I was in an accident about a month ago (heavy damage to the right-front corner of the car) and got the car back about a week ago. The problem I have started out as spotty but over the past week has become severe, ultimately resulting in me barely making it home from work under the car's own power.

I will start from when I got the car back.

Day 1 (Friday) - Drove the car back from the collision center with no problems.

Day 2 (Saturday) - No problems

Day 3 (Sunday) - I have been driving for about 5 minutes and I go to shift and the car loses power as my foot hits the accelerator right after the shift. It was a quick blip and everything returned to normal. It happened again during the drive.

Day 4 (Monday) - I am exiting my neighborhood and the car is coasting in neutral and it stalls. I try and start it back up but it doesn't want to cooperate. I have to tap the accelerator to get it going then everything was fine. I turn out of my development and the the throttle blips a bunch again as I am accelerating. The problem dissapears for the rest of the day.

Day 5 (Tuesday) - The car stalls twice on the way home from work but started right back up with no problems.

Day 6 (Wednesday) - The car stalls several times to and from work and the blips in power are getting longer. Now I start to notice the smell of gas (or very rich exhaust) coming through the vents in the car when I have the fan or AC on.

Day 7 (Thursday) - Same problems as yesterday.

Day 8 (TODAY) -

Part One - Everything was fine until about 20 minutes into my drive and the car got a case of the blips again. But this time they last for about full 5 seconds. During this time when I step on the throttle the car is extremely slow to respond and when it does it seems to accelerate under half the power in should ... all while the car's revs are jerking up and down. I finally arrive at work.

Part Two - The car stalls twice immediately after I start it. Starts fine the third time. About 20 minutes in, the car bogs again ... this time for about 30 straight seconds. I am feathering the throttle to keep the car from stalling the times I am in neutral. If I put my foot on the gas too hard the engine starts to stall. It gets so bad that at one point I cant even get the car to accelerate any more so I pull off into a Volvo dealership parking lot. I let the car try to idle. It manages to stay running at about 200 rpms (although sounding like the car is about to explode). The cabin of the car is immediately engulfed with smell of gas. The CEL turns on. I shut the car down and start it again ... and it starts just fine! It is idles normal for about 3 seconds then the crap comes back but not nearly as bad. I carefully get the car back on to the main road and all of a sudden the problem dissapears and it runs fine. I make it back to my house without a problem.

***** End of story*****

Ok so in review here are the facts and points of interest

1. When the car bogs and loses power, either momentarily or steadily, I get the smell of rich exhaust or gas coming through my vents when the fan is on. The smell is present only when the car is stationary. It goes away when the car is moving.

2. When I pulled over into the Volvo parking lot I looked at the Air/Fuel ratio and it read 9-10 while trying to idle. But on the flip side, right before this point, the car was in gear at about 4000 rpms and the accelerator wasn't responding at all ... the Air/Fuel ration was being displayed as 40+

3. My gut feeling is that either I have a problem with fuel delivery somewhere or an electronic problem with the Vortech box.

I know this was an annoying read but any input would be appreciated.

 

Check your spark plugs.

 

Update.

After I got done posting this story about what happened, I went back outside and started the car up and popped the hood to see if I could find out any more info about what was going on. And, of course, the car wouldn't act up for me. I started nosing around the engine bay, pushing in all the electronic and hose connections making sure they were in. My hand brushed against the Vortech blue fuel unit ... I think it is the FPR. When I did that the engine sputtered for a quick second. I started messing witht he hoses going too and from the FPR but couldn't replicate the problem. I then started jiggling the FPR and the engine sputtered again. So at this point I think I am on to something but I can't think of anything else to do other than mess with it some more. So I start "beating" on it with the palm of my hand and it after a few taps the engine stops sputtering and I can't get the throttle to blip anymore.

Everything at this point seemed to be fine. I get back in the car to take it around the neighborhood and the CEL dissapears. I drive for about 10 minutes with absolutely no problems.

I have no idea what conclusions to draw from this but all I know is I am happy.

 

Haha, that's an excellent solution.

"How'd you fix it?"
"Beat it with this palm like so."

 

Hit on the RIGHT side and teh FPR has a problem? That doesn't seem right unless it is mounted in a different place than the CT unit.

Have you contacted Vortec about it?