I'm considering buying a friends 240 Wagon (4-eyed, so pre-85 car) and he claims that it dies some times when it goes over 55MPH. After sitting on the side of the road for a little while with the key off, he fires it back up and drives off.

I've done as much searching as I can and it looks like there's a common issue with the "Overdrive relay" that's hidden in the dash. BUT I've only seen this reported consistently on early 90's cars. So I guess here are my questions:

1) Do the earlier cars have this relay and do they suffer from the same issue?
2) Can this relay be purchased? (RockAuto doesn't seem to carry them and Ebay isn't really clear but davebarton.com seems to have a diagram for the earlier cars and swedishautoparts.com appears to have the part). Are there any other sources for the relay other than a junk yard?
3) Outside of the relay is there anything else that could cause that specific failure? Fuel Pump? Fuel Pump relay? Mystery Relay?

It seems to start up and run fine (slow as molasses and super top heavy) but it seems dependable. I'm considering buying it for a third backup car (behind the wife's van and my Forester).

Oh and I apologize for being that n00b that shows up asking a million questions prior to introducing myself.

 

Bad O.D. relay won't make it stop running, It only provides engagement or disengagement of the overdrive.

Does the car die under load or just driving along?

 

The way he talks, just cruising down the highway, creep past 55 and it cuts off.

 

not a relay problem. Most likely Hall Sensor or related wiring. Also, this type of third person related story is even harder to diagnose.

 

Some people *ahem*on here advocate for the fuel filter being a lifetime part. I'm not in that number. It's easy to change on that car being that it's in the engine compartment and all and why not start fresh anyway? Anyway, filter or not, sounds more like fuel delivery to me. Ask your friend if it cuts out immediately in a flash or if it dies like running out of gas.

 

Won't disagree with this at all, hence why I've exhausted my methods of searching.

THANKS!!!