Volvo :: 1988 / 240 Won't Start In The Rain Only
Mar 11, 2011
3 months ago I bought a beautiful dark-blue 1988 Volvo 240, manual transmission. This is my first Volvo and I'm already hooked! It's the car that's going to teach me to work on cars because for the most part it's beautifully simple. I bought a repair manual to be prepared, and have now encountered my first real issue.
For several months, even in the rain, it would start and run beautifully. Now when it sits in the rain overnight it will not start the following morning, or until the weather subsides. Once it has a few hours to "dry out" after the rain and humidity stops it starts beautifully. In the wet weather it wants to start, the starter goes and goes and at points it sounds like it almost catches, though ultimately won't. I imagine moisture is getting in somewhere and preventing spark at some point in the ignition system, but, like I mentioned, I'm new to this. Where to begin; what I should replace to begin troubleshooting this?
In a separate issue I can't get fuses for the rear tail/brake lights to keep from blowing when I replace them.
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I have a 1988 Volvo 240 DL that I just replaced the battery. It started right up after it was installed. We drove it home and parked it for one week without trying to start it again because we still have parts to buy to pass safety. I live in UT. My son went out to start it today and it would not make any sound or turn over. What should I check next? Starter Solenoid? Alternator?
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I have an 88 244 dl. I recently changed the battery charge bulb in the instrument cluster and no I have a no start. The starter engages and the motor turns over but makes no attempt to start. I checked all the fuses including the 25 amp fuse under the hood.
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My 245 is running great. Love this car to death. I have been experiencing something weird. The car will start hard after sitting intermittently. It'll crank for 3 seconds and if I press the gas pedal it will fire right up. If I don't touch the pedal, itll will continue to crank...eventually sputtering and then firing. It will usually fore up right away if I don't let it sit for hours. I haven't exactly narrowed it down to a fuel prime issue, but that's kind of what it seems like to me. Are there any check valves or anything like that I could look into?
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My 1988 Ranger has started leaking a gush of water onto the feet of passengers the first time I accelerate after a heavy rain. I saw the water flowing out from behind the glove box area as I started driving forward. How to fix this leak?
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My 1988 240DL is miss firing #4 cylinder. I cannot get it to fire. this is what I have done:
Swapped plug wires with the #3 wire. Miss fire does not follow the wire
Swapped plugs with #1 plug. Miss fire does not follow the plug
Tested injector power with a tester and it lights up properly
Replaces #4 injector with a new one, still miss fires.
Replaced cap and rotor
Compression test shows 150 LB in #4
sworn and thrown a few tools, still miss fires.
Spark seems good with the plug out and grounded on the block. What else should I test and or try...
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About 6 weeks ago I became the proud owner of an '88 240 wagon with ~ 235,000 miles.
When turning the key over to start Lucy (that's her name) most times she will crank for 3 to 5 seconds before indeed starting. I can avoid those 3 to 5 excruciatingly long seconds if I let her crank for a time or two then let her rest for a second - after that she will start up immediately when I turn the key again. This situation happens probably 14 times out of 15. The 15th she will start like a dream the first time. I have had the battery tested (although I could not find a date on the battery and the previous owner did not know when it was purchased), and I have completed a full tune up (plugs, wires, rotor and cap) among other maintenance issues as well.
Attached File(s)
Lucy.JPG ( 3.4MB )
Lucy_Under_the_Hood.JPG ( 3.87MB )
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I have a 1988 Volvo 240 DL station wagon that has been in my family since just before I was born. It has somewhere around 300K miles on it (the odometer broke 7 years ago at 250K). It drives around town more or less fine, usually. But sometimes it loses power on me. Usually this happens when I take it on highways, up big hills, in situations where I need to accelerate quickly, etc. It just starts to slow down, and I have to downshift and ease slowly through whatever stretch of road I'm on until I can get back up to speed (usually on a downhill). It's not totally consistent--sometimes it has this problem, other times it doesn't.
The car will go through stretches where it runs fine, then I'll have this problem on a highway, and then it's a little more likely to happen for a period after that (even on surface streets). This has been happening in some form for a few years. When I first had the problem, it happened continually until I heard a terrible rattling in the engine. When I took it in, they found that a spring in the piston/cylinder had broken off and shot up, breaking the cap off one of the cylinders (sorry for the lack of a more technical explanation).
When they fixed that, the problem seemed to go away for a while, but eventually came back (though there has been no rattling since). The most recent time, it had been running around town just fine. Then I took it out on the highway and really lost power--had to slow it down to 35-40mph going up a hill on a 55mph highway. For the rest of the drive it struggled up hills, even as low as 2nd gear. But on my drive home (about 1.5 hours later), the car ran smoothly (though I continued to baby it, and there were fewer upward hills). Since then, even around town it sometimes feels like it might lose power again, but it never becomes a huge issue because I haven't demanded a whole lot of the car.
After that long-winded explanation, I'm wondering: could this be something as simple as spark plugs? Or is this definitely a bigger issue with the engine? If it's a cheap fix, I'm happy to go for it, but if it will require putting several hundred (or more) into the engine, I'm inclined just to let it limp along until it's finally time to take the car out back and shoot it. Figuratively, of course.
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I was driving home just a few minutes ago when my headlights flickered and then cut out for a few seconds. They came back on, but I hadn't driven another 1/2 mile when they flickered again and went off for a further few seconds. This was repeated once more about a mile later, though when I pulled over (first time I was able to do so), they stayed off til after I restarted the car and banged on the dashboard.
Further symptoms: running lights, brake lights, and tail lights seem unaffected. Turning the switch for the headlights off and back on does not affect the issue.
