I'm negotiating a partial refund from the dealer because this car has a few problems.

It's under warranty, so I bring it in, they give me a loaner, and they work on it, but it's been a pain and they can't find what is wrong.

So...here is what its doing. Maybe you can help??!!

The car always starts up fine first thing.

As I'm running errands, each time I try to re-start it, it gets harder and harder, sometimes it won't start at all.

One night it completely wouldn't start, so I had to leave it in a parking lot. The next morning, it started up fine, but wouldn't go into gear, even though the engine was revving very high. Finally, it kicked in. (It's automatic.)

Lastly, one day in particular, it stalled on me three times. I'd be at a complete stop, and upon acceleration, it would just die and take some effort to re-start.

So...any diagnosis I can offer to the mechanic? All he did this last time was replace the spark plugs, but nothing changed. I was able to start it fine first thing, but after one stop at the coffee shop, it took 5 tries to re-start it. It seems like an obvious fuel problem, (injectors? fuel pump? holes in hose?) but they dismissed my ideas.

 

Has anyone replaced the timing sensor? I'm sure they would recognize the name of "crank position sensor". That's the direction I would go if it was mine.

 

I don't remember off the top of my head...how old of a 240 can the codes be pulled from? Depending the answer that's where I'd start....if it's too old to pull codes from then that sucks because it sounds like several different unrelated issues. Regarding the not going into gear...the shift bushings are probably wearing out. There's a release level in the housing of the stick to pop it out of park. A crack in the distributur cap would allow for moisture issues and in turn make a restart that much more difficult. Bad gas (the car that is) can cause all kinds of engine issues from iddling just fine in park to stalling in drive/reverse. If the mechanical drop down cable is sticking it'll cause your idle to run high...this is a VERY comon problem with 240s. A bad Mass Air Flow sensor (MAF) could pretty much explain it all (ecept for the shifting thing). Running a 240 at high RPMs for extended periods of time messes with the fuel/air mix...makes it real lean....

Lots of things to trouble shoot....I'd deffinatly pull for a partial refund. Though to be fair...the car probably should have been taken to an independant mechanic before you bought it.

 

I'm sure it has self-diagnostic unit, but I won't sware on it. My 1984 244 had one. Check for MIL codes.
Definitely want to check on the fuel and ignition systems. Air mass meter is a bitch just by price, but is a usual suspect with 200 series, was with mine. Fuel pump relay and all fuses may be issues, replace them and clean the fuse contacts. And while doing this leave the battery disconnected for more than 15 minutes.
Check or replace the following:
ignition coil, distributor, spark wires, air-mass meter, fuel pumps, fuel filters, fuel lines, crank sensor?, speed sensor?, neutralsafety switch, shift-lock solenoid switch,throttle body, positive crankcase ventilation, electrical grounds.
After all that if no resolve then at least you took care of all that and, more important, you'll be more tuned into theVolvo.

 

I meant to post this here, but put it on my original thread instead...

So, to close this thread down,...

Thanks to all for the help!

Mechanic did the following (I didn't have time to learn everything from scratch, needed a running car asap!)

Replaced the Idle Control Valve, Fule Pump Relay, and Water Temp Sensor.

So far so good...I think they tweaked a few other things, but didn't put them on the invoice.

 

And you'll probably need a transmission... What you described, (car revving up and not engaging, then slamming into gear) will happen again if it happened as you said. Hopefully it'll still be under warranty when it goes completely out.

 

Yes, that does make sense. I am keeping my eye on how things feel...have only really been able to drive her normally for 24 hours!

I mentioned the shifting problem to my mechanic, but his concern was that the night before, the valet had tried to start the car for a good 5 minutes before I told him to stop torturing the poor girl. It was NOT going to start that night...Then that morning, when she DID start, I had the shifting problem. It hasn't happened since to me OR to my mechanic.

I know it's a 20 year old car, it will always be something...

 

Check for a crack in your distributor cap. Like I said before, there are a lot of posibilities....but this is an easy self diagnostic. Take it off, if you see uneven carbon build up you've got a bad cap.

Also...that mechanical dropdown I mentioned earlier? The housings on those cables get gummed up over the years and they'll tend to stick in the 'out' posistion instead of going all the way back in. This happened to me once in South Dakota and it scared the $hit out of me! I was exiting off the interstate and my 240 wouldn't go below 3000 RPMs....all of my 230 lbs on teh brake pedal deperatly trying to stop my car....stop next to this old fox body mustang. The guy in the mustang though I wanted to race because of the noise I was making. The light turned green and white faced, I peel off and smoked the mustang. The cable eventually went back into position but holly hell....i was scared.

Anyhoo......If it's a problem, it should just get replaced. In the meantime however, You can disconnect that cable from the throtle body, take a light weight oil (3-in-1 Oil, or sewing machine oil works great) and work it into the housing....move the cable in and out to get the oil as far down the housing as you can.

Shifting into gear....i still say your bushings are bad.