Very simple:
A devastating blow to the front end.

L.

Well, The headgasket went this week,the valve cover started leaking so I went to check the flametrap. Looked like half melted butter in it plus the overflow tank is at min. So I`ve got to sideline my `86 245 till I make up my mind what I`ll do with it.(Condo living). Sucks not having a garage.I have a bit of sentimentality attached to this car- I really like it but on the other hand its been a bit of a handicap ever since I`ve owned it.Thinking of packing it in and moving on. Daily ride. Bought it with 171k.
But, you try not to throw the baby out with the bathwater and keep the commitment as much as possible. This time though, practicality will definetly determine the outcome.
Mileage: shows 224327 odo broke this past summer -just use it for work and errands-maybe a few k more.
The good; All front oil seals done,timing belt,V/C gasket,breather box 9/05,had rear main and tranny seals,header pipe done 10/05, front calipers, pads and rotors done 6/05. Muffler and tailpipe 4/05, and other small maintenance here and there.Ball joints, bushings replaced a few years ago.EWH also replaced years ago. Redid TgWH. Motor and tranny pretty reliable.
The bad; The rocker panel pass. side is rusted, floorboards are starting to go too. Needs steering rack, hoses from pump to rack, Strut assembly and mounts-clunks over road anomalies, needs front seal and ins. cover gasket on drive axle, driveshaft bearing is noisy at 50-60mph.
Stuff you live with; fuel pump doesn`t shut off have to pull fuse under hood coming and going,no A/C system need a complete redo,no windows except pass front-tough in summer,no door locks, windsheild leaks, runs lean but decent.
I don`t really enjoy working on it due to lack of more than driveway tools, garage and backup transportation and of course, a good financial situation.
So thats where I`m at she`ll have to sit for awhile.I can do the HG myself but I`m wondering how long the bottom half of the motor is going to last.I`ve read that some of the posters in the thread above have been pretty sucessful going the distance w/o any serious overhauls and some have not.
Time to roll the dice.
Thanks for posting/reading everybody.
Jim S. `86 245 Central CT Mild winter so far.

Still haven't stopped. Bought it in 1980 (new/demo) as a replacement for my 1974 142 (167,000 miles. Still my daily driver at 287,000. Drove it to court my wife, drove it to New York to get married, used it to bring both my kids home from the hospital after they were born, they each learnbed to drive in it, etc., etc.

Combined 90 mph impact speed...

My parents took their last 240 out of rotation (i.e., got rid of it) because they wanted to buy a new one!

Seriously, their first 240 was a '79 242. With a kid (me), it was time to get a four-door car in 1989. They went to the dealership to look at the new 240s and 740s and found a buyer for their coupe before leaving. We came home in a brand-new 240 sedan, which is the car I'm now driving.
--
'89 244 GL -- 116,800 miles (see profile for info on car)

1986 245 wagon given to me by a VERY agitated wrecking yard owner/used car dealer I drove it nearly 2 years and sold it to a friend for $600, she needed a dependable car, now she has been driving it nearly 2 years.

1989 244 bought at "abandonded vechicle" auction for $150 drove for a year and sold last fall at auction for $300. I saw this one in town just yesterday pulling out of a gas station...I had nearly quit kicking myself for selling it then there it is...I'm going to need softer shoes.
--
rust free in west Texas

last one was '88 245: new exhaust, new tie rod ends & other steering bits, Boge struts & shocks, Michelin tires, Nakamichi CD player & all new speakers. Only used it occasionally, when either the 965 or the S70 was down for repairs or maintenance. Annual insurance (million dollar liability, UM, UIM, and a lot of med pay) was higher than the market value of the vehicle; gave it to somebody who needed it more than I did.
Previous, '81 244 GL. Got around 600,000 miles before the odometer quit, and a lot of miles thereafter. Sheet metal got so ugly it had to go; donated to drug task force as undercover "campus car".
'78 242 major sheet metal rot; sold cheap, running great
'75 245 traded on '81 244
--
We have met the enemy and they is us. [Pogo] S70 T5 cop car : Rough Rider suspension, Walmart fog lights, eBay speakers, ambiance by Pall Mall, trim by Le Duc d'Tape, 8-channel THD by OEM amps

Stopped driving my faithful '79 244 this past fall when I found a much more modern '84 245... I prefer wagons, and this one has overdrive, whereas the '79 is a straight 4 speed.

