Hello! I have an 1983 242 with about 220,000 miles (drivers door has 400k) and a mechanic I trust. Two items.

1. Service Cost - Radiator & Battery. Had a small leak, turned out to be the radiator (hole), and the hoses to my heater / underneath the engine were in poor shape. So he replaced all those hoses, new radiator, plus the hoses to the radiator and a new thermometer. About 5 hoses total and Diagnostic. My Battery had a low CCA (cold cranking amps), over 3 yrs old, so I now have a new battery w/ a 5 year warranty. And an oil change. That was $950 in Northern California. (I also pre-purchased Volvo spark plugs and IPD wire set, but he said mine look fine. (Next step is a smog test.))

Is that a fair price? My guess is yes.

2. Odometer problem. My speed needle started flopping around years ago after I accidentally ran over a large bolder (helping a damsel in distress). I believe I pulled loose / damaged a speed cable (don't know the official name) underneath the car. Had it replaced. However, the odometer needle continued to flop around, and would sound like a clunky plane propeller. Had my mechanic look at it, not resolved. I was too busy to address it again, and my actual needle then broke from banging so much left & right. This is the only issue my mechanic has struggled to fix. Explanation/ guess was that the internal arch of the cable was tricky if not done correctly. Any insight? Thank you!

 

all my volvos had later electronic speedometers, which are not without their own problems, at least in the case of the 1992 740T. my w124 series mercedes, however, have cable speedos, connected to the side of the transmission. indeed, they are picky about the cable not being even a little kinked, and they make getting the instrument panel out a challenge, because you have to reach behind it and unscrew the speedo cable from the speedo. anyways, if the cable isn't totally smooth, yeah, the speedo will bounce around. also if the bearings/bushings at either end of the cable are worn, it twitches. if the speedo itself is worn out, it twitches. ideally, you find a working speedo from another vintage 240, and swap your odometer assembly onto it, assuming yours was working. the speedo and odometer assemblies are each seperate and can be transplanted onto your instrument panel.

re: service price, yeah, thats in range, I suspect. thats all fairly easy stuff to self-repair given a reasonable set of hand tools and willingness to get dirty.

 

I do my own work, I'd never pay that; the job you had done is about $300 in parts (realistic wholesale prices), the rest, some simple auto shop labor but shops do charge if you can't do it yourself, so...

The speedo was apparently damaged on the underside, at the transmission, so whatever was fixed, was not done right. Hard to say without seeing the damage, etc.