240 General: H Reg 240, Project Thread

[hreg240]

Good morning all,

As promised, I have made this thread to document the acquisition, enjoyment, and frustrations of my newest car - a 1990 Volvo 240 GL estate.

A few of you may have seen me commenting on other threads and generally making myself present on this lovely corner of the internet. I also posted up a thread about an electrical gremlin I encountered when I collected the car. Link to that thread is here.

So without further ado, let's delve into the specifics of the car.

It is a 2.0 5 speed manual, blue (need to get paint code) with a blue interior. 122,000 miles on the clock, with the cambelt changed 20,000 miles ago and it's not missed an MOT.

From the history provided with the car, as well as what I was told by the motor trader / friend I bought it from, this 240 was owned by one family from new. First bought from Fisher's of Horsham by a gentleman who worked for West Sussex Council. At some point in its history, he then transferred the V5 into his wife's name.

The story goes that the car went in for a primary injector and MOT work, which was completed, only for the owner to say they no longer needed the car. It then went to my friend who is a trader, I saw the car and bought her.

There are some great bits of paperwork, like the original service book, dealership contact cards, et al; as well as a guide to English country pubs and some West Sussex event flyers from the mid '90s.

The car drives very nicely, albeit a bit lumpy on idle. The bodywork isn't amazing, with rough rear arches and tattiness all round, but overall is quite tidy. Welding work has been done on the sills and door shuts but this looks to be of a good standard. The boot area looks quite solid.

The wiring on the boot is very poor, and is on my list of things to fix.

The plan is:

• Service the car this weekend (as it is payday)

• Get it running less lumpy

• Tidy up any areas I can, on a reasonably small budget

• Take her to shows and enjoy!

I will also look at having the arches welded later this year, I've just gotten a gasless welder (as am restoring a '68 Beetle in my spare time) so may attempt to do the job myself. I also intend on Waxoyling later this year.

The car is my only working vehicle and thus my daily driver. I don't anticipate her to ever be in showroom condition, but I aim to polish her up a bit more than the previous owner did - she was certainly bought as a workhorse and fixed as such.

Now for some photos:

[Moomoo]

She doesn’t look amiss!

[Othen]

Welcome to the forum, and in particular the 200 series section.

Alan

[hreg240]

Thanks guys; she's not half bad. A bit of a 6 footer but we shan't complain too much.

As a bit of an update to the thread, the indicators may now be fixed, but the main beam (intermittently) decides to stick on when I flash someone with dipped beams on.

It was stuck on this morning, but I turned my lights off, flashed someone with them off and, when I pulled up to work, the dipped beams had returned and mains seemed unstuck.

I think it is either the in-dash relay, or the stalk. Thankfully I have found someone on the FB group to send me a stalk; I shall try that and see what happens, as well as clean up the contacts on the relay.

Aside from electrical foibles, I have started to fill my basket on a motor factor's website, ready to service the car this weekend. I shall be doing: oil and filter (10w40 Castrol Magnatec, same as I use on all my classics, and the MANN 917 filter); as well as the air filter, some new fuses all round and potentially spark plugs and HT leads.

If anyone knows the correct sparks and leads to buy, please let me know. I am currently waiting on my Haynes to arrive in the post, so can't check that yet.

I also have some annoying belt squeal upon start-up, for about 5 minutes until warm. Anyone have any ideas on that?

All in all, the old girl is doing alright. Drove her 35 miles into work today (into London ) and she performed well.

P.S - I called my local Volvo dealer and got the radio code. It worked, but the radio is utterly terrible. I shall survive using my phone / portable speaker for now, but will look to change the radio and associated wiring + speakers soon. I will be going for an OEM style Blaupunkt radio, as I'm not a fan of modern looking headunits.

[loki_the_glt]

The main beam relay is a latching one - it locks on so you have to flash twice to reset it to dip.

Someone did a write-up on how to convert it to the more conventional flick-to-flash but I think it was in the Volvo Driver magazine rather than on the forum.

[Moomoo]

Bougicord leads bud! Nothing else.

Learned this on here, it’s correct!👍

[Clifford Pope]

Originally Posted by hreg240

.

I also have some annoying belt squeal upon start-up, for about 5 minutes until warm. Anyone have any ideas on that?

Make sure it is only the fan or pump belt, not the timing belt.

It could be an old glazed belt, worn, too loose, or the pulleys misaligned.
Even so, I've sometimes found a perfect belt still noisy, but a quick squirt with silicone spray while it's running often stops that, as well as identifying the culprit.

