My car works well.

I think it's the nut behind the wheel.

240K on my 240T. I like the sound of that and I am heading for 340K.

Dust, rust or bust. This car has never let me down. Sounds like a loser was the owner of your bloated weenie pig. Someone let the AT go too long. Yeah it may need service....

Sell it. Quit bitching. People like you make me vomit. Stiffen up. Get some spine, you weasel. Nothing personal, but you would be happy with a Hyundai. They run for awhile, then the cheap pieces of excrement die. End of the road, find a new car, because the cheap piece of stringy bowel movement is NOT worth fixing to drive another 100 miles, let alone 100K. Easy decision for the challenged.

I'll bet you replaced a bunch of stuff that was in OK shape anyway. Mr Shotgun.

--
Paul's Amsoil and other lubricants

It sounds to me like someone (not you Paul) is trolling around stinking up the joint again. This post sounds so much like others in the past. About once every six weeks or so. Sound about right? Same story over and over. Replaces all these things - basically subject headings from a bunch of threads over the last month or so, catagorical condemnation of Volvo, questions of why this person still has this car, and we're supposed to convince them that they should keep it and make it work well. It tuggs at the emotional strings that make it a pleasure to own and work on one of these fine motor coaches. And strangely, these threads consistantly get the most responses.

If VolVolina's car is such a POS the why indeed isn't it sold, and made a part of the past? That's a very good question and I think VolVolina is the only one qualified to answer it. If VolVolina has actually done all the work listed, I would expect a much more detailed post with a true search for information. I would expect some mechanical savy and some enjoyment of the process of diagnosis and repair. I see none of this in the post and cannot bring myself to take it seriously.

That is all.

-Steve

My sentiments exactly.
--
Paul's Amsoil and other lubricants

Back with a vengeance.

You all right there, Paul?
--
'80 DL 2 dr

Feel pretty good. Bowels are a bit backed up, but doing fine.
--
Paul's Amsoil and other lubricants

Still backed up even after that post? Geez. Get some fiber.

I agree tho. The car is showing previous neglect.... sell it now.

If you fix a car you don't like.. you'll still have a car you don't like.. only with fewer problems.

What it's replaced by.. is up to you. Just as long as you like it.

And yeah I've got plenty of problems (most do to PO neglect, and some to my own stupidity and lack of time) with my car. But hot damn.. I love it. Must be a turbo thing.

- alex

'85 244 Turbo

Ahhh, Paul, are you OK? (That was a little harsh IMHO)
--
Warren Bain - '99 V70GLT G-Valve > 70K mi, '96 965 >110Kmi Wifemobile near Manassas Va.. Check the 700/900 FAQ via the 'features' pull down menu.

Just joking - but at the core of it I meant what I wrote. But I apologize for the harshness.
--
Paul's Amsoil and other lubricants

"This car is like the plastic that makes up its interior. It's cheap - that's why this website exits."

No, this website exits for the opposite reason - because Volvos can generally last far longer than any other car out there, except maybe the best models of Mercedes diesel cars. It exists also because auto enthusiasts who don't mind doing their own work understand how well these cars were designed and built, and we want to share the knowledge and experience to deal with many of the minor (and a few of the major) problems that are inevitable for cars with 150K+ miles on them.

Those who whine and moan about the decaying plastic map pockets and yellowing headlights -the few things that were undeniably cheap and frustrating - would do well to reflect what most cars are doing when they have 150K-200K on them - rusting away in the boneyard. To be perfectly rational, the fact that Volvo made these cars to be so durable that they outlast many of their own components is actually to their credit.

But to each his/her own. If you want to sell a car that has so many new parts in it so that somebody else can enjoy the fruits of your sweat and blood, and pay many times more in payments and interest to buy something that will start giving you the same problems eventually anyway is totally up to you (do I sound a little biased here? lol)

Sooooo, how much is as is ? and what vintage is as is, with 130k ?

Al

A 1990 240DL - all systems work except for the A/C - and the heated seats - and this new transmission trouble - $3000 and it's yours - with lots of upgrades New Stereo - turbo swaybars - overload coils - many many many new parts - please buy it.

My 89 had the same problem.....eliminated problem by putting in a 5speed.....shifts on my demand and gives me great MPG (not to mention joy) in return, plus no more worries...now what to do with all this spare time. Hmmmm... I always thought it would be neat to ........

