My 1987 240 wagons blower is starting to make some nasty noises. My question is if anyone has ever been fortunate enough to cure their noisy blower by drilling a hole in the vicinity of the fan and blindly spraying oil? I think I am going to try it just to see if I can beat the odds. I am just wondering what the odds are.
If it does nothing than I will bit the bullet and go in with the dremel chainsaw massacre method. I have always heard that 240's were built entirely around the blower motor, now I may well get a chance to find out while up close and personal.

Thanks very much,

Jim Lee
1987 240 Wagon ~200k
1988 240 sedan ~130k

Hi Jim,

I won't even comment on the oil spray. I will second Chris Herbst in his suggestion to pull the dash if you decide to do the replacement.

Chris is a veteran of many blower motor replacements - probably can do yours in his sleep. You can read about my one and only (in car) here http://cleanflametrap.com if you haven't already. The page also contains links to Don Foster's chainsaw writeup, and some extensive photos of removing the dash and heater core, and the Volvo factory manual with its procedure and drawings. No oil spray though.

I hope you can wait for good weather.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

"My parents didn't want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty and that's the law." (Jerry Seinfeld)

I have had great success oiling the motor bearings. After drilling the access hole in the blower housing I use a 12" long piece of 3/16" copper tube to transfer the oil. I add a few drops on 20 weight oil into the copper tube and use compressed air (about 20 psi) to blow the oil into the bearing while the fan motor is running on #2. This will not over oil the bearings and cause oil film on the windshield.

This method has works well however it must be repeated about every 9 to 12 months depending on blower use.

Keep in mind this is a bandaid to the problem and eventually you WILL need to replace the blower motor. I have done this to prolong the misery of the dreaded blower motor change out on one of my 240's for the past 3 years.

Speaking from experiance (I have changed two blower motors) allow three evenings and a couple of adult beverages to install the blower motor and resister.

Good Luck,
Mike
Laharview Farm
--
1984-244 GL with 256K (the first Brick), 1984-244 GL with 270K (parts), 1985-244 DL with 290K, 1989-244 DL with 120K, 67 Mustang (271 HP 289) with 260K and 62 F-250 4x4 (262 - 6 cylinder) with 74K

It probably won't do much if anything to correct the noise.

I personally prefer removing the dashboard to the other method(s) for replacing the blower fan, but that's just me. Some people don't like it. I like the dashboard method because it takes around 3 hours without having to remove any seats or lie on your back/side. If everything goes well all parts are replaced intact (and everything works). Somewhere I have a few pictures of the process. If I can find them, I'll upload them. The job is really not that bad.


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Chris Herbst
Scottsdale, AZ

1992 940 150k
2005 S80 30k

My thoughts are that if you are to try this,you will soon find out what it is like to have an oil film spray out across the inside of the windshield and also out of every other heat delivery port,a mess that might only be rectified by duct work replacement,unless you want to clean it out by blindly spraying degreaser in which could possibly result in at least temporary actual blindness to the occupant who's face may be in front of the heat delivery vent.
Sounds pretty bad,sorry.
My experience having changed many a blower motor is that by the time they start screeching they need far more than just lubrication.
The upside is that the need for heat this season is about gone and the motor replacement task(although time consuming)looks and sounds much more difficult than it actually is,its just like a fairly simple jigsaw puzzle with the need of only a few common tools.
Be sure to replace the resister also.
Good Luck,be carefull

I have a 87 that has made noise since new. I just thought they were noisey until I got another 240. I could get a little lub into the right spot and my noise should go away but I don't want to do it twice so I will replace it. go for it let us know if you have to do it twice.

Good luck with that! I think I'd try it too as long as you realize that you're postponing the inevitable--R&R ing the blower motor. In case you've never changed one I think it goes back to the history of the 240. It goes something like this "Once upon a time there were these Volvo engineers who decided to design and build a heater blower motor. After seeing how well it turned out the head engineer spoke up and said "Hey guys, why don't we build a car around this?" The rest is history. Once again, Good Luck!

it's actually the heater core that the car is built around, not the blower motor, although i'm beginning to suspect that it's actually the recirculation door diaphragm that the car is built around.