Replaced Bad/melted Coil, But Will Not Start

170

Asked by barnwood Aug 22, 2016 at 11:15 AM about the 2007 Volvo XC90 3.2 FWD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

My wife was driving our 07 XC90 3.2 one day and it starts running rough
and the "check engine" light started flashing and also the display panel to
the left said, "slow down or gear up". Within seconds the car stalled and
would not start. The engine would turn over, but not start. I am no mechanic,
but I try to do as many of our car repairs as possible. To avoid an expensive
mechanic bill, we had it towed home. Going by what my wife had told me I
immediately went online and did some research and came to the conclusion
that it was most likely a bad coil. When I got a chance to take a look I could
see that the coil on the far left was obviously bad. It had a small crack on
the top and had considerable melting/deformation. One main concern was
what made it melt in the first place, but not having a code reader or
mechanic handy I thought the best thing for me to do would be to replace
the bad coil and put a new plug in that cylinder, then I could drive it
somewhere to have it looked at to see if there was another issue that
needed to be addressed. If this fixed the problem I would change the other
five plugs as well because I know it's been over 100,000 miles since they
were replaced (if ever). Anyway, I changed the plug, put in the new coil and
tried to start the engine. Much to my disappointment it is still not starting. My
assumption is that whatever made the coil melt in the first place is what is
preventing it from starting, or that maybe when the coil went bad that
somehow damaged or triggered something else. I am not sure what to do at
this point and my car knowledge is somewhat limited. I know the easiest
thing to do would be have it towed to a mechanic and have it fixed, but I
simply don't have the money for that right now, at least not for a $1000+ bill.
Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

9 Answers

13,075

It could be that whatever caused it to melt down, could have finally blown a fuse or fusible link. Start by checking all fuses and fusable links at the power supply boxes first, and if ALL are good, use a 12 volt tester and start tracing for power from the fuse panel to the coil connectors to see if you have power all alnong the way. If you do find any blown fuses at all, change them no matter what they are marked as to what they supply, because many cars have multiple supply source fuses and some ar marked for the main system they supply, but not the secondary one if it is a shared power circuit.

13 people found this helpful.
Best Answer Mark helpful
170

JP1956, thank you very much for your response. I took your advice and bought a tester to check the fuses and found a bad one. I replaced it and the xc90 started right up. Now that it's done it seems like a simple fix that I should have found sooner, but honestly I know I would not have found the solution without your suggestion. You saved me a ton of money!

17 people found this helpful.
180

Any idea which fuse you replaced? I checked all mine and are good, suffering from same situation now...

3 people found this helpful.
180

For anyone finding this years from now, it's fuse #10, 20a fuse under the hood, don't use a tester when fuses are installed, it'll test as good...

15 people found this helpful.
50

is fuse 10 20 amp in engine compartment controls coils always blows

5 people found this helpful.

If you guys wouldn't mind,, I have same problem, my 05 xc90 died after my wife smelled burning plastic, towed it home, a couple of wires on top of 2 plugs were burned, bought all new plugs, coils, spliced soldered and taped wires, cranks but don't try to start, number 10 fuse under hood good but replaced anyway. Can anyone give me further advice please? Our only family car thank u

40

this was a life saver! My daughter call me after her 2011 volvo s60 was acting up and pulled on the side and smoke was coming out of the hood. I noticed that one coil was melted and went ahead and replaced the coil and all the sparks plugs. BTW the spark plug where the coil burnt was in really bad shape, and had oil. The car will crank but no start. I checked the fuses and the "ignition coils" fuse was burnt. Replace and started right up.

4 people found this helpful.
40

Thanks again. I have replaced 2 previous coils in my wife’s 2012 xc90. After replacing the car started right up and drove fine. Today after replacing the latest coil, the car would start up, shuddering badly for 5 - 10 seconds and quit. I replaced the rest of the coils and the spark plug on the original bad coil. There was a lot of oil on the plug and the plug was burnt up. Same result When I tried to start. I found the post, replaced the bad 20 amp fuse (#10 at the fuse box under the hood) and it started right up and ran great. Good thing the tow truck driver was 30 mins late so I was able to cancel.

4 people found this helpful.
20

i have the same thing,. bad plugs, under power, burnt a coil, and shorted other then the fuse. i get crank, no spark or injector. what controls them

2 people found this helpful.

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