Hi all, I drove my 1987 Volvo 240 to Texas and back from Arizona for the holidays and I now have a spaceship sounding noise whenever the car is in motion. It is not engine speed or transmission speed related as the frequency does not change when I put it in neutral while rolling. However, the frequency does change as the vehicle speed increases/decreases. I have attached a link with a recording of the sound as heard from inside the vehicle at about 40 mph slowing down and speeding up.

https://soundcloud.com/5-0loco/volvo-ufo

The only thing I can pin this down to is the charcoal canister. I filled up and topped off the tank before the noise started, I have heard that overfilling the tank gets fuel into the canister and ruins it.

Any thoughts?

p.s. pic is from a doggie pee stop somewhere in New Mexico.

 

I would suspect the driveshaft center support bearing. Symptoms are consistent to both 240s on which I have replaced the bearing.

 

Thanks act1292, did you make any other oobservations that I could look for before replacing?

 

Check and see if the rubber bushing that covers the bearing is still present and if it is in what conditions.

 

If your bearing is siezed, then you might also smell burnt rubber after driving the car. However, if the bearing had siezed, it wouldn't be making noise.

Really to check it properly, you need to remove the center carrier assembly (4 bolts and support the driveshaft). Then you can remove the rubber carrier in which the bearing sits. Spin the bearing. If it doesn't feel smooth or makes noise when spinning the bearing, then it needs replacement. And as brickrunner says, at the same time inspect the rubber carrier for tearing or other damage and replace as necessary.

Good luck

 

I would just replace the rubber donut automatically when replacing the bearing, its silly not to since its all apart. the donut is fairly inexpensive, get it from a volvo dealer parts counter, or TascaParts.com

 

Thank you for your replies, I haven't gotten a chance to get underneath it as it's my wife's daily driver, but as soon as I check it out I'll report back. The bearing is only $40, not bad...