My brother had a rock jump into the steering rack/crossmember of his 245 last week, so the faithful 244 has completed the 4 party circle and is back in service for my brother for the second time around.

--
-Matt I ♥ my ♂

OOH, ME, ME, I'VE GOT A GOOD ONE!

My last 240 was actually my first. It was a '78 245 which I got while in college, after the Corolla I was borrowing from my brother got ripped off. My parents agreed to help me out, but only if I bought a car from my dad's mechanic who sucked. He was selling this car on consignment for 700 bucks, and it was, for me, a take-it-or-leave it deal. We got it home and realized that, as an example of the shape it was in, the power steering pump was tied onto the side of the block with a bootlace. I made "Kamakiri" stickers and stuck them all over it.

We had the power steering pump studs drilled out and replaced twice, and they broke again both times. The power steering would quit unexpectedly in the middle of a turn, of course. I know enough now to figure the engine mounts were shot and the vibration was wrecking the studs, but I didn't know that then, and as I said, my dad's mechanic sucked. Also, the car wouldn't start dependably, and stranded me in Boston several times (I worked in Boston and lived 25 miles outside of town). Slapping the guilt on my folks for saddling me with this beast, I would get them to have their mechanic come up Rhode Island with a flatbed (he enjoyed driving his flatbed far more than working on cars) and get the car to fix it. All in all, it was probably no less dependable than the MGBs I had had (though it was no moreso, either), but with MGs, at least you expect them not to start.

It got to a point where I simply decided I wouldn't get it fixed anymore. Literally the same day I made this decision, the front brakes went metal-on-metal. When I went to replace the pads, I found one of the calipers seized. I relented enough to send it in to a nearby shop to see if they could free up the stuck piston. When the guy told me it would need a new front right caliper, I replied "Junk it." His response was classic: "Wha?...but it just needs a caliper." "Junk it," I said again, "I'm all done with it. I'm coming down to get my stuff out of it and grab the stereo, and then you can junk it." I told my folks, and they had their mechanic come up and get it back.

Had I known then as much as I do now, 15 or so years later, I could probably have maintained this thing, but I can only say that at the time it drove me absolutely nuts. Plus, it was an automatic, and I've never liked automatics. So I dumped it.

-EdM.
--
'90 240DL Wagon 'Lola' -- '72 1800ES 'Galadriel'

Bought my first Volvo, a 79 242 GT from my brother in '82. He bought it new as a leftover in 80, but couldn't afford the payments. Loved that car, but had to give it to the wife in a divorce settlement. She drove it into the ground, parked it in her yard and finally junked it (by the way, I got the kids in that settlement, so I made out slightly better than her; they're still around). Took a long Volvo hiatus and have owned many cars in between that first one and the 87 240 I bought last fall. I think I like this one even better than the GT, or maybe it's just my age. I hope to keep this one for a long time.

We were origninal owners, 1989 244DL 99K, car gave her life in Jan. 2002 protecting the occupants while slamming into a creek bank at 50MPH. Engine still ran, every last piece of sheet metal was wrinkled including the floor boards and trunk (not hit in rear). Car was three feet shorter in the front and the engine was up to the #3 spark plug against the firewall, all four doors still opened and closed like new. Since it was the cars request to be an organ donor (written on the back of the title:)), I found a 90 244 with a trashed engine. Did a drivetrain swap out of the 89 and her heart (and rare quirks) are still with us.

