I have a 1984 Volvo 240 wagon. Recently the car has developed stumbling and an erratic idle when warming up. If you put it in gear during this time it will stall. After 4 minutes or so when the engine is warm everything is normal with the idle, and the acceleration is fine.

Recently, I took the wagon to my local Volvo dealer who kept the car for one week. The problem was duplicated by one of the mechanics. However, they could find nothing amiss with the car and changed the spark plugs which they said were fouled. They told me to do some high speed traveling on the local highway as the auto was not being run enough. All well and good but the warm-up problem returned after two weeks.

I originally thought the automatic choke was sticking or perhaps the cold start injector had failed but the service manager said everything was fine. What I did not like was he said too bad there was no diagnostic computer onboard. Also they didn't have mechanics who were familiar with the "old" Volvos.

I hope there is someone out there who can point me in the right direction in solving this warm-up problem.

Thanks in advance.


jon

I have a VERY similar problem, and have been trying to figure it out for months - but recently it has kind of faded away (the start-up idle is smoother and not much stalling after warmup) the most recent thing I have done is run two bottles of Techron through it. The post about gas variations sounds about right too.

Temp Sensor?
--
My First Volvo - stock (for now) '84 244, 230+kmi. Owned it since 9/03

I'm having a similar problem on my 1989. It starts and idles erratically and then dies. If I rev it up I can keep it going until I put it in gear and start driving. Once in gear and going it's fine and at the next stop the idle sounds perfect.

If you lived in California I would blame the problem on low fuel vapor pressure (CARB III gasoline). I have tried cleaning the throttle body, new spark plugs, check for vacuum leaks, check for air leaks, new fuel injector seals, proper idle adjustment. Nothing has worked. Recently I moved my throttle positioning switch so it would not click and that seemed to help a bit. I'm going to wait till the winter blend of gasoline to see if the higher vapor pressure makes a difference.

good luck,
Jason

Hey Jason-
This has nothing to do with your post on this issue, but I was just looking at the pictures section and saw your wagon. What a great score on the suspension stuff... Man, That is simply awesome to have found that in the junkyard.

Hoping to get that lucky soon.

Ryan
--
VOLVO LOVER WITH AN 80 AND AN 82