So I've searched the boards for this problem with my 1987 240 automatic wagon, and although I've found several similar, nothing exactly like mine.

Drove about 20 mile today to do some Christmas shopping and noticed a hot burning rubber smell, accompanied by a noise (sounded like a humming). When I slowed down and came to a stop, I noticed the noise went away. I'm pretty sure the smell is burning rubber and not electrical. I checked under the hood, and didn't notice anything looking broken. I'm not exactly a car kind of gal, but I'm pretty mechanical, and could figure it out if explained to me what is wrong.

Has anyone had this type of problem before? I don't really want to have to take it to the shop (I'm finacially embarrassed at the moment), so I would appreciate any help!!

Either a stuck caliper, or a rusted out spring retainer on the strut mount letting the spring rub up against the tire. Check the inside of the front tires.

-Ryan
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Athens, Ohio
1987 245 DL 314k, Dog-mobile
1990 245 DL 134k M47, E-codes, GT Sway Bars
1991 745 GL 298k, Regina, 23/21mm Turbo Sway Bars
Buckeye Volvo Club

"Wrong Thread"? I'm pretty sure that my 200 series (240 wagon) is a RWD. Please let me know what I'm missing! Thanks

He meant that he posted to the wrong message. Once you do that, all you can do is edit the post. So, he just marked it "wrong thread".

As for your problem there are a few things to check for burning rubber smell. Follow your nose is probably the best idea. Lift the hood and sniff around. Since you mention that there is a noise that stops when the vehicle stops, check for something rubbing a tire. It might be as simple as road debris caught somewhere. Then there are the drive belts on the engine.

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Mr. Shannon DeWolfe -- (I've taken to using Mr. because my name tends to mislead folks on the WWW. I am a 51 year old fat man ;-) -- KD5QBL

Mr. Shannon,
THanks for the help. I'm relatively new to the brickboard, so I thought I might have something incorrect.
As for the advice, I will have to inspect the tires. I suspected that it might have something to do with a belt, but as I mentioned in my thread, it seems that only a couple of belts are visible. I have been reading my owners manual, and I plan on checking out things under the hood a bit more thoroughly. I'm a little leary in taking it to a mechanic (I'm a somewhat younger single woman) and I don't want to get taken advantage of!

Regards,
Miss Sally

It may help you to enlist a friend to look under the hood while you start the car. I recently had a problem where my AC compressor was seizing and causing a belt to smoke and squeal, but I couldn't diagnose it while starting the car since I couldn't simultaneously look under the hood.

Where is the noise coming from? Up front in the rear? Same with the smell, where does it come in from. It should be pretty clear if you can sniff out what area it's coming from, I've had a few things happen to a car or two that I was able to figure out by the smell and where it came from.

I'm going to bite my tounge and not comment on this, too easy...
"(I'm a somewhat younger single woman) and I don't want to get taken advantage of!" :)

Two things to check.

1) Driveshaft center carrier bearing. It is/has a rubber bushing (sleeve). These fail in various ways and will sound slightly different depending on the specific failure mode. Check from below the car.

Traditional American car driveshaft is a straight pipe from rear of transmission to the rear axle differential. Volvo driveshaft has a u-joint in the middle so it can flex there. Shaft stays up inside the tranny tunnel so you don't see it looking at car from the side. Center carrier bearing is that center u-joint and it's rubber bushing support.

2) Headlight relay, located on the driver's kick panel, approximately where the clutch pedal would be. The plastic connector for the relay will sometimes overheat and you get a burning plastic smell. Eventually your headlights won't work. High beam and low beam both dead. High beams will light when you pull back on the hi/low switch, but only for as long as you hold it pulled back.

It's a white plastic connector and the relay attached is silver/gray metal, cube shaped, about an inch on each side. Has 5 blade-type connectors. Plenty other relays in the car but none look like that. Cure is to splice in a new matching relay connector from any 240, 1986 and later. Usually the relay itself is still OK but of course it's easy to cut the wires and get both from the junker donor car.

If you do this, replicate the connections by copying the wire positions, not necessarily the colors. Color coding of the wires to that relay connector changed over the years but the relay did not. So for example, the wire(s) going to the center connector on your original relay will go to the same center connector on your replacement.
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Sven: '89 245 NA, 951 ECU, expanded air dam, forward belly pan reaches oem belly pan, airbox heater upgraded, E-fan, 205/65-15 at 50 psi, IPD sways, no a/c-p/s belt, E-Codes, amber front corner reflectors, aero front face, quad horns, tach, small clock.