|
Hi, I have a 89 240DL with 196k miles, it has a bunch of problems that I do not have the time or know hot to fix so I was looking for a good shop in my area that I could take it to. Here is my long rant on my problems.
I got this Volvo from a friend, he gave it to me for nothing last february. I guess he got tried of having a car in Manhatten and having to re-park it 4x a week to make way for the street sweepers, that and the $2000+ of insurance he payedon it must have sucked. I pay $560 from USAA.
My first problem when I got this car last winter was that the Kickdown cable kept getting stuck in an up position and would prevent the car from shifting up gears, particularly into overdrive. So via a post I read on brickboard I decided I would just disconnect it when it was in a completley down position and just use the shifter to hold it in lower gears untill it was ready to shift up. I did this and it has been working fine in that department since.
A long time complaint was it idled rough but went away uppon goign to higher RPMs. Another thing I noticed right at the beginning was that the lights on the dash and the headlights pulsed a bit, as I accelerated it would pulse quicker at higher RPMs but it was not that bad. I wondered if the alternator or battery where going but it drive fine so I let it be. Other than that everything was fine.
I took a trip to NY drove around Manhatten for a week helping a freind move (6th floor walkup no elivator), and on the way back to Boston the check engine light went on. The exaust started smelling like gas and the gas mileage went to crap, from about 24mpg highway to under 20. So I changed the 02 sensor. Autozone wanted $115 for the OEM one and did not have it in stock so I bought a standard 3 wire Bosh for $45 and spliced it in. Well after doing that it may have gotten a little better, maybe, but not much. The exaust still smells like gas and the check engine light was still on.
I was pretty much out of ideas, then i read in my Hayes manual how to check the error codes, well i treid that, but it seems like my little module for pulling the codes seems not to work. I put in the wire to pin 2, hold hte button for 1-3 seconds and I get nothing. Great another thing broken.
So then the ohter day I was driving down to school to do some paperwork. I was going down a slight incline about 45 mph overdrive on then it just shuts off (light comes on), I thought I heard a click but the radio was on fairly loud, and it shifts down. I did not hit the button to make tirn off the overdrive, so I naturally hit the button to try and put it back on, it does nothing the light stays on. So I'm like crap another thing broken and I have a 35 mile drive on the highway back home with no overdrive.
So I was diging around the car trying to fix the problem with the overdrive I find the wire going to the Overdrive Solenoid on the transmission pan and way up it where it is hard to get to I find that it is frayed and for about 2 inches there is no rubber insulation on it. I figure that is the problem and it is shorting out so I wrap it with some electric tape. This is very annoying to do when it was frayed so far up. Anyway I do that and test the overdrive and it did not help at all. Then i read on here to resolder the overdrive relay. I I pulled that out looked at it, it seemed fine but I resoldered it all anyway plugged it back in and still nothing.
So yet again i am driving around with no overdrive.
I installed a Tachometer the otherday so I would have some kind of clue about my RPMs especially since I shift it psudo-manually, to see if my rough idle was making the PRM spike, and to see what kind of RPMs I was hitting on the highway with no overdrive.
Is it bad to go 70 mph at 3500 rpm for long periods of time with no overdrive?
I did that for a couple hours. I have syntetic oil in there now and the redline is at 6500 rpm so I figured it was ok. So after 2 hours of driving like that today I took my car out to go visit my girlfriend and the thing stats surging on me. i gould feel the engine pulse pretty much at any speed, I look down at my still on check engine light and I can see it dimming rather drastically in time with the pulsing. Then i get down to idle and I notice that at idle the RPMs are now spiking witht he pulses. The dimming lights make me wonder if the alternator is finally going, but I have no idea thus I tured around and came back home. Great, I have no clue what to do about all my problems other than take it to a shop.
Thus any good places I can take my 240DL 196k miles with so many problem to in the Boston Area?? Keep in mind that I just graduated from college, have a 89 volvo and am most likly not rolling in money.
Please help.
Thank you
Scott Dallmeyer
--
1989 Volvo 240 DL 193k Miles
|
