My sons 1989 245 has an dead temp gage,it does not move at all.Just laying there like an dead fish,On my 91 sometimes it will go up and down.This gage is just dead??

Joe,
Check out this site. My son got an 87 240 and it also had a bad temp gauge, just like yours, totally dead. I performed to temperature compensation board bypass and it has worked great ever since. I did some searches on the web I found out that this is a relatively common failure. I read somewhere that the earlier models did not even have the temp boards in them, but they put them in after volvo started getting complaints of "erratic temp gauges". The board was supposed to smooth out the high temp peaks and not make drivers freak out when they were going up a grade and noticed the temperature climbing--like it should. Good Luck.
Mike

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=30645

Does the fuel gauge work OK? They both get power from a 10-v SCR.
--
1986 Volvo 240DL wagon

Yes it works good

I would check the sensor first. Disconnect the wire to the temp sensor on the engine. Ground the wire. Turn the ignition on. The temp gauge should move to the top of the range. If it does, it's a bad sensor. If not, it's a bad gauge or wire to the gauge.

Mine turned out to be a bad wire. Let us know what you find out.
--
1986 Volvo 240DL wagon

My rattle was merely that the bottom metal latch had loosened and moved foward a bit. Where the rear door comes down there is an adjustable(slightly movable) part that the rear trunk door hooks onto.You see it right in front of you when you open the rear door and looked down. It catches a lot of dirt.
I loosened mine and moved it around and tightened( I had to try a couple places to find the right spot) it and found the rattle was gone. It is worth a try. Hope this helps.