the problem is likely that the wires for the lumbar suport have broken or that the foam in the seat is decomposing. if you tighten the **** for the lumbar and it does nothing the wires that it pulls on are likely broken. You can replace the thing.

You could try to open the seat and have a look. If you want to do it yourself you can usually take some old blue jeans and speed sew or contact cement and wrap the jeans material over the old foam shape and glue it back together. the cover slips back on afterwards. any upholsterer could handle this job if it's too much. If you need seat webbing you can subsitute seat belts from any old wrecked car.
Or look at the wrecker for a better seat. there are also wires in there for the seat heater and a little sensor that you can replace if the seat heaters are important to you.
the seats are quite comfortable when original but some years have this problem with the foam decomposing. No way I'd switch to different seats, You just need good foam in yours. If you want to take ones from a wrecker they come out easily , just 4 bolts. I think they are 14mm. Your back will feel better once you do this I can relate..

the 240
s had good brakes . my 88 740 has bendix calipers and they aren't nearly as good. Mine worked but rattled like crazy. they have a system where they float on a guide pin and the guide pin wears the casting until the whole thing just rattles like crazy. I rejected a couple of "rebuilt callipers until I found a good set. If you have this issue youll notice that it rattles on a dirt road but not with any pressure on the brakes. Yours is a 240 so you won't see this issue you should have girling callipers which are much better.



I think it's doubtful that your timing belt is cracking and Ive had lots of volvos and never had one break but I can understand that replacing that and both fuel pumps and the relay are worth doing for reliability. Yes there are a range of makers and you'll likely find a range of replacement parts from cheap china junk to bosch OEM stuff. Id rather do these things in the summer when I can plan for it than in winter when I really don't want an issue. good habit to write the date on the new part, or on the cover for the timing belt.

the other thing you might look at is if the belts are running at a crooked angle. the alternator and other pumps use rubber bushings and the bushings wear out , that causes the belts to go "chirpy" good to have some spares when you do the other belts. they aren't too pricey. it'll often quiet things down enough to be worthwhile although it's not going to make the car quit on you. itll just sound like you have birds under the hood.

front struts can go. Yours doesn't look too rusty. I think some of the older models had more problems but sometimes they get rusty and the dish that the lower end of the front springs sit in can fail. If you really want you can replace all the rubber bushings underneath and there are a variety of makers some are poly bushings. Itll improve the ride and handling but this isn't so much for reliability.

oil and grease your hood hinge points. You won't even think of lubricating that until one day the hinge breaks and you can't close the hood, then you;ll realize the importance. broken hinges are not fun if you are far from home, easy to lube these and they wont' snap the hinges if you lube them. same with the doors hinges. they don't need much but if they squeak don't ignore it.

the fact that you bought the car and then the fuel pump relay went might indicate why you got the car, because the previous owner likely had intermittent stalling and stopped trusting it. The water pump may or may not ever go but with those as well, when they go they go and in my experience they don't always give you a little warning that they are getting weak.

the master cylinder is another one that can surprise you. sometimes you'll notice that you put your foot on the pedal and it sinks slowly , or sometimes they leak inside the car near your gas pedal. If you have to open the brake circuit for other reasons I'd consider doing that too but maybe it's been replaced or maybe it won't cause an issue. if the fluid looks dirty you can take most of it out with a hose and refresh what's in the reservoir to try to clean it a little. since you are using your mechanic Ill assume you;ld have him do the brakes when you need to. It's good maintenence to change the fluid in the brakes but I have also seemn people bleed the brakes and in doing so they make the piistons move further than normal and cause a leak. If your mechanic does it he might be able to use a vacuum bleeded and avoid stepping on the pedal so much. If you dont' want to mess with the brakes and they work fine you could just take most of the fluid out and replace it periodically, not a perfect solution but it's one little thing you can do yourself without going to the extent where you need to bleed the brakes. it calls for dot 4 and it isn't available all over , they'll try to sell you dot 3 instead. it'lll work in a pinch but stick with dot 4 if you can.

