Volvo 340 Thermostat
 

I have a bit of a strange issue with my Volvo 340 (1.4l), a month back I started my car it sounded like a squeaky belt, however it stopped after a few meter, on the way I noticed the engine wasn't reaching it's normal temperature, when I was stopping the temperature was increasing again to normal etc. So my thought was it the thermostat, change it and it was alright up to now, again the same issue, a very, very slight squeaky noise (stopping after a few min again) and believe the thermostat failed again. The cooling system was before clean, and I cleaned and refilled it before, so I son't believe it's the issue... can't believe it's the water pump ether (but not sure). Has anyone an idea what the issue could be? Thanks.

All the 340's i have seen in the last 20 years have a gauge that only goes up to about 40% of scale when warm , the senders in the head/waterpump are getting old and have high reistance . It is normal for the temperature to go up a bit when stopped , then the fan should come on ...

All? In the last 20 years?

There are good ones out there that work properly ;)

Not so sure these days ! ok who has a good working temp gauge on a 300 series which points verticaly within 10 minutes of driving away from cold?

I have about 7 or 8 340 temperature senders from 1980 to 1990 cars, single and twin connector ones which i have changed , upon cutting them open there is corrosion where the spring terminal presses on the temperature sensitive pellet in the bottom of the sensor ..hence the higher resistance/lower needle reading than should be. I am wondering if the cheap E-Bay sensors work?

I had an Isodrop sensor (single terminal) for a Smiths that worked well, but managed to find a NOS Smiths two terminal one so the gauge would read correctly.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4029/...2f539b51_z.jpg
Smiths temperature sender by macplaxton, on Flickr

https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6205/...471cbbe8_z.jpg
DSCF1317 by macplaxton, on Flickr

As discussed many moons ago here: http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=136916