Al

I never could see why all Volvo's were not std shift anyway... Driving a std shift is part of what is good about Volvo.
Mac

I replaced everything on this car (1990 240DL) thinking I am only one repair away from this thing working right. Water pump, fuel pump, alternator, starter, kickdown cable, impulse sensor, rear shocks and springs, front struts and springs, OD relay, headlight relay, timing belt, wires, plugs, cap, rotor, upgraded turbo swaybars, new volt meter, oil pressure gauge, tachometer etc, etc, etc, etc, ONLY 130,000 miles. Now, all of a sudden she revs up to 3000 to 4000 rpm before shifting into 2nd gear, - WHAT A PIECE OF SH-T. I know of no one who spends as much time working on their car as I do. This car sucks. I've had it, why do I spend time and money fixing something that will break down inevitably? Who can troubleshoot this one? I need to fix it fast so I can get rid of it like the plague. It seems to shift fine from 2nd to 3rd and to 4th fine.

Absolutely DEAD WRONG.......

I have done all this and more than you can see...

http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/mac_muz15/lst?.dir=/&.src=ph&.view=t

(see Volvo Repair) and any thing else you wish to look at)

Since that paint, this has had renewed rear end bushings, a repaired gas tank sender, new rear shocks, repaired wire harness at the engine, repaired leather seat. Currently figuring out whats up with the constant idle speed motor, with no correct wiring diagram, which seems to be unobtainium.

During the restore the green turn signal lenses in the dash were lost.. I made new ones from a Quaker State oil bottle.

I added front fender inner liners to the rear wheel wells. I made covers from a old wheel chair to cover rectangular holes I made in the rockers. I repaired inside the rockers so water from the windshield vent would not flood the carpets.

By hand I rebuilt metal parts from a 4'x4'sheet of steel to rebuild the spare tire well.

I have no shop, and tried to paint in a borrwed shop owned by a stone mason, and got dust up the wazooooooo!!! So I tried again out doors and got bugs and 1 seconds worth of rain!!

ALL the rocker panel clips were broken, and so I made do with another type of clip for only the gods know what, and 2 sided tape, which was covered with a black vinal compund and a caulking gun.

I removed the junky roof rack, and dinged down the roof and patched that with fiber glass.....

I added a Air Dam from the same car I got the inner fenders liners from, and made the one missing mount from a rifle part.

The dam was missing the tow hitch door cover, so I made one from a old oil pan of plastic.

I made and welded floor patches.. I bought a brand new left front fender aftermarket which I am unable to return, and it fits 86 and up... I would like to get something for this..

So I bought a used fender as no new after market fender is available for the pre 86 models so far as I know.

It was discouraging to find a pin holed gas tank sender pissin gas all over the place in my first 122 miles of testings.. I JB Welded that 2 times.. Once for a fix and once to be damn sure..

I dug into the rear bushings, and then idle went to 2,000 rpm...All the lights were nuts for 3 days and I chased connection after connection.

Mind you everything was out of this car for a year... No seat no carpet... I lost a tent I bought for $200.00 due to snao and wind the 3rd seasons snow last year and that crushed in the roof a bit... Another dent I didn't have before, and a totaled tent as worthless...

I bought 1 compressor and that didn't cut it... I took it back and got a bigger one, but had to wait a month and winter came on strong!

I bought a mig welder Miller-Matic not cheap...

I had taken the car to several places for this and got $2.000.00 and $3,000.00 estimates!! Screw that! Buy the tools and do it.

You have blood sweat and tears in this, so just keep cryin a little bit more... Trash that slush box tranny, and replace it with a flywheel, clutch, and real gear box with OD, and then discover what it is to really DRIVE!

You pilot a slush box and you drive a stick!!! Mac

Years back, one of my cars did that intermittently (I think it was my '86 when daughter used it for college).

I found that the kickdown cable would sometimes loop under one of the throttle body bolts and get snagged in the "full out" position. I suspect that daughter sometimes drove at WOT (what kids don't?), and when she released the pedal, the cable would sag for a second before retracting -- and sometimes snag.

This meant that shifts were very high and hard until the cable popped free.

I ended up making a small guide that holds the cable in position even if it sags for a second.

