D?j? Vu Mid-Blue - 1989 Volvo 245 DL

I'm in for some more fun... nope. I hate it.





First of all, that's rust. Brand new parts shouldn't be pre-corroded. That's not okay. Second of all, 87* is not what I ordered nor what I wanted. I took the thermostat housing off anyway. I found it to be spring side down which seemed wrong. I flipped it and put it back together. I also found that I got the wrong part last time too. It also has 87* stamped into the body. That being said, there was no change in gauge reading.

I have a refund on the way from RA, but I still don't know if a correct thermostat is going to fix this. My thought is that opening the thermostat too soon in this winter weather could be causing the car to never heat up. What do you all think?

That's odd. I use an 87⁰ thermostat as well and my running temperature is in the 180-185⁰F in ~45⁰F weather.

My suspicion is that the original thermostat has failed, but even a lower temperature one should be fine.

How's your fan clutch?

Harlard said:

That's odd. I use an 87⁰ thermostat as well and my running temperature is in the 180-185⁰F in ~45⁰F weather.

My suspicion is that the original thermostat has failed, but even a lower temperature one should be fine.

How's your fan clutch?

Click to expand...

I too would not think that a few degrees one way or the other on opening temp would matter much. How do you measure temp? Do you have a better gauge?

Good question regarding the fan clutch. I don't even know how to test that.

I mean it should obviously spin the fan when the engine is hot, but how would I test it for over cooling? The clutch doesn't feel stuck or anything.

After reading what I found on 240turbo.com, it seems that the thermostat temp is right for my car. I'll probably toss the crusty but new one in there and see what happens. At least they're easy to change. As for the fan clutch, I might just have to gamble.

You should be able to move the fan blades relatively freely. I don't think that a locked up fan clutch could overcool that much but stranger things have happened. As for measuring temperature, my approach is the same: IR thermo pointed at the thermostat neck.

I replaced the thermostat today after work. Why not. This time I tried to be more observant toward issues in the one I left in last time too. Sure enough, the old one would very easily get stuck when I manually tried to open it. The new one was nice and smooth. I thought for sure, I had it figured out.

Nope. Now I'm officially frustrated. I no longer have faith in my odometer repair. Could I have messed up the temp gauge while I was in the instrument panel? I looked up a diagram, and it seems that the answer would be "no".

If I messed up the voltage regulator I would have compromised the temp gauge as well. I just filled up today, so I know it works fine. I'm not really sure how to diagnose this electrically either, so I'm stumped. Where is the temp sensor? maybe I could just check for 12V between the sensor and the wire with the sensor unplugged? If I unplug it, will the gauge peg hot? I may need to start a separate thread for this.

The sensor for the temp gauge is in the middle of the cylinder head under the intake manifold IIRC, it’s the one with one wire connected to it.

kampman said:

The sensor for the temp gauge is in the middle of the cylinder head under the intake manifold IIRC, it?s the one with one wire connected to it.

Click to expand...

Thank you! That's where I guessed it was. Sounds like a tough reach. I'll check it out tomorrow.

To avoid clogging my "build" thread thread with boring details and stuff that I don't actually follow through with, I made a couple threads in the maintenance forum. If you're interested in the cooling system issue, here's a link. https://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=358830 I have noticed the temp going up to normal operating temp at idle if I keep the heater valve closed which just further confirms that my sensor works fine. I think the temp faker delete and cold air through the radiator are making my gauge move a lot more than normal. If I still have some sort of issue in the spring, I'll continue digging because this 20 mpg business isn't gonna fly for much longer.

I also started chasing down the heated seat problem. Although I confirmed that I have an open in the grid, I haven't gone about fixing that yet. In fact, I'm going backwards. The more I started playing with the seat, the more things I found wrong with it. To make a long story short, the height adjusters would not stay level because the track was bent. When I forced the adjusters level the forward/backward adjustment (for longer/shorter legs) would get jammed. In my attempts to level everything out I induced the gangster lean into the frame.

