Forum member under the name Pierce seems to know a whole lot about the 240 models. Who is this person? Where does the knowledge base come from?

 

If you read his signature it tells you all you need to know "owned a lot of volvos"...
As with any skill, his knowledge comes from research and experience.
It used to be you could get a factory shop manual or a Bentley's which would have all the design specs/test procedures etc. Now you can research on the internet or get access to products like Volvo's VIDA or subsribe to online tools to find the same. Maintain a car for 250K+ miles and you'll find you'll be a bit like that TV ad that says "we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two"...

 

The two Volvo 240s I have had before the one I have now we only used them for 60,000 miles, so i guess I never had to get deep into service with them. It just amazes me the guy knows so much. Figured he was a Volvo wrench, but apparently not. Darned impressive if you ask me.

 

I am a recently-retired computer engineer, my wife and I (and our now-adult kids) drove various Volvos from 1987 until a few years ago. Our family put around a half million miles on a 1987 240, we also had a 960, S90, and 940SE, 740 turbo wagon, oh and I had a 850 turbo wagon for awhile too. I've got a very good understanding of electronics and electrical stuffs, and I've got access to a fair bit of Volvo tech manuals that I accumulated while I had the cars.

Now days, I drove a 1990 and 1993 Mercedes E class (the "w124" series), and a 2002 F250 7.3 turbodiesel.

 

I assume you also work on your current vehicles?

 

Some.

The Mercedes (plural, we have 3), I was doing all the work on them til my arthritis got too annoying. Now I do the little tinker kind of stuff that I can, and when its a odd problem I do my best to diagnose it but anything much heavier than oil and filter changes, it goes into the shop... I have a very good indie who's worked on older mercedes for 30+ years, and the W124 is his favorite series, he and his shop own several (including an AMG E36 wagon thats a shop delivery vehicle and shuttle, I dunno if its for real or a conversion).

last 'big' job on the benz that I did myself was replacing all the hydraulic cylinders in the power convertible top (one started to leak, so I proactively replaced all 8, pulling them, shipping them to tophydraulics.com who rebuilds them, and reinstalled them).

The F250 diesel has gone to the shop for most everything other than oil (14 quarts of 15W40!) and air filter changes because I don't know jack about Ford 7.3 Powerstroke diesels.... I did repair a wire that a woodrat chewed. But I let a reliable indie with ford diesel truck dealer training replace the glowplugs and upgrade the glowplug harnesses as that all goes in under the valve covers...

 

Hey Pierce, try this. Best thing I've found for arthritis.
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