Just like to know is a 1987 240 GL have disc brakes all around ? front and back ?

Thanks

Yes, All Volvos since something like 1975 have four wheel disc brakes.

Rene

Some of our historians can be more precise, but I know that my son's '75 244GL "Green Machine" had 'em. IT also had the re-enforced door infrastructure, now called SIPS (perhaps not exactly what they offer now, but the side impact protection was there).

John -- I also was impressed when I bought a beater '76 wagon and pulled off the door trim panels and saw those monster pipes -- wow! However, they *may* indeed serve a SIPS function, but the reason they were installed was to help secure the longitudinal structural integrity of the passenger compartment. The front and rear (on sedans) are designed to crush; the passenger compartment was designed to remain intact for frontal or rear impacts only (cylinders are strongest down their longitudinal axis). The pipes keep the doors from buckling, the rockers and central tunnel (more cylinders) keep the body base from crumpling. Side impacts weren't in the original design planning. True SIPS engineering I believe wasn't introduced until the 700 series -- the 200's never got it.

Rob

Rob, Although your argument makes perfect sense to me it looks like you're wrong on this. Something in the back of my mind said that Volvo was touting side impact protection well before the 740's and even the 240's.

Just out of curiosity I dug up some old brochures. Even in the 140 days those tubes in the door were touted as side protection when they were first introduced in 1974. To quote a Volvo glossy of that year, "Every side door has a steel tube welded inside it to protect against sideswipes. ... It sits between you and what's coming at you. On your side it's completely padded." The front/rear impact absorption section of the brochure talks about the steel safety cage passenger compartment in some detail, but no mention of those door tubes in that regard. The specifications section in another 1974 Volvo brochure politely describes them as "anti-intrusion bars in the side doors".

.... Hello, body shop? I was stopped on the tracks when a freight train intruded into the side of my Volvo. Knocked my coffee cup right off the dash. Any chance you can get those coffee stains out of the carpet as well as some stains that were made on the driver seat? ....

Yep, good work there. Do hope you're able to get those coffee stains removed from that inadvertant intrusion...

Dave -- great work with the literature research! Thanks for looking this up. I humbly stand corrected. It goes to show how much 'urban legend' gets passed around, and I'm just as guilty.

Perhaps another 'urban legend' safety attribute is the shape of the doors and doorjam -- I've been told the reason that the doors fit into a tapering sill is to prevent the doors from being pushed inward during a T-bone side impact. True?...or legend? ...and how about the one about the windshield fitting into a recess rather than being held on by a gasket (such as with the side fixed windows) -- to keep the windshield from being pushed into the passenger compartment -- True?...or legend?

Rob

I knew they weren't true SIPS, but your explanation of its function in keeping the longitudinal intergrity of the passenger compartment intact makes perfect sense. Still, I'd rather have those things between me and another car than not!

...And yet there are people modifying Hondas with rear drums.

I love the 965! I've got to get the tailgate handle for my car.

Rene

Actually the 140's had 'em when they came out in 67-68. The vented fronts came out on the 240 in the mid-80's.