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!

Nice write up on your car to tell us about what you have going on! I was thinking motor mounts right off the bat. Or was it the ding bat next to me one day, with his bass speakers turned way up. I then read deeper into your story.

Sounds like a low speed and occasional mid range speed miss. I do not like Champion spark plugs for that reason. They can make want to bang your head against a hood somewhere. Just my experience and opinon.

If your wires are a suspect. I would pop on a new set to rule that out.

Ignition systems are always the first rule in trouble elimination. Don't throw them out as it may be only one of them that is really bad and you can sort it out later for some training exercise fun.
I am always getting back a judgement for my trials and errors!

Scrape clean the the distributor cap terminals inside the cap or replace it. Inspect the rotor button carefully or change it as they are cheap too. The black or brown stuff embedded on the top goes bad, believe it or not.

The throttle body butterfly plate and housing may need to be cleaned as it will effect the idle ports to the distributor advance.

The smell could be a valve cover gasket or the rear plug seeping enough on long enough drives to be whipped up to the windshield cowling vents. Clean your flame trap as could be pushing oil out the rear main seal and that oil could be getting on the exhaust.

Check the dip stick area for it may have rubbed a tiny hole into the coolant hose that exit the fire wall there. I bend the dip stick tube away from them slightly for good measure.

Since you didn't mention it. Does the steam or smoke smell sweet or oily?

Good Luck
Phil

Thanks for your advice, Phil.

I did as thorough of an inspection of the engine as I could before sundown today. I checked to make sure that there were no obvious vacuum line faults (something that appeared to hook onto the intake manifold was hanging completely off, not sure if I bumped this off or its been off all along -- although when I reattached it there was no real difference in performance or sound). I managed to uncover my flame trap, which looks like the older metal version and is sitting on an inch or so of hose which is completely and utterly deteriorated... the whole attachment came off like butter. So, looks like a flame trap replacement is in line for this weekend. I never took it fully apart, so I just eased it back into it's place, but is it advisable to drive it in this condition any further? Hard to say how long it has been like this, but it certainly doesn't look proper.

As for the smell in the air vents: it is not particularly sweet, although it does smell a bit like coolant. I have been in cars with completely blown heater cores where there is a serious smell of coolant -- this is not like that, but if I had to pick a smell to associate it with, even faintly, it would be the sweet of antifreeze. I should have noted before that the car doesn't have any trouble with keeping cool... temp gauge will slowly rise to around 1/3 or so and stay about there no matter really how it is driven -- and there are no obvious signs of overheating under the hood... hoses are soft enough to the touch and all are warm, so I don't think there is any blockage as far as that goes.

Something else to note... it seems like the idle will get a little more rough the longer it sits. For instance, if I am heading towards an intersection and the light turns red, as soon as I come to a complete stop, the idle is pretty smooth. It is in the next twenty to thirty seconds that it begins to get more rough. Is that any particular indication, or could I just be barking at the dark?

Thanks again for your help and advice! The more my car troubles force me to work on it, the more I learn about it and the more I enjoy it -- so my brick may want to thank you, as well!

It appears to me you are finding some creepy stuff and are looking in a good place.

The flame trap is important to keep clean to reduce oil leaks from seals. If there is, less backpressure in the crankcase the engine turns over easier or runs smoother if you think about it.

Driving it with bad hoses and their connections will make it messy down there. It does not keep it from running down the road though.

The air mixture will not be as correct because the flame trap setup inputs a small amount of "air make up" going into the intake side.

When the AMM and the 0-2 sensor are working correctly, the engine becomes a self-tuning engine. The malfunctioning of the flame trap or bad vacuum hoses are all compared to a computer map for proper performance as the factory intended. A self- tuning design only works up to a point or within those perimeters. Putting things back tight, makes things right.

The throttle body has ports and the butterfly plate inside needs to be occasionally service for cleanliness. Setting the plate stop screw with the idle switch adjustment correctly, in relation to the ports, makes for good repetitive idles and a smooth take off during transitions within that computer map. You will have to read basic idle setup procedure in a manual.


The vibrations you are probably feeling are part of the check engine alert system. The one before, they came out with the check engine light bulb for the eyes!

Your car requires only an attentive driver so the light comes on in the head instead.
Now that I have written all this, correct me if I am wrong. I think the ’83 has a the LH 1.0 system.

Phil

The vibrations you are probably feeling are part of the check engine alert system. The one before, they came out with the check engine light bulb for the eyes!


How true!

My impression of the described symptoms is the idle may be affected by a vacuum leak. A possible is the vacuum to the interior climate controls, or the line to the ignition computer. Those are easy checks, not necessarily the most likely causes.

If not already done, I'd agree with a start by cleaning up the intake system. Maybe it needs a bit more than just simply cleaning the throttle body in this 83 LH2.0 car. A good while-your-at-it is a new intake manifold gasket, and a thorough inspection of the accordion AMM hose (for rub through holes) and the usual PCV system maintenance. Then a base idle speed check and possible adjustment. There's a procedure for adjusting idle, so wait until this is understood before twisting knobs and stop screws.

--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Dr. Epstein was a renowned physician who earned his undergraduate, graduate,
and medical degrees in his home town and then left for Manhattan where he
quickly rose to the top of his field.

Soon he was invited to deliver a significant paper at a conference,
coincidentally held in his home town. He walked on stage and placed his
papers on the lectern, but they slid off onto the floor. As he bent over to
retrieve them, at precisely the wrong instant, he inadvertently farted. The
microphone amplified his mistake resoundingly through the room and
reverberated it down the hall! He was quite embarrassed but somehow regained
his composure just enough to deliver his paper. He ignored the resounding
applause and raced out the stage door, never to be seen in his home town
again.

Decades later, when his elderly mother was ill, he returned to visit her. He
reserved a hotel room under the name of Clark and arrived under cover of
darkness.

The desk clerk asked him, "Is this your first visit to our city, Mr. Clark?"

Dr. Epstein replied, "Well, young man, no, it isn't. I grew up here and
received my education here, but then I moved away."

Why haven't you visited?" asked the desk clerk.

Actually, I did visit once, many years ago, but an embarrassing thing
happened and since then I've been too ashamed to return."

The clerk consoled him. "Sir, while I don't have your life experience, one
thing I have learned is that often what seems embarrassing to me isn't even
remembered by others. I bet that's true of your incident too."

Dr. Epstein replied, "Son, I doubt that's the case with my incident."

"Was it a long time ago?"

"Yes, many years."

The clerk asked, "Was it before or after the Epstein Fart?"

Thanks Art!

Now, I know what the joke was in that commercial on T.V.

There was a person that gets his e-mail downloaded on his phone faster than everyone else in the car does. He lets out an insanely long screech and then says, "That’s so stupid" and leaves it there.

Then the others get the joke downloaded. They laugh and the commercial leaves you hanging out there!

Now, I know “The Rest of the Story".

Phil