I think I’m a pretty good car owner: I dutifully perform all of all the regular maintenance, track down, trouble shoot and fix each little noise, flicker or stutter that comes along, and even frequent a website devoted to Volvo car repair.

We got along famously in the early years, me fresh out of a roller coaster relationship with a Toyota 4Runner with a blown head gasket, and her, abandoned at a used car lot by some Sweedish guy. Those were happy times: the weekend road trips, holidays and months of inexpensive and painless preventative maintenance and smooth, reliable driving. But, there have been times, especially recently, when I have had serious doubts about my commitment to this union.

Things took a downward turn last January with the low whine of a worn-out driveshaft hanger bearing ($250) followed a week later by the need for new outer tie rod ends ($115), but these things happen. In April. I replaced the timing belt and 3 front oil seals to fix an oil leak, TWICE ($120), the first time using cheaper, leaky, after-market oil seals, but made up for it with more expensive and laborious Viton seals the second time. I even replaced the floor mats as sort of an apology, but I guess the damage was done. No sooner did I congratulate myself on a non-spotty driveway, than black smoke billowed out of the tail pipe. I checked the O2 sensor, replaced the intake manifold gasket ($35), fuel pressure regulator ($100) cleaned / replaced the PCV, oil trap ($70) and intake hoses and we seemed like the old ‘us’. A week later, more black smoke which a smoke test ($90) finally diagnosed as an intake leak at the throttle body ($110). Oh, but on the way to pick up the new throttle body, I ended up repairing a broken alternator ground wire in the middle of lunch time traffic.

At the end of May the upper stem of the radiator snapped off and blew all of the coolant ($260), and in early June, the window regulator bracket AND the power window switch both broke ($10).

Apparently, those events were just a prelude to the late June crisis while returning from a kayaking trip in northern Quebec, where I found that I had no 1st, 2nd or reverse gears. A few hours farther into the 8 hour drive home, thick black smoke and a falling fuel gauge needle occurred. Expecting that my used throttle body had failed, I learned that the O2 sensor with only 50 000 km on it had totally failed and flooded the intake and crankcase with gas ($490). After many, many hours of ‘transmission wrestling’, I learned that the linkage rod from the gearshift to the front of the tranny had a single broken weld, but still, a ($530) bill for diagnosis and re-sealing. Thankful of not having a total tranny failure, I dutifully replaced the rear main oil seal and gasket ($42), pilot bearing ($5), clutch ($220) and got the flywheel resurfaced ($110).

In the home stretch, financially, physically and mentally exhausted, I have reassembled everything, and at last only needed to bleed the clutch, before the aluminum bleeder valve on the slave cylinder seized and of course, snapped off. A used slave ($65) was also seized, and the old slave cylinder was fused by ‘natural aluminum welding’ to the tranny. I managed to get it off but now, and a small stone chip on the windshield has just become a huge, care-wide crack.

So, I wonder: When did this car begin to hate me so much?? Was it that time when I took a ride in a friend’s younger and fancier new Cross Country? I thought we had worked through all of that. Like I said, it was just a bit of fun, didn’t mean anything, and I even used a plastic seat cover.

The future is uncertain, but watch for the ad: “1991 740 Turbo wagon, somewhat bitter, but more or less rebuilt with new parts.”