Hi, this is my first Volvo, and a hefty project. First of all, the wheels that came on the car have winter tires on them. I am looking for suggestions for a wheel tire combination. I plan on lowering the car quite a bit so I'd like to avoid massive rims. After that, it needs a new exhaust, and springs/coils. It has new struts, but I don't like the stock stance. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated, as this being my first Volvo, I do not know anything about them yet. Thanks everyone!

 

lowering it will ruin the ride, and won't improve handling except maybe on glassy smooth race track surfaces. is this just for looks? a lowered volvo, IMHO, looks stupid. watching someone with an overly lowered car having to pussyfoot it over speed bumps and driveways is just annoying after the first few giggles.

personally, I recommend any of the standard volvo 14" or 15" wheels, you have the desirable 'Virgo' rims on there now, these were used on 240 Turbo and such. IIRC, the Virgo rims used special lug nuts, so you'll need different lugnuts for other wheels. the standard tire on a 240 was 185/70-14, and the 15" rims use 195/65-15

these are most of the standard 240/740/940 wheels
Volvo 200/700/900 Alloy Wheels
most of those 15's and all those 16's were only sold on 740/940 cars.
there's a few ringers mixed in there from the later FWD cars, I believe, which use a different offset and require spacers to install on RWD cars.

 

I understand the change of ride quality as i have had other vehicles before. The ride just seems soft compared to what I would like, and because I will be the one driving it, I think adjustments are in order.

I looked into IPD coils a bit. Anyone have any experience with these? I think I will keep the stock wheels, and place the winter tires on steelies. Before any body work though, I must address a fuel issue, which I am hoping to merely a bad connection at the circuit. Also have electronic od which isnt working, again, hoping for bad wiring. It also feels as if the gears have somehow been misplaced in the trans. For some reason, starting in 1st feels like i am starting in 2nd or 3rd, and shifting from 2nd to 3rd seems like a downshift. I have only driven it once, so I need to figure that out before I will hit the road again.

Thanks for the suggestions and the knowledge transfer.

 

Welcome to the forum!

Stellar Purchase, nice find for a first 240. What about the otrher Volvo?

Good idea to switch the winter rubber on to some steel wheels. I would keep rocking the Virgo's, they look great!

Please do not lower it. It already has a nice stance. If you insist though TurboBricks | High Performance Volvo Club is the place to go to quench your slam fancy(and +T while you are at it).

The other problems you mentioned about the fuel and transmission might just be some relays.

 

does the OD work and just not disable, or do you have no OD at all?

the electric part that can fail is the wiring to the button on the shifter (or that button itself) and thats really hard to fix, and the OD lockout relay (easy), and the OD solenoid on the transmission (not that hard, but a bit expensive). the OD yellow up arrow light is on when the OD is disabled, keeping you in 3rd, this often confuses people new to the system. the light is the opposite of the signal going to the solenoid (light on == no signal to relay, light off == juice to solenoid). if the solenoid has failed, there's an inexpensive fix that consists of removing the solenoid and filing a notch in the end, this allows OD to engage, but you can't manually disable it. anyways, diagnose the system before buying any parts.

IPD makes good springs and sway bar and frame brace kits. their sway bars can really improve the ride.

often on an older 240, the rear suspension bushings are shot and lead to a lot of slop in the ride, replacing the thrust bar bushings, panhard rod bushings, and the main trailing arm bushings (this is all rear end stuff) will hugely tighten up the back end. on the front end, the steering inner tie rod ends can be sloppy, and of course strut, strut bearing, ball joints, and swing arm pivot bushings. and the sway bar bushings. I recommend using real Volvo bushings, the blue poly stuff often fails early and can make the ride rather harsh without significantly improving handling except on race track conditions. all real volvo stuff can be had for a 25-30% discount from dealer at TascaParts.com