Several of you have been helping me during the last two weeks and I want to again express my warm thanks for you taking the time to help me out with your knowledge and friendly tips.

Even though I am in my mid-50's, I have never worked on cars before and am not particularly mechanically inclined. I have owned this Volvo for about 5 years, but had been able to take it to a trusted independent Volvo mechanic/enthusiast (Thank you Olson!) until I moved to a different city. Now that I have some time on my hands I have wanted to see if I could learn a few things and save myself some money doing a few repairs and routine maintenance.

I had been having occasional problems with stalling at traffic lights. This was one of the reasons my wife refused to drive the Volvo- not dependable enough. When I recently began getting the recurring "check engine" light I decided to try my hand, with your help and a newly purchased Bentley manual.

Over the course of about two weeks I did the following:

Cleaned throttle body, IAC and MAF, removed then reinstalled the intake manifold (w/ new gasket), replaced the oil separator box, replaced breather hose, flametrap hose, flametrap, air filter, spark plugs and wires, filled the battery.

I spent less than $200 for parts and such. I feel lucky that with this model I didn't need to adjust any throttle parts, nor did I need to remove any fuel line components. Of course I also feel lucky I didn't need to replace the MAF (yet!$!).

Even though it still idles a little rough, it is better and the check engine light is no longer lit, fault codes resolved. Only time (with weather changes) will tell if the occasional stalling has been completely resolved.

With your help and the Brickboard FAQ I now have a better understanding of how the engine works, and I have a greater respect for Volvos and auto mechanics. I hope to soon post some photos to the PIX section in case that might help other novices in the future.

With a vehicle with this many miles (300K) there's always more stuff to work on- rear defroster, seat heaters and cushions, broken odometer, brake and suspension problems, etc, etc, but I have already found much on Brickboard for info on how to approach these issues. This is basically a solid car with no rust, so I hope to keep it for awhile longer. I'm sure you will be hearing from me again.

Thanks!

Keith Ostertag
--
1991 240 Sedan B230F LH3.1 300K miles