Want a picture?
--
Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

I personally replaced the kickdown cable and have inspected it periodically - that is definately not the problem - the car basically sucks - I have a friend with a chevy blazer - 180,000 miles and he NEVER replaced anything - just the usual bull - battery, wires, etc. I am under this car EVERY weekend - basically, I guess I'm looking at $300 to $400 for a tranny rebuid or new valve body - At this point I think I'd rather pay the $300 a month for a new car and not have to screw around troubleshooting and replacing and getting dirty and blah blah blah.

I don't buy that Blazer bit at all.. I have a 84 K-10 4x4.. The only thing left as original is the tranfer case... New rear end gears in 90' 2 new gas tanks in 91'

New to me rebuilt tranny in 94' The original was full of big chunks of metal.
New to me 350 engine in 95' at 180,000 miles...

New spring bushings and shocks and batteries, and bla bla bla...

On 3rd body rebuild now.. see the "Chevy Tr"

http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/mac_muz15/lst?.dir=/&.src=ph&.view=t

Mac

A transmission power flush (or even changing the fluid yourself) will help this, but most likely not cure it.

Your mileage may vary, but if indeed your kickdown cable is properly adjusted, a sticking ball in the valve body in the transmission is most likely the culprit. You can have the valve body for the auto transmission rebuilt, or buy a rebuilt one and install it. The transmission doesn't have to come out for this job. It's about 4 hours of labour, plus parts, and new fluid.

For what it's worth, I have fits like these from time to time, and put it into perspective by realizing that I'm driving a car that's 13 years old, and doesn't cost me car payments [:-)]. It isn't a new car, and you shouldn't expect brand new car results unless you replace everything. This isn't to say it shouldn't be running well.

Good luck!
Chris
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1991 Volvo 945T @ 304K kms, in Ottawa, ON, CANADA

hello my wife has a 97 crown vic. with payments.warranty expired. thats when things break.intake manifold=600.00 it was made of plastic.three power window regulators.180,00 door latch.59.00 minus labor.power seat switch.89.00 battery 69.00 a.c.swith 67.00 terrible quality and integrity. but a good motor. my three old volvos have had few problems.none i could not fix yet. my ford payment is 3396.00 a year.plus have to carry collision. if i could i would buy a new car every two years. before they break. did i mention the ford has three computers that interact with each other i was told. how much is our time worth wrenching on our cars? i hope you can solve your dilemma cheaply and quickly.good news things will get better.bad news it wont last forever. GO MARLINS!!!

Yeah, the flush did nothing - I know it needs a new valve body - at least that is all I can think of - but really, No one I know has ever had so many parts fail on a car. This car is like the plastic that makes up its interior. It's cheap - that's why this website exits. Yeah, okay you can work on it yourself, but EVERY WEEKEND?!? I mean I never get a break, I fix - it runs great for 500 miles then something else. At the very least - I WOULD NEVER BUY A VOLVO AND TELL EVERYONE I KNOW THE SAME THING. These quirky problems that everyone loves to figure out - who needs it? I want to drive the car and not have to carry a box of spare parts (AMM, Idle Motor, Fuel Pump Relay) just in case. What is that? Who ever heard of a car that has so much B.S. riding along with it? ANyone want it as is?

Wow somebody needs to drop by with a little cash Volvolina sounds a whole lot like the car dealer/ wrecking yard guy I bought my 245 from... he was having a intermitant no start when I pulled the fuse for the pumps and scraped it off with my pocket knife...it fired right up he nearly lost it... told me "If you want that *#@%^ thing take it and get it off my yard!!! pay me WHATever...WHENever... just don't bring it back here EVER! ( that was a year ago and I haven't done hardly anything to it since)

But yeah if you don't want to work on a car don't buy ANYTHING thats 10 to 20 years old and has 150,000 to 200,000 miles on it...thats just nuts...NOTHING is going to give that kind of service...not even a volvo...where do you think we get all the used parts...
Bret
--
rust free in west Texas

Yeah, that's usually my perspective. It might seem annoying if every three or four months I have to spend a few hundred bucks to fix something (and usually it's not that frequent or that expensive), I just remind myself that to be driving a new car I'd be spending three or four hundred bucks EVERY MONTH, and I couldn't do nearly as much of the service myself, so all non-warranty repairs would be expensive dealer repairs.

Not that this perspective would be much consolation to Volvolina at this moment.

