Thanks for responding. I hope to be able to check the AMM this week or next as well as the o2 sensor and maybe get a look at the throttle body. Until then I just keep dealing with the PIA start up each morning!

No specific advice here, just my experience.

My '88 had a devil of a time starting in *very* cold weather - like overnight temps of 15F or colder. If the temp was zero or lower, forget it - nothing would get it started until the temp warmed up. Fortunately, zero and lower ddidn't happen more than a few days each winter where I lived. Eventually - after several bad winters - my indy Volvo shop replaced the AMM and allegedly a chip in the ECU, and the problem went away for good. I was charged for the AMM but not for the ECU work; the shop guy said he had a "friend at Volvo" that provided him with a replacement chip. I really have no way to verify exactly what he did.

The AMM may have been unrelated to the hard starting, but I do recall he said the burnoff function no longer worked.

Don't take this as suggesting a new AMM will fix your problem, but if you had a pare handy, it might be worth a try.

The '88 200 series cars had the Bosch Jetronic 2.2 fuel system.
There is no cold start injector.

I would check the throttle body for oil build up. See if the accordian hose going from the AMM to TB has any air leaks.

There is the engine temp sensor located under intake runner no 3 that may be defective.

Worn out O2 sensor. Intake leaks at the intake manifold and TB.

I don't think it's the fuel pressure regulator.

Make sure ALL grounds are clean on the intake, block and fenderwells.

The ignition coil and ecu are nearly bulletproof with very few reports of failure unless agravated by leaking water into the cabin. Do make sure that the contacts on the ignition coil are clean; both blue and red/white wires.

You really can't check the fluid level on a manual tranny; but it's reccommended to flush it every 50K. Make sure that you loosen the filler plug before draining the tranny. You don't want to have a dry tranny and a stripped filler plug. Have the car jacked up at the driver's door point and add an extra 1/2 quart into the tranny.