The 90 244 will be up for sale in June or July of this year, by then, I should have the 92 245 Restomod done and the 06 XC70 should be here from Sweden by then. Running out of garage space! It makes me sad thinking about letting the 90 go, especially since she has served us well and is in great shape. I'm sure the dealer won't give me spit for it on trade-in, so let me know if you are interested

jorrell

Last one I euthanized was an '83 242ti (non-flathood). Rust, my god the rust... It had a nice paint job, but structurally it was bad, bad, bad. To squeak it through inspection I took a 14" gas chop saw to the junkyard and cut the entire back 4 inches or so off another 240 - and used it to replace the rear of my car which was entirely absent behind the taillights and along the lip behind the bumper. I stuck 2 used doors on it. I welded new rocker panels in. The next year I gave up when I noticed the cancer in the trunk-wheelwell junction had spread to the point that the upper spring seats were working their way through the frame (and I'd never seen that happen on 240s). Needed a turbo, rear calipers & e-brake shoes. The doors installed the year before were now perforated. Sad day indeed when the carcass got hauled off to the crusher.
--
Chris, Dartmouth NS Canada 70 M-B 280SE, 83 245DL, 84 244 turbo, 90 780 turbo, 92 VW Golf, 90 740 Rex/Regina

Geez, I'll have to get into my mental archives for this one.

1975 245DL, B20F, stick. Did well, except for times when it just quit running. #1 en route to catch flight to London (UK). #2 while driving from Van Horn Texas to Ft. Davis, in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Cure? Wait for 30 - 45 minutes. Traded in for a 1979 245DL.

1979 245DL, B21F, stick. Drove for-seeming-ever. Trusty steed. At the last it needed head gasket, brake "octopus", front suspension parts, tranny wouldn't go into "R", radio quit, more that I don't recall. Finally stripped what I thought was re-useable, and the crusher-guy hauled it off. I almost cried.

1981 244DL, B21F, auto. Entangled with a pick-up turning left. She crunched up my left side, from parking light to tail light. Totalled. It was sometimes scary, since this one and the '79 had exacly same dash. Easy to hit the clutch, but find that you're in the 1981 and have slammed yourself into the wheel, hard, since you've hit the brake.

1983 245GL, B23F, stick. Great car. Bought from a broker. Cheap due to a rust hole below the driver's seat which I had repaired. Good leather seats. Has a bit of rust at the base of the left side "C" and "D" pillars. Went into storage when engine seized. Had shut down to re-hab the main wiring harness. Took too long, I guess. Turned over engine and it made 1/2 rev and seized. Still in covered storage. Someday...

1984 244DL, B23F, auto. Got by trading in the totalled 1981 244DL. Stopped driving due to more repairs than I could get the energy for. New brake octopus, right side tie rod, ball joints, crappy paint job after two wrecks, rust on roof around bondo patch, rusty trunk lid, otherwise could be fixed and fired up and driven off.

1984 245GL, B230F, auto. Bought when brain not running right. Ran OK, now won't run, has problems unknown. Used to store lawn mower, works fine for that.

1986 244GL, B230F, auto. Bought from broker. $1800. Was my daily driver until wife.sig moved up from her 1988 GL to her 1997 965. Still runs OK, and is more fun than the 1988. Has turbo 2-1/4 inch one-muffler exhaust, engine is tight and quick. Needs a/c work, heater switch resistor and valve, harmonic balancer, all front engine seals, air hose, all belts, power steering rack that doesn't leak, ditto for headlights and tail lights, driver's seat leather side seam ripped. Still have and drive. Shift at 3500+ rpm, love that exhaust note.

1988 244GL, B230F, auto. Bought from original owner at 95K miles in 1998. Had records of service at local dealer from birth, except for the front end body damage repair. Clear coat on hood shot. Still in service. Runs rich and rough.

1997 965, B6304, auto. Bought on eBay last May. 128K, and got the Nashville Volvo dealer records on it. All records but the left front end body repair which was discovered last week while Volvo Dealer body shop was repairing recent right front collision damage. Daily driver for wife.sig (collision not her fault). Rent car is a 2006 Escape, and MAN! Do we wiss our baby.