My other theory is that cars have a midlife crisis, a painful process over a two or three year period where everything that is going to go wrong will go wrong and get fixed. Once all of the weak components get replaced (admittedly that can be a long, frustrating process), the car becomes quite reliable again if all the maintenance is done right. If Volvolina unloads this car after doing that much work on it, the next owner will be pretty lucky to be getting a car with lots of new components. That's the real trick, isn't it? You never know when the next repair will be the last that you will have to do for quite a while....

This car seems to never have a final fix. I am simply chasing my tail.

Or are you just venting again?

It is obvious that we ALL feel your pain. But you seem to have an aggravated sense of expressing it. If it is really the CAR that is causing you this misery. DUMP it. Life is too short to have it controlled by a lump of steel and fabric. I suspect there are other things happening in your life as well.

I wish you the best ...

Strength and Honor
Miguel



--
Happy Motoring Miguel '86 244 and '87 245

Volvos are the cheapest goodlooking solid Old cars out there...but they do require maintainence. It maybe the classic look or something...but I wonder sometimes if it is a overvalued problem-filled acquired taste....Trouble is any other car this old (mine's an '86) will probably be in the junkyard. also look in the engine compartment of a Honda or Toyota...they just aren't very DIY friendly...(I couldn't figure out how to change the oil on an older Honda....a lot of stuff in the way....)

My first year with my 500 dollar Volvo was great but I had a job and a mechanic to do the work....this year working parttime selfemployed...I've got to do the work myself... and it's still a $500 Volvo no matter how many new parts I put in it. (this year: new U joint plus tow charge w/ slow mechanic not doing the job for three days, new alternator as old one made horrid noises as the bearing was going, Starter went bad at school parking lot..., then worst was the Air Mass Meter going and this website saved me from going to a shop to fix that expensive but easy to fix part... and I haven't been in a shop since April...but still it's been a hassle doing these things on my own. And I've spent several hours patching rust spots under and around wheelwells. And I've forgotten the bad rear bushings that took an experienced mechanic three attempts to get them reasonably okay. All this in less than a year? My former fav. vehicle was the classic Toyota truck.... didn't have as frequent problems ..but when there was a problem ... it was very expensive.. and I never got either of my two Toyota trucks past 210 K (the first one...and second secumbed to rust at only 135K!!) Volvos can easily go 'til 300K if they are maintained regularly. (admittedly I don't get into regular maintainence as the Toyotas were so reasonably consistant and gave lots of warning if a U joint or clutch was going... (still have original clutch in my Volvo....not in my two rusted trucks..)

I look everyday for another car but only Volvos seem to catch my eyes as mostly Japanese or American trucks and cars if they run are pretty pricy and if they are 500 dollars like mine...they are too expensive to fix.
Volvo= more frequent repairs but a solid feeling of safty and longevity.....but mostly they last as they are do-it-yourself friendly and parts reasonalby priced... I just a had a Toyota 4 WD van towed away and I wasted 500 dollars on it trying to fix it.... and it only gave me 40 miles until I realized I'd been had (by my hopes) as the parts for a older Toyota van are skyhigh and hard to get. Volvos have a real good parts backup and lots of mechanics if you can't do it yourself...

In other words, if you've got the bucks and don't care about how it looks (or how safe it is...) go with a nice Japanese car like Subaru (my other choice If I had the money and I'd be leery of a cheap ol' Suby...as they can really go bad when they finally do....) and when with another car and it is needing help...don't expect any help from the web and the parts aren't cheap nor d-i-y..... but I might be wrong.. (there are some subaru sites but they don't seem too active...and maybe Honda? a friend of mine just had his wife and son flip their new CRV at 45 mph.. only due to mother and son arguing and grabbing the wheel as teenager was learning to drive..(car very bad off but seatbelts saved them from injury...but flipping a Volvo is unlikely...but met an old couple who were Rammed head on in intersection totally car but they didn't have a scratch..and I met them at a Volvo dealer looking for a new replacement as they said their destroyed Volvo saved their lives.

hey, I know the feeling of getting a lemon...that rusty ol' van (Toyota) was a hope of mine..but just too much to fix... just the steering system wouldv'e been 6 to 12 hundred dollars... and every oil seal was gone... It leaked like a sieve.

let us know what other car you're interested in....

on the other hand it won't have the same feel and adventure as the Volvo.. unless you go with Saab... (yeah,,,, then I've heard lot of "Sob" stories..)