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I have a 1990 240 DL Wagon. I got it just over a year ago and for the most part, it's been a wonderful car. In February of this year my delightful little brick started stalling out on me. I would be driving and it would decide it needed to rest for a while. It happened fairly infrequently, but I decided to let my "master" mechanics have a look at it. After pulling the codes, they decided it was the air mass meter. They put a new one in and for a month or two, everything was right with the world. Then it started again. A friend of mine (actually the car's previous owner) put in a new coil and distributor cap and that seemed to solve the problem for a little while also. Then, of course, it started again. The same mechanics kept my volvo for over a month suggesting such things as: fuel pump fuse, spark plugs, spark plug wires, throttle switch, main control unit, crank angle sensor, and an exposed wire running to the coil. They tested all these things and nothing fixed the problem. After a total of a month and a half, they decided it was the engine harness - which would be a $1000 fix. There's just no way.
I had them tow it back to my house because A) I couldn't afford to have it fixed if it really was the engine harness and B) I no longer thought they were very realiable.
So I get the car back and the battery is basically dead and two of the wheels have slow leaks in them. My neighborhood mechanic thought the problem may lie with the power stage and replaced it with a used one. After jumping the car off about a dozen times and cleaning off the spark plugs, it will every now and then start up. It's idles erratically and I don't trust it to take it on the road. There's also lots of nice smelly white smoke coming out of the tailpipe.
I'm basically clueless at this point about what to do. I'm sure it's fairly obvious that I have very little mechanical know-how, but I would really like to know what to do. If anybody out there has any ideas for me, I would greatly appreciate it. It's no fun being a girl when you have to deal with greedy mechanics. :(
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