Also have two parts cars. 1984 244GL, black, no engine. 1987 244DL, B230F,, white, wreck.

Wow, longer than even I would like to read. Congrats on getting to here!

Regards,

Bob

:>)

Because a ford explorer rear ended me while the gal driving was yacking on a cell pho. Apparently she never saw the stop light or the 10 other cars ahead of her stopped.

my first 240 got replaced when i found an '86 in excellent condition for $900.. My brother ended up with the old '84 poopmobile (it is a chocolate brown wagon hence the name). That car has more rust than any running vehicle i've ever seen. it has about 230K on the clock (not working). The bottoms of the doors are rusted to the point of not being attached so they just flap in the wind, the lower floors are shot and the rear floors are gone so dont stand up in the back seat area! The car had been wrecked once and the front fender and turn light were mashed in and the hood had been replaced and poorly painted to "match" the rest. the interior is shot to hell with the nasty tan vinyl seats. The clutch completely exploded and all that was left was the metal disk but i ended up replacing it since we didnt have a backup plan for him. the brake lights had to be rewired one evening so there is wire stretched across the floor back into the hatch... the grille had been backed into and there were rust holes all throughout the car. I had originally tried to patch them by putting stainless sheetmetal rivited all the way down the sides. He's actually still driving the car today with a bad strut mount bushing, rattling power steering pump and broken studs on the exhaust pipe manifold...not for me and its soon to die i'm sure

Previous daily driver was Sophie, '86 245, RIP.

I gave her up in fall of 2004 with over 250K miles on the clock.
Serious rust hole below and behind drivers seat.
You could push up from beneath the car and watch the carpet go up and down.
Commute of nearly 900 mi/week, and winter was coming.
The open hole was cause for concern - exhaust coming in and all that.

Car was mechanically solid and reliable, occasionally needed work. Recently had the brake distributor "octopus" replaced, as well as the auto tranny rear shaft seal and bearing. Went wherever I asked.

So my son drove it for a while, some youthful encounters with curbs and such. Car survived though needed a front control arm replaced at one point due to curb encounter.

We set it aside in early '05 due to leaky water pump. In spring '05 I gave the car to his friend. In early winter 05-06 we replaced the water pump. He drove it for a while, then the alt went out to lunch. His dad - sometime race car driver, general mechanic - went to replacde the alt. but dropped it while pulling it, with cables attached. Alt. wire harness was messed up anyway, and that was the kiss of death for that harness. The kid got a used alt. into it. Battery kept draining, he had to pull the ground wire every time he parked it.

At this point, a rebuild of the wire harness under the alt. would have saved the car mechanically - but it still had the sheet metal hole in the floor. Instead, he just kept pulling the ground wire and let the car go downhill. He did drive it past the 400K miles mark.

Like my son, he ran it into a curb, but did not replace the newly bent control arm. Drove on donut spares on the front till one blew out. Someone kept beating on the car, it acquired more and more dents, and eventually smashed windows. Eventually he decided to send it to car heaven, but allowed me to pull whatever I wanted first. Which I did.
--
Sven: '89 245, IPD sways, electric rad. fan conversion, 28+ mpg - auto tranny. 850 mi/week commute. '89 245 #2 (wifemobile). '90 244 (spare, runs).

Hi. The last 240 that has been pried from my hands was my 1980 wagon, about three years ago. It only had ~290K miles (just broken in), but suffered severely from rust, including rocker panels, rear quarters, corrosion around the struts, etc.
Unfortunately, the engine and transmission (original) were still strong -- I used AmsOil (a synthetic) 10W-40 in the engine since I bought the car at 90,000 in '88) and started using AmsOil ATF a few years earlier in the transmission. The engine only used about 1 quart/3K miles (two quarts per oil change).
I junked the car -- I knew it would no longer pass the state inspection -- because I didn't want to bother trying to sell such a rusty car; besides, who would want a B21 K-Jet, or a BW55 automatic. My only regret was not removing the third seat and trying to sell that separately!