I made a mess out of that seat , but I was not about to dig into it without any experience in upholstery. Luckily I had the perfect candidate for practice in my basement! I still had all the seats from my first wagon. They were all in great shape except for the terribly blown out driver seat. You can find everything about that adventure right here! https://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=358372 To make that long story short, I made the blown out springless driver seat into something much more comfy than I've ever had in a 240. We're rocking that one until I can fix up the original but previously reupholstered seat in the same fashion. If I really feel like getting picky down the road, I'll buy new foam, grid, seat heater, and an NOS '89+ cover for the seat I just did, but I'm not going to make any plans for that yet. The -'88 covers are not nearly as pretty IMO, but they're presentable.

Here are the highlights.
Blown out and ratty




Getting naked


That explains some of the pains I got from driving my old car!




Bare bones


Using pins to hold the foam in place while the 3M spray glue dried.


Dried


Torn T-shirt for reinforcement


Inside got the same treatment


Seat bottom fixes


Anybody else get yellow flakes all over the floor? The T-shirt mod is nice just for taking car of that.




Wagonmeister grid


New hog rings. I wouldn't zip tie. This stuff is under a lot of tension and I can't imagine plastic ties holding long. Hog ring and plier kits are cheap on Amazon and actually pretty fun to use.


Check it out! I went from blown out and ratty to... rigged and ratty? It's infinitely more comfortable than it was before and infinitely less annoying than the gangster lean.




After repainting and re-lubing the track, it went into the car nice and easy. I still don't have a seat heater, and this cover is super ugly; however, it's much better than having your torso facing the radio instead of the steering wheel.


I have a lot more stuff to take care of like a leaking mid-pipe, transmission flush, and diff service, but I'll mess with all that in the spring. The car is clocking miles and getting my fiance to work without back pain. Success! It's time to work on the Camaro again.

You can flush the transmission in less than an hour start to finish without much investment if it really needs done.

Great work with the seats! I have to fix my leather seats that suffers from ganster lean

Scaramanga said:

Great work with the seats! I have to fix my leather seats that suffers from ganster lean

Click to expand...

Thank you! It was a lot easier than I thought.

I think I experienced the worst snow we've ever seen in my area since I moved here. Both major arteries to/from my town were closed down, but I dodged the mess before I could could even sit in traffic for one minute. Taking the long way home, I found that this abandoned property was an amazing view. (or lack thereof!) I'm not a photographer by any means, but I'm still glad I stopped.








My two favorites!




Made it home!


And hit 225k this morning. It's crazy to think how much I've done to this turd in under 20k.

Gorgeous. I love these wagons in snow. Especially stock/stockish ones.
If your heater core is anything like mine, it makes cold weather driving so comfortable.

Keep it up, thanks for the awesome pics, one of my favorite threads by far

IansPlatinum said:

Gorgeous. I love these wagons in snow. Especially stock/stockish ones.
If your heater core is anything like mine, it makes cold weather driving so comfortable.

Keep it up, thanks for the awesome pics, one of my favorite threads by far

Click to expand...

Thanks! They're so capable in the snow with their length, rear drive, and skinny tires. Sadly, I can't say that this heater does amazing work. I might be spoiled and too used to newer cars, but I think the ball valve style valve is the problem. Mine is on or off with very little adjustment in the middle unless I turn the AC on. With my over cooling problems, I don't get warm until I'm about 15 minutes into my drive either. That's after warming the car up too. I wish I knew what was going on there. My only idea is set up some cardboard between the grill and radiator.

I don't mean to rant. I do appreciate the kind words. That one issue is just driving me nuts since the MPGs went down to about 19-21.

I can't fix issues without creating new ones. lol This time I blame myself 100%. I was in a rush and made a newbie mistake.

The power steering has never really worked as well it's supposed to, but recently the pump started actually grinding noises and eventually gave up. Now that I'm at a solid stopping point on the Camaro with good weather I figured Id replace the pump. I apologize for not taking a lot of pictures, but I really needed to ensure that this car would be ready for work in the morning.

Before I started wrenching, I did a little inspection since I hadn't even driven the car in about a month. The fluid was very low. I wonder where it went. I flushed the system less than a year ago. Oh well. Topping off the reservoir and working the air out didn't fix it either, so in I go!

