Recently my old workhorse started coughing and stalling. This isn’t consistent at all. I’ll be driving and the car will lose power and come back to life. It also stalls at stop signs. Brought to my mechanic and left it for a week with him and he can’t figure it out. Any idea’s?
If this car has the CIS fuel injection system, I would suspect malfunctions in that quirky system.
I had nothing but problems with my Volvo’s CIS fuel injection.
Finding someone at this point who understands that old CIS could be problematic.
You need a mechanic who understands older Volvos.
And, perhaps, deep pockets.
Good luck.
I think VDC is on the right track. It is something to do with the fuel system. Agreed, if it is CIS fuel injection, suspect thefuel-metering mechanism. If this part gets clogged w/grit(from dirty gasoline), lack of power with subsequent resumption of power for no apparent reason is a symptom, as is idle-stalling. Suggest to ask you mechanic to check and replace the fuel filter, and to clean the metering mechanism. If the metering mechanism is indeed crudded-up, your mechanic should test the fuel injectors too.
Above assumes the car has been well maintained and gets its engine-related scheduled maintenance like tune ups and spark plugs. If not, the first step should probably be to do all the deferred maintenance and give the car a basic tune up first, before attempting to address the current symptom as above.