Hey all, so a week ago I bought a 1988 240. It runs great other than after it's gotten warm, and then it has trouble starting up. It starts cold no problem. An example being I go to the grocery store, a short 5 mile drive or so. After 15-25 minutes I go out and try to start her up and it doesn't start right away like it does when it's cold. I'd give it some gas and that would do the trick and it would run fine the whole way home. Now the other day I made a 20 mile trip on the highway on what was a particularly hot day here, about 75 degrees, and parked it in direct sun. A few hours later after a movie I try to start it up with no success. This time giving it gas did nothing.

Luckily my dad has a friend who was able to tow it back into town and was supposed to try and fix it. He hasn't spent much time looking into it and we don't really trust his skills. He's thinking its the coolant/cooling sensor. What my brother was telling me when he got the car was that the spark plug wires and what ever sends the electrical signal through them aren't working up to par. The wires do still say Volvo after all, so they might be original and 23 years old.

Any ideas of what might be going on? Probably impossible to diagnose the issue online, but any help is much appreciated. Thanks!!

 

first thing I think I'd do, when you try and it doesn't start, pull a spark plug and see if its wet or dry. if its wet, you're probably getting too much gas. if its dry, not enough.

there's several temp sensors on a LH2.2 B230F (thats your fuel injection version and engine type). the ones on the radiator are mostly for the cooling fan (if you have an electric fan, a 88 240 might have a mechanical fan on the engine). there are two on the head, under the intake manifold, one is for the fuel injection to know the engine is warm, and the other is for the temp gauge on the dashboard.

if your car was serviced by someone who knows Volvos, they very well could have used real Volvo spark plug wires, so that is not a reliable indication of their age. Aftermarket (non-Volvo) replacement parts vary widely in quality, Volvo parts just work.

anyways... enough rambling.

I'd go through this step by step troubleshooting guide 700/900 Hot Start Problem Quick Reference Guide which is written for 740/940 cars, that have the same basic engine as your 240, so they are 90% the same, only some differences in details (240's don't have the 'radio suppression relay' in the fuel injection.... your car has LH2.2, same as earlier 740s, rather than LH2.4 which the later 740s and 940s mostly had, etc).

 

Pierce that is PERFECT!!! Just the kind of thing I was hoping to come across. And it looks like the mechanic might know a thing or two after all, the coolant sensor being a possible culprit. Thanks again!

 

Little update- the mechanic says the fuel pressure regulator is bad. When disconnected from the vacuum line/tube or something like that it spurts gas. From what he says and I read, this is a clear sign that it's bad, and hopefully what caused my car troubles. Wonder if it's a rare exception to that troubleshooting guide which says it's nearly always 3-4 other possible part failures. Oh well, it's ordered and will arrive and be installed tomorrow, turns out the guy has a good deal of Volvo experience so I'm feeling better about the situation. Tomorrow we will see! Or maybe I'm the only one reading this thread anymore lol

 

yeah, the FPR was real high on the list of what I'd have tested. trying to run the car with old bad gas could easily have pushed an old ready-to-quit FPR over the edge.

 

Well dammit, right as I was getting ready to hit a lake for some fishing on this beautiful day, my volvo decides not to start up. This is strange because in the last few days I've put 200 miles on it, mostly highway, and it's been starting up right away and running strong. Something weird did happen yesterday though. On the highway about 15 minutes form home, it switched into overdrive. This scared the crap out of me because it made a sort of "whooshing" sound and learched a bit. Then was very loud, which I guess it normal for overdrive? But now it doesn't seem to want to come out of it. The little orange arrow pointing up won't go away and the OD disable button does nothing. Grrr! Just as I was falling back in love with this car it decides to give me a hard time again....