I bought the cheap GM pulley puller tool at Advance. The price reflects its quality because it doesn't work worth a crap unless you get crafty.


Forget the provided collar. It won't help you. A hose clamp tightened down close to the pulley was what gave me success.


Everything would have went fine if I didn't get antsy and use the vise to hold the pump while I installed the brackets and fitting. After removing the pulley, finding the high point, heating it up, and pounding away, I got it in a much more manageable shape. I still need a new pulley though. If anybody has a spare power steering pulley, please PM me. I'll be posting in the wanted section.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-uUrFjIrbtQ" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I drove the car to work this morning. It turns like butter now. The only time it doesn't work well is when the car isn't moving. You can feel the wheel getting tighter then looser. I guess the car needs a rack too which would probably explain why the pump I removed didn't look that old. I'm nervous to do this, because I've heard a lot of ugly stories when it comes to remanufactured racks. I guess I'll just have to do my research.

I think maintaining a daily-driven rust belt 240 in 2021 is like building a house of cards at this point. I finally got around to replacing the power steering pulley on Saturday. The results were even better than expected. I must have had some belt slip or something because the steering improved again. I only experience hard turning if I'm sitting still and jerking the wheel which is never a necessary maneuver. I'll hold off on the rack. I have more important things to worry about.

The mid-pipe has rusted out pretty badly.

What you can't see are the multiple holes which are pretty loud and throwing off the O2 sensor. I talked a lot of smack about the IPD stainless piece, and my stance remains the same even after receiving this puppy in the mail.

Just look at those bends and that abrupt merge! It may be crude and ugly, but so is the IPD thing. This one also cost under $100, so I'll call it a win. If I were worried about making it show quality or squeezing out every bit of HP, I'd for spring for one with mandrel bends. A coat of high temp paint will make this one good enough for me!

Much better.

I wouldn't have made the "house of cards" comment if I wasn't about to get a kick in the nuts though. When I went under the car to spray the manifold and catalytic converter bolts, I made a very unsightly discovery. Most 240s mark their territory with oil. Ours does this instead.



...JERK

The previous owner's floor patch did not hold up whatsoever which seems to be a revolving theme with Moose. He seems to reject new metal because my wheel arch repair from a year and a half ago isn't looking so hot either.

Frankly, this hurts. Both my fianc? and I are pretty upset about this and unsure of what to do next. What we know for sure is that I'm not cut out for keeping this car in daily service. Since the nicer weather has just began, I'm going to leave this be for a while. I'm hoping to get the Camaro done soon so that I can use it daily while Allie drives the C30. Maybe then I can fix this in the driveway? I'm not sure, but I'm very much cursing the 1/2" of undercoating that's blocking my view of what actually needs to be cut out. Let's hope the issue is fairly isolated.

For the record, I don't necessarily blame the previous owner for a hack floor repair. I do blame them for not replacing the brake octopus though. The brake fluid had been leaking for a long time and essentially dissolved the undercoating. The good news is that it will come off easily. The bad news is that it's been holding in corrosive fluid for who knows how long. I should have scraped it off a long time ago, but I didn't. Now I have a lot more work to do.

I am very discouraged, but neither Allie nor I are ready to give up on this car. We love it, and we'll get another daily driver if that's what it takes to keep road tripping Moose for the long term.

Get a better shell for summer months and a subaru for winters to dissolve back into the soil?

Harlard said:

Get a better shell for summer months and a subaru for winters to dissolve back into the soil?

Click to expand...

I cannot increase the size of the fleet. I'm already storing my Buick at her grandpa's place in the winter, and both dailies sit in the driveway. Whenever the 240 is bumped out of daily service, it's either getting sold, or replacing the Buick. We aren't a fan of either idea, but something has to go.

I do have a short term idea though. My grandpa is practically giving me his loaded up Oldsmobile so that I can sell it. I think a refurbished digital climate controller and good scrubbing would make it great driver. It only has 116k miles on it and no rust. Perhaps I could drive that for a while while I patch the floor in the 240? Then I can sell the Olds at the end of the summer. I didn't really want to retitle and register it, but I should still be making money on the deal.

Sell the Olds and pay someone to weld your floor