Our son's girlfriend crashed his/my nice black '90 244 into the rear-end of a Honda Accord, which in turn crashed the back of a Honda Civic. Everybody's fine, and the Volvo did its job in protecting its driver.

When the car was towed home, I had to decide whether to scrap it or repair it. The damage was relatively severe. Parts damaged beyond repair included the DS headlight, hood, radiator support, horns, condenser, and fan shroud. The airbag deployed. The radiator survived.

After clearing the damaged parts, I started the car. The motor ran fine and the tranny engaged in all gears. There was no damage to the subframe or crossmember. I decided to tackle the repair. I got most of the new parts from a parts car (my son now has an Oakland Raiders Volvo: silver and black). I removed the AC system.

When I replaced the fan shroud, I noticed that the fan was misaligned. Upon inspecting the motor mounts, I discovered that both has sheared off. I have a number of new mounds, so I replaced destroyed ones. The tranny mount was also sheared. I replaced it. Finally, the driveshaft carrier baring was knocked out of its housing. I removed the driveshaft, cleaned and repacked the bearing, replaced the support with a used one from a parts car, and wirebrushed/repainted the bearing support crossmember.

The powertrain now seems almost perfect, and the car will live on. I learned the following lessons:

- Check the motor and tranny mounts after ANY collision, no matter how small. They're designed to shear off during a crash, and they do!

- The hood buckled at "structural fuses" built into the inner panel longitudinal members. Look at your 240; these are the little triangular indentations on the inner hood sides. Most of the permanent deformation occurred in the hood, meaning that much of the crash energy was dissipated by the hood. In order for this system to work properly, the hood must remained latched during a collision. Check and maintain that hood latch!

- Airbags are worth the premium you pay for a newer model and the money you spend to maintain them.

- You can rehab many driveshaft carrier bearings so that they are as good as new. If your bearing has minimal play, remove the grease seal by prying it up at the inner diameter (a dull table knife is perfect for the job). You don’t need to remove the bearing from the shaft. Inspect the rolling elements. Use your favorite solvent to clean the old grease. I dunk the bearing into a container of gasoline, spin it around, and brush it with an old toothbrush (if you use gasoline, observe obvious cautions regarding flammability, safe disposal, etc.). Dry the bearing completely (I use compressed air), repack it with good bearing grease, and replace the seal (tap it down good). Remove all external grease from the support bushing before reinstalling the bearing. In fact, it's a good idea to clean the support bushing with soap and water before reinstallation. These bearings carry very little radial load. When relubricated, they will last a long time. I regrease the bearing every time I remove a driveshaft.