tl;dr - Scroll to the line of asterisks.

I don't know what Rube Goldberg esque malfunction has occurred in my Volvo, but something has gone horribly awry.

I was driving it along, and it was all 'LOL GOING TO STOP RUNNING!', I'm used to this. My '91 240 is the newest cat I've ever owned, and it's the only car I've owned that isn't carburetted, so I'm thrilled to have a car that will start when it's below 10 centigrade.

I called AAA, gave it a tow to my place, thinking 'Oh, pf, it's just a fuel problem! Big deal, I can fix that'. It wasn't a fuel problem, it wasn't a head gasket problem, it wasn't anything that commonly breaks. Defeated, I had it towed to a garage. A few days later, they give me a call, wake me up, and tell me what was wrong. Seeing as I had just woken up, I wasn't comprehending things well. But they said something along the lines of the rotor and distributor cap caused a short that fried the computer which had a faulty ground. I would have never figured that out.

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Anyway, I need a new computer. None of the auto parts stores I've found have it in stock, and getting it straight from Volvo would cost me a grand. So, I turned to other means, and I found this; 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 Volvo 240 740 Engine Computer | eBay

Would this work? It's a lot cheaper than a grand. Has anyone had any experience with replacing a computer, and are they interchangeable like this? Can one computer work for an '89 '90 '91 '92 '93 240 and 740? What's up with this?

If anyone can offer any help, I'd appreciate it.

 

I would be leary of putting a computer on it. It could be but cap and rotor shorting out and frying computer sounds a littly fishey.

Cap and rotoe on on secondary side of coil so a sort would cause it to die......sort spark to ground...........blow the computer??????? dont think so.....bit I have never even seen the car.

I am working on a 91 volvo right now and going thru fuel ecu (computer) hell. I assume u mean the EZK ign ECU if it fried by the cap/roter. The car has 2 ecu's fuel and ignition.

Is it a stick or auto, n/a or turber, Sedan or wagon, red or blue?

Sean

 

It's nearly unheard of for the icu to fry. They almost never fail. However, have them hand you the failed component. Smell it. Fried electronics have a very distinct smell. A toasted ecu will smell six months later. It's a rare shop that understands Volvos; they have a nasty habit of telling you need X. After that doesn't fix the issue, they say well, X is working now but when it failed, it destroyed Y...right on down the line. Your car is a 91. It has OBD, onboard diagnostics. Ask them if they have a MasterTech scanner. That's as good a scanner as there is for LH injected cars. They may be right...but most shops tend to exhaust other possibilities before laying the blame at the feet of the computers.

 

I have no idea what fried the ECU, exactly. It was early, I had been up late, they told me things, my reaction was 'Well that's weird, but ...all right', it didn't make sense, but I wasn't awake enough to argue.

I bought this ECU just in case, the numbers match, so if it is the ECU, awesome, they swap it out, and I don't have to pay Auto Zone $350 to hunt one down for me. If it doesn't, whatever, I post it back, lose shipping charges to try and save $350. It's worth the risk.

I'll ask them to run a scanner on it if they haven't already, see exactly what's up. I didn't know about the LH Jetronic system, but my initial reaction was it's a fuel problem, but if it's not the ECU, the LH computer sounds like it might be a culprit.

Would a scanner be able to tell if it is the LH computer?

And thanks for the info, d00ds.

 

So I got my Volvo back. It was in fact, the ECU. However, for some god damned reason it cost $450 to replace the rotor and distributor cap (which I had just replaced myself), and for the labour to replace the computer. If I'm not mistaken, the computer is in the interior of the car, and pretty darned easy to get to. I don't know how this all added up to $450, especially when I provided the computer myself. And my car came back with a pretty big dent on the right rear fender, that's warped the frame around the right rear door. The door still closes, but from the inside, it's visible that it's warped.

And, the front plate of my CD player is missing.

All told I'm out $600 for something I could have done myself in about an hour, and there's a new, disfiguring dent in my car. And I'm going to be out another $60 to replace the front plate of my CD player. I'm not pleased, at all.

 

I believe I would draft a letter and follow it up with a phone call. If I did not receive satisfaction, I'd pursue legal action. That's just not right. We put a tiny scratch on a restored VW once. We took it to a master restorer paint shop, paid hundreds of dollars to have it repaired before the customer saw it. We then debated telling the customer but in the end, honesty won out...the customer could not detect the repair and has since recommended several customers. Word of mouth is the least expensive yet most effective advertising for a customer. Your dissatisfaction will lead to you telling at least 3 people about your experience. Those 3 will each tell 3 and it expands geometrically. Very poor business practice for them. Now...in all fairness...even a reputable shop charges more than one would think for replacing ecu's. We have to spend time running diagnostics before to determine it is in fact the ecu. Then run scans after the install to be certain it has fixed the issues. We can't just grab a used ecu and throw it in the way a DIY'r would. Still...I'd say your shop's a bit harsh...