[Moomoo]

Originally Posted by Clifford Pope

Make sure it is only the fan or pump belt, not the timing belt.

It could be an old glazed belt, worn, too loose, or the pulleys misaligned.
Even so, I've sometimes found a perfect belt still noisy, but a quick squirt with silicone spray while it's running often stops that, as well as identifying the culprit.

Aye,a quick spray can work usually, it’s sounds counter intuitive ,( spaying oil on belts), but it does often work.🧐

[Othen]

Originally Posted by hreg240

Thanks guys; she's not half bad. A bit of a 6 footer but we shan't complain too much.

As a bit of an update to the thread, the indicators may now be fixed, but the main beam (intermittently) decides to stick on when I flash someone with dipped beams on.

It was stuck on this morning, but I turned my lights off, flashed someone with them off and, when I pulled up to work, the dipped beams had returned and mains seemed unstuck.

I think it is either the in-dash relay, or the stalk. Thankfully I have found someone on the FB group to send me a stalk; I shall try that and see what happens, as well as clean up the contacts on the relay.

Aside from electrical foibles, I have started to fill my basket on a motor factor's website, ready to service the car this weekend. I shall be doing: oil and filter (10w40 Castrol Magnatec, same as I use on all my classics, and the MANN 917 filter); as well as the air filter, some new fuses all round and potentially spark plugs and HT leads.

If anyone knows the correct sparks and leads to buy, please let me know. I am currently waiting on my Haynes to arrive in the post, so can't check that yet.

I also have some annoying belt squeal upon start-up, for about 5 minutes until warm. Anyone have any ideas on that?

All in all, the old girl is doing alright. Drove her 35 miles into work today (into London ) and she performed well.

P.S - I called my local Volvo dealer and got the radio code. It worked, but the radio is utterly terrible. I shall survive using my phone / portable speaker for now, but will look to change the radio and associated wiring + speakers soon. I will be going for an OEM style Blaupunkt radio, as I'm not a fan of modern looking headunits.

The headlamp issue is sort of unlikely to be the stalk as the contacts are quite chunky inside (but it could be). It is more likely to be the lighting relay, which you will probably find is in the engine compartment next to the busbar, it will probably look like the larger one in this photo:



... I can't remember which year your your motor car is, but Volvo didn't change things much over decades so it is probably the same. You should be able to hear it working as you operate the stalk. If it doesn't try pulling off the connector and giving the pins a spray with some contact cleaner.

You will have a few electrical foibles on a 30-40 year old Volvo: the wiring at the back of estate cars often goes wrong (there are lots of posts on these issues because they happen so often), the insulation on the engine compartment loom has probably started falling off (particularly around the alternator and the oil pressure switch), some of electric window switches will probably be a bit reluctant to work and the instrument lights may be a problem.

You can look up the right spark plugs for your motor on any motor factor's website or on eBay. I generally use NGK, they are cheap and work perfectly well. Some folk will say one must fit Volvo plugs; I've never found that to be the case. In my experience after market plug leads, distributor caps and rotor arms work perfectly well, Febi seems to be quite a good make. Your motor factor or eBay will find them for you. Again, some folk will tell you that one must get OEM parts... believe that if you want to - I have always found pattern parts to be fine and they are much cheaper.

The squeal will probably be from one or more of the auxiliary belts (2 for the alternator/water pump and one for the PAS). Adjust the tension and the noise will probably go away. The belts are cheap (again, aftermarket ones are fine) so it is a good idea to change them anyway. If changing the belts and tensioning them correctly doesn't solve the issue it will be a bearing in the alternator or PAS pump; just listen and it will be obvious if it is one of those.

The 30-40 year old Volvo radios were rubbish by modern standards. Fitting modern ICE in the Volvo sized hole and connectors can be a pain because (particularly on the earlier models) Mr Volvo didn't use DIN sized holes and ISO connectors. There are ways around it that aren't too difficult or expensive; if you looks at the Barge's thread (about 6 months ago) you will find some ideas to fix both the DIN and ISO issues. I fitted a £15 Chinese radio that works perfectly well, but if you want to you may spend another £200 on a Blaupunkt one that will do much the same thing with a smart badge.

Good fortune,

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Clifford Pope

Make sure it is only the fan or pump belt, not the timing belt.

... that is a good point about the timing belt. If you aren't sure it has been changed recently (within the past 5 years) then change it now. They aren't expensive (about a tenner) and the job will only take an hour or so of your time.