Hey All,
Just purchased a 1993 240 wagon. It's got a couple of issues I'm hoping someone can help with.

1. Occasionally the brake pedal will travel on me and make a "springy" noise and pulse the brakes as if the abs is coming on. Usually when lightly braking when I first take off. Any ideas?

2. Tailgate wiring. I found a post on this and it's pretty obvious the design flaw here. Just wondering if I should try and re-route the tailgate wiring inside the car or run it back through the hinges.

I can turn a wrench but I'm not a mechanic by any means, so any help with would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

JS

 

And that's where it all begins.

93 240, that's the last year for them if I'm right.

I'll tell you what my car did. It would regularly happen when I hit the brakes the first time after starting the car. When I would press the pedal the abs would kick in for a second. After a long time of this, I noticed that brake fluid was leaking out of my ABS unit under the hood. It wrecked the paint under there pretty well. I had a lot of clean up and rust prevention to do. I wire brushed the old melted paint off and put a clear coat over it all. Anyway, check under that ABS module under the hood. See if it leaks. I had to get another unit from a wrecking yard. It was pretty cheap. I also had to fully bleed the system after the job. So a full bleed may help too if you don't see any leaks.

When I bled my car, it ruined the master cylinder's piston seals because the had never been bled regularly. A pressure or vacuum bleeder may have been a better choice. Since the car had never been bled, there was probably a ridge of gunk where the master cylinder regularly stops. When I pushed it past it to bleed, it cracked the seal. It makes the breaks slip, but it still gets the car stopped. It's only a problem when I sit on the breaks at a stop light. I have a new cylinder, I just need some warm weather so I can put it in and bleed it all over again.

I don't know anything about 240 tailgates, but this should get you started with the ABS.

Good luck.

 

I think you answered your own question on the wiring issue. This is one of Volvo's stupidest ideas and you're much better off bypassing the hinge entirely and just running the wires through a little gap in the headliner to the hole in the tailgate. If you get the opportunity, check out how they changed the design on the 740/940. (hint: the wires DO NOT go through the hinges)