Nowadays, besides my wife and daughter's two '93 240s, I'm driving a '84, and plan to hold on to this a lot longer -- I've already patched the rust (POR15-fiberglass-epoxy) so it continues to pass, and mechanically it's perfect (lifelong use of AmsOil oil and ATF) and in many ways, actually better than new/original: better brake rotors, IPD antisway bars and poly bushings, and lots of accessories such as instruments, headrests and pads, lights, etc.

--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft, and I'll show you A-flat minor.

I was in sales at the time and I traded my 81 242T in with 125K for a 1986 744T. The only real reason I did it was a developing rust problem in the rear quarters. Other than that the car was relatively problem free.
Plus I could not pass up the extended warranty program at the time on the new Volvo's. Bumper to Bumper 5 year unlimited mileage for $550.

'85 244Ti: Broke another manifold stud, 4 total, didn't feel like pulling the head to fix it so I parted it out as it was worth way more as parts (nothing stock on or under it) than selling it not running. I still regret not fixing it, that car was a blast.

'84 245DL Bought a '92 745Ti, sold the old girl to Nickvjr with a salvage title due to a bent hood. It's still out there giving good service last I heard.

'84 245Ti Got interested in 1800s, was given 2 1800S parts/project cars and bought an 1800ES as a daily driver. Parted it out as it too was worth more in pieces than as a running car, it had most of the goodies off of the 245Ti on it.

Out here there is absolutely no reason to part with a 240 other than getting tired of it or as a financial decision. I still have and plan to keep my first 240.


--
Dave Shannon
Spring Valley, California
'63 P-210
'67 1800s
'73 1800ES
'88-240
my pages

When my fiancée told me I had to get rid of the Volvos which was qualified by saying, I could have any Porsche 911 that I could afford! (2 days after owning the 911 (this Tuesday) I hit some ice and well... I AM WORKING ON REBUILDING ANOTHER 242!!!!)

My dads 245 DL......he drove with it 12 years........and it had over 500 000 km......but he is working on construction building as a projectdirector.And he was transporting heavy stuff and the frame of the car just collapsing a little bit :) The rear doors even didnt open so well anymore :D
But dad fixed hes problem and buyed February a new 1993 year 240 :)
My 1975 year 245 DL hobbycar is still running great :)
Volvo for life!

My dads 245 DL......he drove with it 12 years........and it had over 500 000 km......but he is working on construction building as a projectdirector.And he was transporting heavy stuff and the frame of the car just collapsing a little bit :) The rear doors even didnt open so well anymore :D
But dad fixed hes problem and buyed February a new 1993 year 240 :)
My 1975 year 245 DL hobbycar is still running great :)
Volvo for life!

Not my car, but my uncle's/cousin's '85 244GL ...

- Suspension completely shot. All bushings worn out, strut mount cracking, shocks/struts/springs worn.
- Exterior paint shot.
- Interior in fair condition. Leather surface cracked, dash majorly cracked, and other aspects faded.
- A/C went out.
- Odometer went out.
- Tranny only has 3 speeds left.
- Name any fluid, because either it has or is leaking it. That includes brake (repaired), gas (repaired), oil (rear main), tranny (pump), coolant (pump), and differential (pinion).
- Flunked smog, and will need a new cat.
- Blower motor went out.

Engine still ran great, though. We did pull the remaining decent parts off it before driving it to the yard. Some trim parts, the old crumbling wire harness, some curbed up Rigels with mismatched tires. Left the new fuel pump, though, as to qualify for early retirement, it had to be running.

Bought the car for $1100 ... retired it 6 years/60k miles later and got $1000. That bought them a '90 745GL.

-- Kane ... naturally, there were ongoing costs, but even new cars have maintenance costs too, so.
--

While I would never deliberately mislead anyone, take into consideration that any info and advice was provided at no cost to you.