Woo-Hoo! I now own a Volvo.......

[Lynyrd Skinhead]

..........a 1992 940 SE Turbo. Any inherent problems I need to be mindful of?

Regards,

Skin

 

[mdrawson]

You probably have one of the best cars that Volvo's ever made, if it's been
maintained correctly. Nicest body style and size, best engine ever,
reliable turbo. No inherent problems that I know of. Congrats.

 

[James Sweet]

.........a 1992 940 SE Turbo. Any inherent problems I need to be mindful of?

Regards,

Skin

Surperb car, IMO one of the best they ever made, despite only being offered
in the states with an automatic transmission. Keep up on oil changes and
replace the timing belt on time (though no damage will be done if it breaks
you'll be stranded) and the car should run reliably for many years.

 

[Mike \Rotor\ Nowak]

Lucky sod! A friend of mine picked up a 940-T at the same time I bought my
Mercedes... I was -and STILL am- very envious of his new girl. I'd love one
of those things... congradulations and enjoy your brick-on-a-rocket-sled.

-Mike

 

[Joseph Oberlander]

A couple of minor issues, but nothing serious.

1: replace the front lights with glass OEM European ones.
2: re-wire the front lights with relays and heavy gauge wire.
3: replace the struts if worn
4: never reset the trip odometer while the car is moving
5: there are half a dozen accessory gauges that fit in the dash.
I recommend adding a large tach instead of the small one.
(dep on model/year/etc)

Mostly typical stuff - the lighting upgrade is huge - double
the useable light. The large tach is nice, too.

 

[Lynyrd Skinhead]

snip

Congrats.

Thankyou,

I pick her up Saturday morning and I've got a near 300 mile drive to bring
her home. I've got my AA road atlas out to plan a nice mixed route with some
motorway, A road & B road. I'll post Saturday night to let y'all know how it
went.

Skin

 

[James Sweet]

A couple of minor issues, but nothing serious.

1: replace the front lights with glass OEM European ones.
2: re-wire the front lights with relays and heavy gauge wire.
3: replace the struts if worn
4: never reset the trip odometer while the car is moving
5: there are half a dozen accessory gauges that fit in the dash.
I recommend adding a large tach instead of the small one.
(dep on model/year/etc)

Mostly typical stuff - the lighting upgrade is huge - double
the useable light. The large tach is nice, too.

You won't hurt anything by resetting the trip odometer while it's moving,
this is only a concern with the old mechanical speedometers in pre-'86 240s.

 

[Alex Zepeda]

2: re-wire the front lights with relays and heavy gauge wire.

They come from the factory with relay(s). If you turn the headlights on, and then
take the key out of the ignition, the lights will turn off.

4: never reset the trip odometer while the car is moving

I don't think this was ever a problem on the 700/900 cars with their electronic
speedos.

5: there are half a dozen accessory gauges that fit in the dash.
I recommend adding a large tach instead of the small one.
(dep on model/year/etc)

All 700/900 cars (that I've seen) have a large clock and large speedo. Only the
old style dash has spots for additional gauges (four or so in the cluster). The
newer style 700/900s don't have any factory sanctioned place to put additional
gauges.

- alex

'85 244 Turbo

 

[Herman]

You won't hurt anything by resetting the trip odometer while it's moving,
this is only a concern with the old mechanical speedometers in pre-'86 240s.

Ahem!!!!!!, ......Sorry, but there seems to be some "misinformation"
here, my 240 series is an '83 and the trip odometer works just fine
"after" resetting while moving, on more occaisions than I could possibly
remember. I've owned this car since new.
Herman '83 282, 5.0 H.O. formerly 242 Turbo intercooled.

 

[James Sweet]

Ahem!!!!!!, ......Sorry, but there seems to be some "misinformation"
here, my 240 series is an '83 and the trip odometer works just fine
"after" resetting while moving, on more occaisions than I could possibly
remember. I've owned this car since new.
Herman '83 282, 5.0 H.O. formerly 242 Turbo intercooled.

I have the same experience, however in theory this *could* damage it if
exactly the right circumstances take place, but my point was only that in
the electronic speedos used starting in '86 there's no chance of this
happening since the odometer is driven by a teeny little stepper motor that
lacks enough torque to strip gears even if you do jam it somehow.

 

[James Sweet]

They come from the factory with relay(s). If you turn the headlights on, and then
take the key out of the ignition, the lights will turn off.

