Hey Brickboard,

Over the past several months, I've noticed that my 240 seems to have developed a minor vibration. It's a manual transmission, and I can feel it while driving through the stick shift as a slight vibration. Sometimes, at idle, it gets more pronounced and I can feel it in the steering wheel and the chassis of the car (for instance, if I have my arm resting on the door panel) -- but not so much that my body is swaying with the car... it's just enough to warrant serious notice and some concern.

My first thought was motor mounts (the engine, at idle, visibly sways and shakes -- but smooths out nicely with some gas) -- but the first thing a mechanic recommended after I bought the car less than a year ago was to change the motor mounts, which I had him do. This last week I changed out my spark plugs, figuring that one of them may have been responsible for bad timing -- but they all looked fairly normal, but with some dry, carbon-like deposits. With new ones in, car seems to run a little better, but the problem persists. I also did an oil change and replaced the air filter. I am considering replacing the fuel filter and spark plug wires -- but could either of these even be the culprit?

I am most worried that I could have a problem with a headgasket. Over the past couple of days, I've been getting intermittent steam or a very light smoke through the air vents, but it does not seem to be at all associated with driving at any given speed or idling (when I drove it to work today, it would sometimes happen when driving at 50mph, and sometimes when idling, usually only for a minute or so at a time). I am not getting any kind of smoke or steam out of my exhaust, and there is no coolant in my oil and no oil in my coolant (although I know that none of these are sure-fire symptoms). I don't seem to have any loss of power or fuel economy, but I can't quite be sure because I'm not entirely familiar with what a 240 should be able to get (this is my first, but certainly not my last). I average somewhere around 250 miles to the tank.

Does anybody have any advice or first-step suggestions on how to go about resolving the vibration issue? Is this merely typical of a Volvo this age, or does it signal a looming problem?

Thanks and cheers!