It hurts reading some of the posted complaints. I am not a mechnic, I fixed and solved all of the stalling issues that I had on my Volvo.

I have one advice: For stalling issues, if the mechanic suggests replacing anything that is not related to electrical of fuel supply - RUN,, he is wasting your $s. This is ether a fuel delivery or it is an electrical problem. First step is to try to identify which.. identifying this may be a real challenge on intermittent problems. Any car that is 20 years old, needs an owner that can fix at least the basic things. I have ~150K miles on my "brick" and it is running real well. I did have several stalling or idling issues along the way, I will give brief description and a the solution that worked for me. All of these were intermittent problems, so they were not readily identifiable:

1/ EXTREMELE rough or very rough idling to the point of loosing oil. [ this was actualy an easy one to solve] FIX: repair vacuum leak: it is in the intake manifold that cracked [ you may actualy hear the hiss if the leak is BIG ], or you have a cracked vacuum hose.

2/ Starts and runs fine, however after 1/2 hour +/- it will stall. After a few minutes it runs again,, and stalls - intermittent and real annoying. FIX: Replace the relay that controls the gas pump. [ ~$20 relay behind the ashtray under the radio ].

3/ After sitting over night, it starts fine and runs well for 5 to 20 minutes, then suddenly stalls. After 4 or 5 minutes it starts and runs well for the rest of the day. OR, in the morning it cranks and does not start.. after 5 or 10 minutes, it will start and run fine for the rest of the day. FIX: Ignition coil starting to have an internal short.,,, replace it.

4/ Idle is varrying up and down and while driving you may feel some variation on how much power you have, if you are driving down a hill, you will also feel variation on the breaking by the engine. FIX: 1/ Open up and clean the Idle Control Valve: When you open it, you will likely see a bunch of oil in the valve interferring with its operation. This is a Bosch product, it is well made and can be opened up and cleaned several times before you kill it from cleaning it. FIX 2/ The MAF sensor may need an adjustment, this is best done in a shop that can monitor you exhaust mix, to ensure that your mixture is correct and that you do not mess up you polution controll settings - this problem is kind of unlikely. IN A PINCH you can get it close by: After you drive the car so it is fully warmend up, chock the wheels, put in drive, put on the parking brake so the car is SAFELY STOPPED AND WILL NOT TAKE OFF ON YOU !!! Using a good grade tachometer, adjust the MAF for the engine to have the slowest RMP and smooth idle. You will see and hear the smoothnes of the idle, however you will NOT be able to get the slowest RPM by listening.

Other advice: If the distributor cover, and rotor have more then 70k mikes, replace them, this may also help with idle issues. If you are replacing the distributor cover, replace the rotor, the ignition wires and spark plugs at the same time. I recomend the Bosch+4 spark plugs, you will feel extra power and get a better mileage! If you have a Turbo model, the Boch+4 plug is not recomended, however I use it, I had no problems with it and it works significantly better then the other plugs - I tried them all !! [ Just tell the guy at the counter that you have a GLE model when you are buying the plugs.]

I can imagine that lot of the advice above may apply to any car... However my experience is withe the Volvo 740 Turbo and GLE models.

Good luck.