

good luck,Kay
 
Started moving some wires at the powerstage, and was able to get repeatable symptoms. Noticed one wire was damaged, and the shielded wire was pretty dodgy, but for the sake of ease, I reseated two of the connectors, that were loose, and it seems alright? I tried misting it with water afterwards, and ran fine, moved the wires, they were fine... We'll see.
 
Had this problem in my 87 240+T. Ended up being the bulkhead plug in the engine bay on the left side of the car. The plug looked perfectly fine on the outside but when I opened it the wires were all corroded and broken on the inside. The worst one was the white/green wire for the injectors which explained why the car would stop dead as if the key was turned off. I replaced the entire plug and the problems went away. I too was having issues with the car stalling, backfiring, missing when it was raining heavily or if I had washed the car. Also if your powerstage is in the stock position then water will get onto it when the bonnet gets wet. At least mine did so I heatshrinked it and sprayed lanolin in the connector to held drive out moisture that got in.
 
Started moving some wires at the powerstage, and was able to get repeatable symptoms. Noticed one wire was damaged, and the shielded wire was pretty dodgy, but for the sake of ease, I reseated two of the connectors, that were loose, and it seems alright? I tried misting it with water afterwards, and ran fine, moved the wires, they were fine... We'll see.

That is good. Although the 'bad' wiring stopped in 88 (87 was still 'bad'), newer models are NOT exempt. That, or perhaps someone or something had been messing with the wires before you.
 
That is good. Although the 'bad' wiring stopped in 88 (87 was still 'bad'), newer models are NOT exempt. That, or perhaps someone or something had been messing with the wires before you.

There's been an accident or 3,so the front end has been pieced back together. Damaged wires don't really surprise me. The wires had been stuck between my battery and the side of the engine bay pretty hard, which may have contributed to the condition of these.
 
Do you have any water coming in on the passenger floor? The fit of the outer groove in the wiper motor grommet is the cause of two of our 89 240's poor reputation after a rain. There's a post on TB in the projects forum identifying this as a problem with the wiper motor snout to grommet seal (butyl filled) but the problem I had was at the outer part of the grommet, which is below the end of a waterfall from the pan under the cowl.

Look for the witness mark from water at the grommet's outer edge.

wiper2604.jpg
 
I'll keep that in mind, Art. I looked around down there and didn't see any indication of water intrusion. It's something I'm particularly mindful of since I still have an original windshield.
 
Repaired wires for powerstage, replaced powerstage, completely redid my wiring for my maf, redid my alternator grounds, and still stalling. Been talking to one of my friends, does anyone have any idea about a "main relay" for lh? Not the fuel relay, but something else?
 
Repaired wires for powerstage, replaced powerstage, completely redid my wiring for my maf, redid my alternator grounds, and still stalling. Been talking to one of my friends, does anyone have any idea about a "main relay" for lh? Not the fuel relay, but something else?

LH is fuel. The "fuel relay" has inside it one control for the power to the "main" or "system" components of LH, i.e. AMM, idle valve, injectors, fuel ECU, etc., and a second control for the fuel pumps. It is that relay right below the wiper grommet.
 
So the fuel relay and the main relay are two parts of a whole relay, which is that wonderful little white box? I always thought the two circuits in that were for one pump each.
 
If you take that little white box apart to see if there are signs of stress or damage, remember to put it back upright, pins facing downward. The slightest water leak inside the cabin follows the wiring to the lowest point, including the fuse panel and any upside-down relays.
 
The one I currently have was freshly resoldered by a friend after I was having the same problem. I can take it apart and look. Is there any way to effectively test it?
 
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