What a slick car.. and a completely different feel from my 240 Turbo. I "bought" this thing from a friend to legally transport it (insurance will cover recently purchased cars, blah blah blah).

Yowza. It's so smooth and damn comfortable... and it's even got a not so intimidating engine compartment.

But I've got two questions:

It may or may not have the original motor, but the dash claims it's got about 209k miles on it. It makes a diesel like noise that doesn't go away or really worsen when warm (or cold). Would that still be piston slap? Or could valves make such a noise?

The fuel tank appears to be leaking from the filler neck (when full). Is this fixable, common, or otherwise easy to deal with?

I think I want one. If only they made the wagon with that neat-o multilink rear suspension (without those !@#! expensive nivomats).

- alex

'85 244 Turbo

Yeah, pretty cool car - amazing for its day, not bad these days. The regular 760 problems will soon run your wallet down (climate control stuff, usually) but the engine is great and they're smooth and fast.

You did indeed hear the wonder of piston slap- really common in high-mileage turbos. "TOCK TOCK TOCK TOCK" right?

Fuel fillers have to be replaced when they do this- even had one where the rubber somehow deteriorated and let rainwater drip down a drain tube into the tank, and it ran like crap because the tank always had an inch of water in it... weird!! Probably only available new or find one at a junkyard.

The only way to get that IRS rear in a wagon is to get a late 965 or V90, also both gorgeous cars, again smooth and fast. And damn those Nivomats anyway.
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 86 244DL, 87 244DL, 88 744GLE, 91 244: 808K total

Yeah, it's pretty cool even compared to some more recent cars. However, it's my friend Sam's so it won't be draining my wallet anytime soon (I've got a 240 for that :-D)). A 960 isn't really in the cards for me tho. Stylish, but far too expensive (to buy and to maintain), besides I like the good ol' redblock.

More questions tho:

Piston slap.. oh piston slap. The dang thing sounds like a diesel, but the noise doesn't really subside much when the engine's warmed up (right now it's got 5w30 dino juice). My B21FT makes this constant ticking noise that I assume is the valves or damperes.. but this sounds a bit deeper. I thought piston slap should go away when the engine was warmed up? Or is that just another urban myth?

Climate control troubles? What climate control troubles? I thought that the 88+ had an improved ECC (along with the new headlights). Oh well, it works fine (for now).

Can the fuel filler neck be replaced without dropping the tank? Is it the same neck as the other (live axle, smaller tank, etc) 700s?

About the (front) wiper linkage, what sorts of things usually go wrong with it? The two wipers seem to be reasonably disconnected from any sort of linkage... well the whole thing seem stuffed up. Does the dasn need to come out to get at the linkage?

I had a few other questions.. oops already answered in the FAQ :) Time to save some money and do some crazy things to that car... wait.. time to save money and do crazy things to MY car.

I'd just like to add here that the two of us got some great moral support, assistance, and a few nuts and bolts from Paul at Swedish Auto Service in Reno. Boy that Volvo dealer (Bill Pearce Olds/BMW/Porsche/apparently Volvo) is essentially usless.

- alex

'85 244 Turbo

The multilink does indeed have Nivomats and what's more, with Nivomats you cannot convert to ordinary shocks.

George

--
1987 745 GLE Turbodiesel Intercooler (D24TIC/M46) 190k and 1988 745 Turbo Intercooler (B230FT/M46) 290k

Yup. I just *wish* that I could get a Wagon with the multilink setup and no Nivomats. But I suppose the biggest problem would be space. That multilink setup takes up huge amounts of space (no more easy jacking points, etc), and I don't think it would fit on a wagon.

Buttt..... you can convert them to non "regular" shocks. There's an entry on the 700/900 FAQ written by someone who has converted a sedan to IRS w/out Nivomats. What's more Mike Aaro of Unitek fame mentioned a while ago that he has suspension stuff for the 700/900 IRS setups (and implied that this included Nivomat conversion stuff). If cost were no object..

- alex

'85 244 Turbo