I've had it with my 89 240 DL. It has spent 11 months of the past two years in the shop for largely the same exact problem. The mechanics fix it and two weeks later, it has the same problem again. Then it spends three months in the shop, works perfectly for about two weeks and then it's back in the shop for another three months. Repeat several times with the same results.

I've been through numerous mechanics and dealerships. It's got to the point that the Volvo dealerships tell me that this is a common problem and it cannot be fixed and to be done with it and just junk it because they cannot figure out the problem and if they could, they couldn't or wouldn't fix it because it's older than two years old.

So, lacking a solution to a constant repeating problem, I am going to haul my 240 DL to the rifle range and turn it into Swiss Cheese with a .30-'06 Browning Automatic Rifle. And I mean that literally.

This is the fourth Volvo I have had the same problem with over the years, at despite the fact I am Idiot (for buying a Volvo, new or used), I am no fool.

It's a pity, because I like Volvo cars, but I have found that getting them competently serviced is a near impossibility. Every time, every Volvo I have ever owned has spent literally half of its life in the shop. I will not be fooled again or made a fool of by being so stupid as to buy another Volvo.

When I am told by Volvo dealership service people that they will not even work on my Volvo because they cannot work on it because of its age (and by age, I mean anything older than two or three years because they cannot get parts for their own cars), it's time to move on to another brand of car.

I took my 89 240 to a mechanic who specialises in Volvo and his response was, "Oh, I've seen this problem before. You're screwed. Junk it. Send it to the crusher."

I've owned Volvos since the mid 80's and I have never had the problems with a Volvo like I have had with this 89. And it's always the same problem. Sure, the Volvo sales people hit me up with "Oh, you need to buy a new Volvo!" and now I tell them, "Why? So it can be obsolete and un-maintainable in two years and spend 80% of the time in the shop with the same problem for years on end? I've had Volvos that after ten years only had 10,000 miles on them because they were in the shop for 9 of those 10 years (and I am not joking).

I think I'll find myself a nice 1927 Ford Model A that doesn't have all these modern computerised electronic parts that constantly fail. And I am serious.

 

Good luck with your next car. We have a 89 740 bought new and now has 375K miles on it. Only been in the shop for a heater core . All of the other small consumable repairs were done by me and I'm still able to get parts. Just the luck of the draw.

 

I would not buy another Volvo, even brand new, on a bet. The one thing I have learned about Volvo from other Volvo owners is that Volvos cannot be repaired at all when you get a persistent problem like this. They are expensive to work on and you still end up with the same problem and end up replacing the very same parts you replaced before. If you get the same problem twice, the third time, junk it because you will just be chucking money down the crapper to fix the same problem endlessly.

And that is why I will never buy another Volvo ever again.

 

good luck with the rest of whatever. you ignored just about every piece of advise given, and kept throwing parts at your car hoping they'd stick. and now its the car manufacturers fault, right.

 

Good luck with ANY modern computer on wheels.

I guess I've just been lucky but my $1000 '89 740 has only needed a ball joint replaced in nearly 3 years of ownership.

My $1150 '92 940 with 345,000k has needed $1100 in maintenance over the course of 6 years of ownership.

My $1500 '92 240 has needed nothing but a cps in the 3 years I've owned it.

If you can't diy the work on ANY used car that's over 20 years old leave it alone... just lease a car... rinse and repeat when the lease ends. Good luck....

 

methinks the OP has left the shire....

 

I bought mine for $700 as a joke, to teach my wife to drive a manual transmission car, its 88' 240dl with 370 000 miles. Plan was to teach her and sell the "junk" right back and not lose any money or maybe lose just $100.
I change cars a lot but this one I had the longest so far in my life,almost 2 years and only problem I had was master cylinder (super easy to replace) and alternator (super easy to replace)... I go through cars like crazy but this one is so reliable and easy to work on. Now I am seriously planning on fixing every single thing up just because the car deserves it, its a great car!

Good luck with your adventure!

 

I've had 15 Volvos, all pre '95s & ONE P2 XCV70, that is the only car I'd be in agreement on the OP about. I presently own 3 redblock wagons. I'm "Stocking up" as they seem to be getting scarcer, and the older 244/245s look like they're going to be worth a lot of money soon...as I'm seeing minty ones in the greater NYC area go for $5-8k in restored showroom condition.

I've regularly bought redblocks with over 200k, without blinking an eye. And I'd probably even own a few of them if they didn't save my life.... Like getting hit by a lawyer rear ended, me stopped still for a school bus in a 35mph zone, him doing 70...and not touching the brake or seeing me. OR the time a Nissan T boned me on I95 south, as he crossed 6 lanes of traffic-perpendicularly-cause he missed his exit, and decided rush hour was the best time to do this. He almost made it but for me. '93 960 had some door dents for sure, they still open/closed, etc. But that Nissan was a total loss. And I have Osteogenesis Imperfecta, think "Mr. Glass" from Unbreakable less Hollywood, worse in real life,... The only reason I've parted out/sold some of them in the past was I let them get tot he point that buying a new one was cheaper. Or recently the hot rod/mod mid-life crisis has finally hit, that or the divorce. Even my "tinkered" red blocks, which fly, still are the most reliable cars I've ever driven, with the exception of maybe a mopar 318....but the rest of the car still lasts longer age for age...

I mean, with a little/LOT of help from my friends here mostly, I CAN FIX THESE things. And I have massive brain trauma.
Now if it's really too much money to fix it like my Regina that needs a trans reuild, new radiator, headgasket, not to be Regina, etc. it's STILL got a '94 block in it, and I can deck the damn head myself on a mechanically flat surface and the right abrasives.... I'm going to part it out until there's nothing left, oil and tarp the frame, and store what works, and what can be rebuilt.

Buy a decent service manual and fix it yourself. Hell I'm at the point where I hear some "expert" Volvo mechanics on facebook say crap, and I'm like, "Wait..that's not right." I don't have any discs left in my back at all, and 2.5' tumor in my spine, I can do it... slowly.

Since you own a BAR, and I hope it's class 3 legit, this is the 1911 of cars man. John Browning could've done no better. Yeah they're quirky and need the right knowledge base, but I've got 25 holes in my brain and some are the size of quarters, I can fix them. You own a box fed full auto but you can't fix these things??? Priorities....

Now post '01 FordVos... yeah. The whole car was a "common failure issue"... Yet, some lucky stiffs still seemed to pull 250k plus with regular maintenance. SOME.

 

sounds like somebody needs a new mechanic not a new car :-) not to mention some mechanical insights into machinery. To think that most euro manufacturers have common parts suppliers, all cars have similar engine systems designs and so on that somebody can't get a 27 year old car to not require upkeep...

 

Sleipnir, you need to buy a Toyota or a Honda. Stay away from Volvos, Audis and Isuzu's.

 

Took a wild guess at the problem, brought it back to the mechanic and I was spot-on as to what was wrong.

What put me onto the solution was that every time you indexed everything, after about two weeks the distributor somehow gradually wandered out of the proper indexing. Went through this several times. Then the light in my brain came on.

Somehow, the little pin that keeps the pulley on the intermediate shaft had somehow broken and was no longer there. Thus, the timing belt pulley on the intermediate shaft was gradually slipping, throwing the spark out of time and causing the spark to simply stop at a certain RPM which gradually became worse and worse (until the engine just bumbled at 1500 RPM and became undrivable).