Just bought an '88 740GLE Wagon, basic 4 Cylinder, 79K miles. It was just supposed to be a simple airport car to leave in a parking lot while I'm out of town(220 days per year), but I have found myself doing everything with this car and leaving the '95 Suburban (great truck!) at home. I have several questions to anyone willing to help me out: the car vibrates similar to the vibration of bad motor mounts (this happened to a friends '94 Acura Integra, new motor mounts fixed the problem), it is worst when the car is cold, and goes away completely as soon as it is accelerated above 5-10 mph, it doesn't seem real bad and may be normal, I don't know....the moonroof occasionally sticks open, usually a tap of the cover over the motor brings it back to life, once I had to pull the cover and manually turn it a bit to get it to work, dead spot in the motor?also, when I shut the roof, It seems like my timing has to be perfect, hold the switch too long to shut it, and the other mode will open, shouldn't it stop automatically in the closed position?....what should my fuel mileage be (in mpg, with all due respect), I've only filled up once, got 27, city.

One quick comment, a tail light burned out on my way home from buying it. It took about 5 minutes to change both tail lamps (which were readily available at AutoZone), not to mention the fact that the dashboard annunciaton alerted me that a light was out! Awesome car, I love it, and it is the cheapest car I've ever bought :)

Greg:

If your '88 sunroof motor is the same as my '86 then one of the two relays in the sunroof motor has gone bad. Mine did the same thing. I ended up finding a used motor for about $50 and put it in. Unforunately, the new/used one had a bad spot in it also. I ended up swapping relays around and now have a good functional POWER sunroof. Stops correctly at every point; open, close, and vent.

My guess is you have a bad relay. I was never able to find a relay from an electronics store, but then again, I didn't look real hard. Too bad the relays aren't easier to come by because the motors themselves seem to be bullet proof.

Anybody out there have a source and part number for just the relays? I would like to get my other motor working for a spair.

I have a 89 740 that had some problems with the sunroof. I ended up converting it to a manual crank. Works great, the Volvo parts were about $50.00 used and took about 15 minutes to install.

Welcome aboard. Go to the 'features' pull down menu and visit the 700/900 FAQ info section. Lots of really good info there culled from previous BB posts as well as a few others.

probably sunroof switch...I had to replace mine on the 87 760T and switchgear has always been a problem. Had to replace all four of the window power switches and the power seat switch assembly too.

The vibration on takeoff may be center bearing mount worn/deteriorated, or you may be able to cheap out by shimming the center bearing mount with a couple washers. Chances are the bearing needs to come UP. I used a couple 2mm thick washers between the bearing mount and the mounting plate to shim mine up IAW the tech bulletin and it ameliorated the vibration on takeoff on my 90 740T. It didn't completely fix it so it's probably just a kluge until I can replace the entire center bearing rubber thingy.

Take out those autozone lightbulbs and get some Volvo ones. Many posts that suggest the aftermarket bulbs cause more problems. Good luck with your Volvo.