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Recently my old workhorse started coughing and stalling. This isn't consistent at all. I'll be driving and the car will lose power and come back to life. It also stalls at stop signs. Brought to my mechanic and left it for a week with him and he can't figure it out. 1988 Volvo 240 over 200,000....
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The car idles fine, but after a couple seconds in each gear (5spd. manual) it looses power and starts to stumble, but if i keep it at a low rpm, it will run. So, if it is the catalytic converter. how can i un-clog it? Dearborn protocol adapter.
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I have just bought a 1988 740gl turbo and I was driving it the other day and when i came to a set of lights just as i stopped the car stalled on me then wouldn't start...
I left it for a hour or so came back and it started and i drove away and only went a few kms home.... what would this be I haven't driven it since!!
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I have an 88 volvo 244Dl with major hesitation while driving down the road. I recently had a no start issue and after a week at the shop it was fixed. During that repair it received: New Dist, cap, rotor, timing belt, coolant sensor, plugs, wires. With the hesitation I checked vacuum lines, cleaned T/B and MAA.
One thing I noticed, which seems weird... When the engine is hesitating, missing.. the radio becomes somewhat staticy. The reception of the radio mimics the hesitation of the engine.
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last night I was on my way to work and had the car in forth traveling about forty-five. A light ahead of me turned red and I held the clutch in until I had stopped. I shifted into what I thought was first. I discovered that regardless of the shifter position, the transmission left it in forth gear. Barely got it moving from a stop and brought it back home.
Looking under the car, I don't know exactly what the linkage mechanism looks like. I'm not sure how to tell if it has been disconnected or misaligned. I don't know if the problem is in the transmission itself either. The shifter moves to other positions freely, but in actuality it stays locked in forth gear.
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I was recently given my first Volvo. Its an 88 240dl. While driving my temp gauge climbs up to the red and sometimes hovers inside of it. It normally climbs up at stop signs and comes down on straight always then climbs right back up close to red. When the gauge was in the red i stopped the car and popped the hood open to see that the engine was not actually overly hot.
first i replaced coolant. nothing
then i replaced the thermostat. nothing
flushed radiator. nothing
Today i finally had enough and decided to switch out the water pump with a new one hoping that it would solve the problem seeing as it still had the factory one on. It did nothing. the gauge continues to climb up. I did replace one of the two senders in hope that it would fix the gauge reading but nothing.
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My 1988 240DL wagon....the engine temp gauge is not working? is see the wire that goes to the sensor in the engine block, it is there and connected to the sensor. is there a way to test the wire? I have purchased a new sensor, but I have not replaced it yet.
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i have an 88 volvo 240 wagon with 89K miles on it... it's been passed down through the family, is in great shape and is a joy to own. i have always have it serviced at the volvo dealership and recently had a bunch of work done to it including complete lube, oil and filter change, replaced the radiator overflow cap, replaced a leaking valve cover gasket, replaced the oil pan gasket, replaced the rear diff gasket and added oil, and replaced the sway bar links (it was an expensive visit).
to my dismay, on the way home, accelerating hard up a hill, something under the car started to rattle and black smoke started coming out of the back of the car. i took it back to the dealership and they replaced a leaking seal that they said was the problem, on the way home, same thing with the rattle and smoke happened on the same hill... maybe just stop driving on that hill, right? so i took it back and they changed the oil again (the oil levels were a bit high) and said they couldn't find anything wrong... drove the car home and seemed not to have the problem (though i did take it easy on the hill).
so today, i take the car out for a drive (usually just drive it on the weekend), and accelerating hard up the same hill i get the same rattling and black smoke that continues until i let off the acceleration. by the time i get home (a couple blocks later), it's like nothing ever happened.
Is it safe to drive as long as i don't accelerate hard? Never had this issue before all the work was done, kind of seems like i should take the car back to the dealership, but this would be the 4th time for the same issue...
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2 days ago I was driving to a friends house and it started to rain. I put on my wipers and after 5 minutes they stopped working. I pulled over and checked the fuse and it was burnt out. I had a spare 25A fuse and replaced it on the spot. I first check the horn since it's the same fuse connection. The horn worked ok then I went on with the wiper...the second I put on the wipers the fuse blew again not even letting the wiper make one cycle.
Could it be the wiper motors? What should I do other then bring it in. I want to do it myself.
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My XC70 makes a weird whistling type noise in heavy rains that last a long time. It doesn't do it in light rains, or rains that are heavier but don't flood roads or collect water on the shoulder or slow lanes, only the really heavy, hard to find the road type.
There are no warning lights when it happens, turning off everything, except the car and windshield wipers, doesn't work. Pulling off the road, works after about 30 seconds, but then we start again, and it continues. This is only happening during really heavy rains, is scary, and I don't have a clue what it's doing or why nor does my mechanic.
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We have had a 2004 Volvo XC70 for two years now, problem-free. But recently we experienced a strange, new thing. We were driving in a very heavy rain in Maine (during the hurricane) and suddenly the engine began screaming...not at all like a loose belt or bad bearing, but really loud, seeming from right front. We stopped, no idots lights came on. Began again, soon the same thing. Stopped again, waited, then took off again, with rain lessening. No further problems the rest of the drive back to Vermont. But now, we occasionally have the screaming, only briefly and ONLY when it rains. It concerns us a bit.
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While driving in the rain, AC in auto blowing cold air, hot air starts blowing. Cannot shut off blower (now on high), blowing very hot air. Radio control knobs stop working. In fact entire center control panel ceases to work. Shut the car off for 15 minutes and everything works fine. After the first time, car ran fine fine for 90 days before it did it a second time. Mechanic could not duplicate and reloaded software. May not know if car is fixed for months?
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