The wiring is still tiny and weak, if you install European headlights put
relays under the hood, connect fuse holders right to the alternator output
post, use heavy guage wires (#10 or better yet #8) and mount high quality
relays in a place free of road spray and excessive heat. I used a pair of
the relays used as the power relay for K-Jet injected 240's but 700 series
cars use similar ones for foglights. To power the relays, connect a wire
from each headlamp plug and tie both sides together, this prevents the bulb
failure light from coming on when using relays, yet retains it's function
for the rear lights where it's actually very useful, with the headlights you
can tell easily if one is burned out.

All 700/900 cars (that I've seen) have a large clock and large speedo. Only the
old style dash has spots for additional gauges (four or so in the cluster). The
newer style 700/900s don't have any factory sanctioned place to put additional
gauges.

Yep, every 700 series car has a tachometer as well as a large clock, at
least up to the point when they updated the dash. After that I'm pretty
certain all the 700 and 900 cars still had the tach, don't recall if they
had the large clock still or not. There's an unfortunate lack of places to
add guages, 240's are much nicer in that respect.

 

[Dave Shannon]

I have the same experience, however in theory this *could* damage it if
exactly the right circumstances take place, but my point was only that in
the electronic speedos used starting in '86 there's no chance of this
happening since the odometer is driven by a teeny little stepper motor that
lacks enough torque to strip gears even if you do jam it somehow.

I hate to disagree but that little motor is responsible for many stripped
gears in both 240 and 700 series speedometers. Check out the pic at the
bottom of
http://www.homestead.com/volvo2/88speedo.html I know it will strip gears as
I didn't make sure the odometer number wheels could turn freely the first
time I replaced the gear and stripped another one when the tooth off the
first gear got lodged in them.

Dave Shannon
daveshan_at_spamsoneonelse_cox.net (Spring Valley CA)
1988 240 DL 19X,XXX
1984 245 DL 20X,XXX
1984 245T 19X,XXX
'01 Jeep Wrangler Sahara 14K
http://www.homestead.com/volvo2/

 

[Joseph Oberlander]

James Sweet wrote:

Yep, every 700 series car has a tachometer as well as a large clock, at
least up to the point when they updated the dash. After that I'm pretty
certain all the 700 and 900 cars still had the tach, don't recall if they
had the large clock still or not. There's an unfortunate lack of places to
add guages, 240's are much nicer in that respect.

I'd still swap it for a large tach if it doesn't have one - because the
radio has its own clock.

As for the lighting - it is a huge difference - the stock equipment isn't
robust enough - and the Euro assemblies are glass - they last forever
and have a better pattern.

 

[Dave Shannon]

A couple of minor issues, but nothing serious.

1: replace the front lights with glass OEM European ones.
2: re-wire the front lights with relays and heavy gauge wire.
3: replace the struts if worn
4: never reset the trip odometer while the car is moving
5: there are half a dozen accessory gauges that fit in the dash.
I recommend adding a large tach instead of the small one.
(dep on model/year/etc)

Mostly typical stuff - the lighting upgrade is huge - double
the useable light. The large tach is nice, too.

Lighting is good advice for any of our cars but his is a '92 740, there is
no space for additional gauges and he already has a large tach and speedo'.
The 5 extras was a 240 option and the earlier 700 non turbos could add two
in the upper spaces in the cluster.
Dave Shannon
daveshan_at_spamsoneonelse_cox.net (Spring Valley CA)
1988 240 DL 19X,XXX
1984 245 DL 20X,XXX
1984 245T 19X,XXX
'01 Jeep Wrangler Sahara 14K
http://www.homestead.com/volvo2/

 

[Artful Dodger]

Oh My God!!!!!!

What are you lot doing to Mr Skynrd?

Despite the pseudonym and end tag line. I believe I read somewhere that Mr
Skin abides in the UK.

Doesn't that mean that it will already have the Euro standard lights. God
knows what I have on my 740 but I rarely need to use main beam. My standard
lights are more than adequate to cope with even the muddiest 'B' roads.

I don't think that "Mr Skin" would want to be messin' with his lights and
wires having just purchased it!

I maybe wrong. I have been many times in the past!

Personally I like the quad lights that I have seen on the US models.
Obviously for aesthetic more than practical reasons.

 

[James Sweet]

James Sweet wrote:



I'd still swap it for a large tach if it doesn't have one - because the
radio has its own clock.

There's only one tach available for the 700 series and it's a large one, the
large tach and large clock straddle the speedo.