As you all know, I was excited to purchase my first 240 last night, a great-looking '84 242 with an M46. This is going to be a great car to tool around in.

I just have a few quick questions about the nuts and bolts of the car: 1) What kind of oil should I use? Should I do regular or synthetic? (car has 203k)
2) How often must the timing belt be changed, considering that the B23 is not an interference engine like my beloved 850? 3) Should I change the tranny fluid in the M46 on a yearly, or twice-a-year basis? 4) Finally, about the rear end- how often should I change the differential fluid?

I know it's a really old car by anyone's standards but I have every intention of babying and meticulously maintaining my 242 just like I do with my '96 850 (which is now in storage again, by the way).

My Opinions:

If you know what the previous owner used stick with the same oil. My mental cost/benefit analysis says it is not worth the risk to change type of oil in an older engine.

Rear diff: How hard do you drive it and on what type of surfaces do you drive? If dusty dirt roads change more frequently than the 50k you might do on pavement.

Timing belt: Do you rev it up high for long periods or are you conservative? If conservative you should be able to follow the Volvo interval. If it breaks it might be at an inconvenient time and place, or be dangerours as you loose all power assist to brakes, steering. Or you could get stuck where no one knows anything about replacing it let alone can get the proper belt. Or on a dark cold night. You can inspect the belt periodically by taking the cover off and checking for oil on it, heat and age cracks. How do I know? The day I bought mine the belt broke on the drive home at night after only 11 miles. The P.O. was a penny pincher. Fortunately he was also a good guy and paid half. But I was going down the freeway when EVERYTHING shut down. Not fun. In the ten years I have owned it it has redeemed itself.


88 245A wagon 300k+ miles.

It's not old by my standards. You been spending too much time driving your brand new, high-dollar, fancy-schmancy FWD cars.

Timing belt - I don't know the recommended change interval for the b23, but every 50,000 miles should do you.

Use synthetic. If the oil seals are good it can only help you.

Probably won't have to fool with the rear diff. at all, they kinda lasted forever with no maintenance, as far as I know. If you change the fluid, that will be the last time for the life of the car, I'm sure.

Good luck, and I want to see pics. Or maybe you'd like to drive it by the house so I can cry over what I passed up?
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'93 244: 'A' cam 4 deg. advanced, 25/22 sways, custom heim endlinks, poly bushings, and a lot more styling customization than I care to recount.

Sean,


I would be more than happy to drive the car to your place sometime and show it to you. Also, I'd really love to see your 240 as well and talk about how good these cars are because, well, they're that good! I don't know why but my father absolutely refuses to own any 240, preferring instead to drive his '99 S70.

E-mail me directions to your place and maybe I can get down there on a Saturday or Sunday. The address is still jrosales@smcvt.edu

If you guys get together, allow 3 to 4 hours for a VolvoKlatsh, decaf coffee.

Takes that long to unload things, and then get on to any planned things. Like a junk yard jaunt.

Enjoy,

Bob

;>)

You're not kidding, Bob: the past couple weeks I've been selling off some of my Volvo Crap Collection, and everytime another 240 owner comes by to buy something, I end up talking to him for about three hours.
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'93 244: 'A' cam 4 deg. advanced, 25/22 sways, custom heim endlinks, poly bushings, and a lot more styling customization than I care to recount.

Just my opinion!!

Oil, if it has Regular oil for all it's life... stick with it.
Change it every 3000 miles.

The book calls for 60K miles for the Timing Belt change. I have been doing mine every 40K miles but I see nothing wrong with the 60K change.

Auto Trani... I have a manual and I change it every 100K miles.

I change the Diff oil every 100K miles.

These things have kept me out of trouble for 300K miles on my '89
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'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me http://home.no.net/ebrox/Tony's%20cars.htm

Besides the routine its going to take you a few months to realize the other needs the car may have. I bought an 83 245 that felt really good when I test drove it. A little bouncy but it had power. I thought the owner was really nice for filling the tank up and being curious about how far my house was. A few days later the bucking started with the tank a little about half. It needed some work on the in tank gas pump. Actually I switched out the sending unit and pump since they where covered with stuff from when the car sat some time. From there the motor mount, the engine wiring harness so the battery wouldn't die, the power steering rack replaced with a donor, torque rod bushings changed to poly, and a lot more. Take it one month at a time. Look it over and keep reading all the posts every day here on the BB to take into account the possibilities of what could be going wrong. Hopefully you've got a lot less than I had to deal with. But I wouldn't have traded the experience of reworking the car and saving it for any new 800 series.