Volvo - 240 :: 1988 - Headlights Flickered And Then Cut Out For A Few Seconds When Driving
Nov 29, 2013
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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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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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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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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I have a 2008 Volvo S40. I bought it used less than a year ago, at around 68k miles from a volvo dealership in my area. At just before my 75000 maintenance, I noticed that my oil light flickered while I made turns. Turns out, I was 4-5 quarts low on oil- and took it into my mechanic (a certified volvo mechanic) within two days and without further driving it. Everything goes well- car looks good. Now, at my 82,000 mile maintenance, again, the same flicker of the oil lamp light on my turns- and poof! Oil is down again 5 quarts. Now, there's absolutely no sign of leakage or burning, and my mechanic thinks it's due to carbon build up around the piston rings.... this sounds like more of a result of a disguised problem, rather than the cause itself. I don't use cheap gas, and have done everything according to the service manual.
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94 Blazer 5.7 liter ... Headlights won't come on... They flickered then went off completely. Check EGR light comes on occasionally. Lower 30 amp breaker on fusebox is extremely hot. All other lights work.
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2006 ~ Noticed the car lights (head lights only) flickering off for a few seconds while driving at night, took it in and they re-set the computer, still is flickering. Without spending 4 hours in labor for them to check every wire?
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I am having this weird issue that started from what I believe this weekend. I was doing 70mph and it was snowing. Not always but something like maybe 1 out of 5 times when I activated the washer fluid motor my headlights would turn off for like 1-2 seconds. Super scary when you are driving in the pitch dark on a highway.
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I have an 02 Monte Carlo SS. I have an aftermarket remote start on it. While I am driving the security comes on and the headlights flicker for about 2 seconds. Ive never had any problems with the car not starting or the radio locking. Every time i shut the car off it takes about 10-15 minutes for the security light to come on. Car drives fine with the security light on.
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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 06 sonata v6 with 120k. Today while driving the car started to lose power then the lights on the dash board flickered radio went nuts and the car lost all power. What could be causing this? Moved battery a little bit and got power back but then started driving and it did the same thing. I did have the heater on 2. You can feel it lose power while accelerating.
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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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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 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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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 88 244 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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I have a 1988 ford ranger and my headlights won't turn on all my fuses are fine but no headlights! All the other lights work fine blinkers, parking, brake ,and tail lights! What do I need to look for????
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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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