New (to me) 1.8 petrol car won't start. Grrrr.

[pphilpot]

Hi all

First of all, I'd like to say a big hello to you all as a new member here. I'm from the Volvo V40 side of the fence and have had great help from the Volvo forums in the past, and this one looks just as good, if not better!

I have just purchased a 1999 (V Reg) 1.8 petrol on Friday, and it was running sweetly on Saturday morning when I went to put fuel in. Then my wife too it out and it hesitated a few times during the 20 mile journey, and then cut out near to home (thank goodness). Now it will not start again...

I've scoured these forums for possible common faults, and I've checked the TDC sensor with a multimeter, and all appears good with that. I took off the coil pack strip and popped a spare spark plug (from my Volvo) into one of the 4 holders an d turned it over without seeing it spark. I've checked the ingoing power to the coil pack strip and thsat'd giving a voltage.

So would I be correct in assuming that the coil pack strip and given up on all 4 plugs? Are these a common fault on this model? I also had somebody hold the multrimeter to the plug connector and to earth (the engine) and no voltage was seen while turning the engine over...

By the way, the seller has mentioned that he had an intermittent fault of it running poorly/hesitating and the garage thought it may be the idle control valve and gave it a clean. The problem went away (as do all intermittent faults Has the coil pack been going for a while...? Is this how they die?

Many thanks for any help/suggestions that anybosy has.

[teamster1975]

Welcome on in Phil!
Odd one this, the petrol's are usually pretty trouble free. If there is power to the coils but no spark I'd firstly check the engine earth strap. mjb had trouble with this a while back, the connection is under the battery tray from memory and his was pretty corroded up. In fact you could try a continuity check from the engine to the battery -ve

[pphilpot]

Hi teamster1975 - Thanks for the tought on this. I've just gone and checked for continuity between the engine and bettery -ve and all is good there. Do you know if there are two coil packs in the coil strip or just one? i.e. has the (only) coil failed - surely 2 packs can't go together...

Thanks again.

[pphilpot]

Hmmm, this isn't a very good introduction of myself to you all.

I just remembered to check the fuses, and fuse 27 had blown. D'oh. Swapped another 30a fuse to test, and it started!

Now I'll have to get a handfull of 30a spares until I work out what blew the fuse in the first place - I guess that will be our next meeting. Until then, happy 406ing

Cheers all.

[teamster1975]

Glad you've cracked it!
Maybe one of the plugs' insulation breaking down?