other stuff like exhaust parts, shocks, U joints etc will usually give you some warning and not result in an instant failure. I agree you don't have to change every part and sometimes it's best just to get whatever life you can out of them and move forward without a complete rebuild but the 245 looks nice so I can see putting some PM money into it.

there is a service warning light that comes on after every so many K and you flip a little lever thing on the back of the speedo to make it go out when you replace the timing belt. it's just a timer based on mileage that triggers the light to come on after you start and it'll go out after a few minutes. good to reset it if you do the timing belt, but it's only an idiot light.

volvos are safe cars but the tail lights had horrible contacts and often fail as a result. be careful when changing the rear bulbs as the printed circuit board often fails. I got fed up and put regular sockets in my 240 but it took some doing. you can put a little dielectric grease on the contact points to help stop the traces on the PC board thing from oxidising and be gentle with the cup things that the bulbs fit into. this is a weak point. if you replace tail lights change all the bulbs and consult the manual to put the right kind in . there is a circuit that compares amperage from left to right and you need the correct bulbs in there

I love 240s and I like my 740 but one thing I hate about the 740 is that the horn buttons move to different locations when you turn the steering wheel. with the 240 it was in the middle of the steering wheel where it's always int he same place. I couldn't count the number of times someone has cut me off and it took looking down at the steering wheel to find the horn button to honk it so I'd say that's another place they lacked in safety on the 740's

the worst thing about the 240's was the heater blower motor. it's in a supid place and takes a weekend of lying on your head to change it. if it fails int he summer you can get by until your windows fog , then it's super important. If I chhange those I cut holes in the plastic for access and then use the foil for air ducts to fix it where I cut them. it's still a lot of work but this makes subsequent changes a bit faster. if your heater motor is bad, it's a lot nicer to do inthe summer when you don't need it and I'd take the seats out for that project unless you are a contortionist. If youave anyone replace it make sure they have done it before , otherwise don't even let them try of they'll become frustrated. If you do it yourself allow a weekend and take a few pain killers before you begin ;-) the 740's are way easier to get to.

if you are working on changing the timing belt. check the heavy alternator wire where it goes under the front of the engine. the wire can fail. it can rub and short out or I had charging issues once and had a heck of a time finding that the cause was a bad ground wire connection in this area. its worth a careful examination of these wires and don't assume the ground lug is fine because it's covered in oil. a bad ground here or to the engine block itself can cause charging issues that you won't find until after you swap the alternator. it's just run in a bad location and barely noticeable if you don't look for it.

 

Wow amazonPhil. What extensive guidance. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. Kind regards. David.

 

I know what I can do and I know what I can't do. I can not do any fine work with my hands. I am inept at repairs. Everything I try and fix winds up more broken.

So, why oh why in the world did I think I could install, remove and replace gauges in my 1989 Volvo 240 DL wagon? I knew I couldn't do it properly. And yet, I blundered on.

You see, I watched a couple of YouTube videos that showed how easy it was to remove the above-wheel instrument cluster, unhook the connections and replace the large clock with a large tachometer.

I saw that there were already wiring harnesses for the voltmeter and oil pressure gauge that I intended to move. So I blundered on.

When all was said and done, all the gauges were moved to where I wanted them. The small clock I added worked, but the large tach that replaced the large clock wasn't working. And now none of the dash lights were working.

The oil pressure gauge and voltmeter that I had moved seemed to be working. But the voltmeter was now reading down near the red area.

With all these things wrong, I took a drive to perform at an open mic. On the busiest Seattle bridge during rush hour the car began lunging and running out of steam. The voltmeter was now all the way in the red. The car died, blocking one lane of traffic.

It cost me $160 to have the wagon towed to the nearest Volvo repair shop.

Apparently whatever I did to the wiring caused the car to run off the battery alone.

Today I picked the wagon up from the repair shop. The wiring work they did cost $400. All the gauges are now working. They said my rheostat was bad so they bypassed the dimmer switch. They said that gave me dash lights. By the time I got home the dash lights were gone again.

So, now I have no dash lights, no gauge lights, the engine check light is on, the service light is on and I'm out $560.

If you don't know what you are doing, don't do it.