My 1990 240 is my daily driver, and how I get my eighty-one-year-old father to dialysis three times per week. It's very reliable, and I love this car. However, it rides pretty rough, and I'm fairly certain the shocks, springs, etc. have never been changed. What is the most economical way to improve how she rides? Where do you guys recommend I start? Any product & brand recommendations would be very much appreciated. I'm pretty broke at the moment, and plan on tackling this myself, as I've done so far on all the other repairs, thanks to Youtube and the knowledgeable guys here.

 

There's four areas that impact ride quality - tires, bushings, shocks, springs. Given you car is 30 years old, I'm sure all the rubber in the bushings (chassis bushings, engine/transmission mounts, control arms, sway bars) are rock hard. For tires, if they are older than 5 years, you may want to replace regardless of tread, if not, then the main thing is to make sure they are not over inflated. For springs - different models have standard springs, others have HD springs. You can consider swapping in new "stock" springs when doing the shocks/struts for little extra effort but with a minor amount of extra cost. That leaves your shocks/struts. Most of the weight is on the nose so if you start with the struts you can comparison shop a number of brands/models. I'd probably start by calling some of the Volvo friendly stores like IPD USA or FCP Euro on the diffrences between Bilstein touring (B4s), KYBs, Sachs, Monroe in terms of ride quality/handling.

 

shocks/struts are 'dampers', they slow the suspension down on rebound so the car doesn't 'pogo' bounce up and down after a bump. easy test is to put your weight on the front or the rear end of the car, and release your weight as quickly as you can... if the car overshoots then settles back down, the shocks/struts are shot.

in my experience, kyb's and munroes don't last more than a couple years and its back to bouncy pogo land.

sachs/boge give the stock ride and last a long time, bilstein touring are a bit stiffer. bilstein HD are for performance/sports, and best paired with stiffer lowering springs, which you likely do not want.

if you're not doing the work yourself, but relying on mechanics, ANY suspension work is going to be $$$$. To change the front struts, you'll need a spring compressor, and a really big wrench to get the top nut loose and back on. also change the strut mounts, thats the rubber things you see on the top of the strut towers under the hood.

changing the various suspension bushings (there's quite a few) will require access to a large hydraulic press to get the old ones out, and probably a whole lot of bad language, it is NOT a fun or easy job.

the other key front suspension parts are the steering tie rod ends, the ball joints, and the anti-sway bar ends. worn tie rod ends make your steering sloppy. mildly worn ball joints can make clunking sounds on bumps, badly worn ball joints are dangerous. worn swaybar ends will make clunking feel/sounds as you transition from side to side on turns.

 

I appreciate your replies and finally changed out my front and rear shocks, but now of course have a new problem (Murphy's Law). I replaced the tires when I bought the car, they actually cost a bit more than I paid for the car at a police auction. Recently I replaced the ball joints, which helped. I then replaced the rear shocks with KYP gas shocks, which also helped the ride. I then gathered the tools and tackled the driver's side front strut, which was a real bear doing myself. After finishing the drivers side and not being happy with the result, I took my '90 240 to my local indy mechanic shop and was charged $140 per side. I had him redo my work and then replace the passenger front strut. He called me the next day saying that it was done, but that there was a "problem with the brakes" which I was a bit angry about because I didn't realize he was going to disconnect the brakes, I soon realized why he had to (spring c machine). The mechanic assumed the literally rusty master cylinder was the culprit, so I ordered a new one with the reservoir tank of Prime for around $60 and had it to him the next day. Now the car rides great, breaks work great, but now my speedometer is jumping like crazy. Is there an ABS sensor near the front strut assembly that could have gotten disconnected, or not reconnected properly? I just got the car back yesterday and probably should take it back to the mechanic shop, but would prefer to fix myself and avoid that if possible. Thanks again for the help.

 

Pretty sure there's no ABS on a 1990 240. Only on a 93. The speedometer pickup is in the rear differential, it's a wire coming out of a little plug in the back cover,but a bouncing speedometer is as likely to be the circuitry on the speedometer gauge itself, and not the pickup.

 

Thanks for your reply. I pushed on the speedometer unit on the rear differential housing and now the speedometer works again, which is great as this is my daily driver. It's gunked up, and the plastic on the cable flakes off upon touching. I picked up some QD electronic cleaner at the local WM and will try cleaning up the connection when the weather isn't quite so cold. .

 

My speedometer is working again, but now my rear brake lights are staying on after turning off the car. HaHa, I love this car, but man is it quirky. Any idea of what's going on, or how having the master brake cylinder changed could've cause this?

 

first thing I'd check is the brake switch... especially if all 3 brake lights are staying on together

 

Thanks Pierce. The weird thing to me is that the brakes were working fine before I had the front struts replaced, when they disconnected the lines. The mechanic showed me that upon reconnection of the brake lines he was unable to get any brake pressure, the pedal would just push to the floor. So he replaced the master brake cylinder. The drive home from the shop the brakes were fine, different than they were before, seemed better actually. But then a couple of days later the three brake lights started staying on, and on my drive home from work last night the brakes even seem to be slightly engaged while I'm driving, and the break light out indicator came on, as one of the brake bulbs has now gone out.. The alarming thing is that the car doesn't move as freely when it's in drive, when I'm not accelerating or braking, if that makes sense, it seems that the brakes may still slightly engaged. To get the lights to turn off while driving, I put my foot under the brake pedal and pull up, which turns off the brake lights, but doesn't effect the newly sluggish movement. I just ordered a new brake switch on Prime, which will be here tomorrow. I know very little/nothing about brake systems. I changed the pads all around a couple of years ago and the brakes have worked fine until now... I'm hoping the switch replacement fixes the problem, but is there something else I could be missing here?

 

Tonight I was going to drive her up to the local Auto Parts store to pick up some brake bulbs, and now the light out indicator is gone, all the brake lights are working, and they're no longer staying on when I turn the car off... What gives? It still feels like the brakes are slightly engaged when I'm driving, but I'm not positive about that, there is no noise. It just stops much more quickly when I release the accelerator, while coasting, than it did before I had the master cylinder changed. This is my daily driver so I've got to get this figured out. Could it be the pedal itself is interacting with the switch differently, which is causing the change?

 

I dunno, if you had a mechanic change your master cylinder and now the braking is all fubar, I would be bringing it right back to that mechanic and ask WTF?