I am currently experiencing a problem with my 1988 Volvo 240. I went to turn it on today and all warning lights are on and the temperature gage is all the way up. I opened my hood and checked the oils and look to any signs of over heating (although this is my first car so I am not sure what to really be looking for) and it seemed normal. Nothing was boiling over. What can I do to find out the problem? Could it be a bad instrument cluster? Any ideas is much appreciated.

 

Just checked and it looks like the fan belt is snapped and some wires got torn and some other belt near the ac compressor got flipped over. That sounds like that would do it.

 

before replacing the belts, make sure all the pulleys are in line and square with the engine crank pulley. I recently had the replace said crank pulley as its vibration damper was rotted out, also my AC compressor bushings were shot so the compressor was sagging at an angle and eating belts.

if you lost the belt that runs the fan and water pump, and drove even a relatively short distance, you might have severely overheated the innards of the engine, and weakened the head gasket if nothing else.

 

Okay, thank you for the advice and I will take everything into an account. Bummer that this just spontaneously happened.

 

I eyeball check my belts every time I check the oil, and thoroughly inspect them each oil change. but sometimes things just happen, my car tossed off a brand new alternator belt the day after I installed it, the belt looked like it had failed on one side and inverted, was a german-made Continental belt, too.