My poor old 940 has gone through quite an experience. I had to abandon it in mid-flight last Remembrance Day and the mechanics at the garage I left it with were unable to get it running properly despite giving it the old college try. It was finally towed to my home in Parksville a little over a month ago now.

The cylinder head was replaced and the car will run but only for short periods of time. I have the bill and notes from its time at the garage.

I am looking for a mechanic who can diagnose the problems with the engine and who can get it running or provide information on what needs to be done to get it running. I am willing to pay for his/her time on the job, regardless of the outcome.

Bob, no personal experience with mechanics Nanaimo and north near you, but you should try to find a local indie who's familiar with European imports, esp. MB, BMW and VW, meaning familiarity with diagnosing and working on Bosch FI and ignition, also knowing how to source reputable OE aftermarket parts, not just jobber quality parts from NAPA and Lordco.

Have you talked to these guys in Parksville?
https://www.milesdautomotive.ca/
They're very close to you and claim to be familiar with Volvo, also seem to be responsive. Seventy Google reviews with 95% of them good or excellent and numerous responses and thank yous from the owner. Three reviews on Yelp, with two good reviews and the one bad review has a decent response from the owner. With old cars like ours and especially living rural, you often need to develop a good working relationship with one or two of the mechanics in a shop to be able to trust them to do their best, even if it takes them three tries to find the main problem.

Mark's Import Auto down in Wellington just North of Nanaimo is another one you might want to call for a chat about how familiar he or one of his mechanics in their shop might be with our old RWD Volvos. Mark's reviews are also excellent.

The only other recommendation I have for you is calling Danica Motors down in Duncan (one of my many trusted small Volvo indies) and asking them who they know and might recommend up in the Nanaimo/Nanoose/Parksville/Qualicum area. Volvo mechanics here are a reasonably tight community and often get to know each other's reputation.
--
Dave -still with 940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now

Morning Dave,

I used to go to Miles D many years ago with the 242 GLT but I found him to be quite expensive. Ditto Sussex automotive [now gone]. I ended up taking the car to a local general mechanic for service when needed and service there was good and price reasonable.

I took the Jaguar to Klaus in Qualicum Beach and they repaired the transmission shifter mechanism which had begun to stick in Park. They gave me a pretty good rundown on what the problem was and their price was reasonable given the intricacy of the job. I was considering them for the Volvo job but maybe I will see what Miles D has to say.

Right now I can barely use my right hand because of a gout attack that has lasted for over a month now and for which I see no end. So the cheap but bad mechanic is out of the question for a while.

I will talk to Miles D next week. Have to do something to get the old bus mobile again. I will also go to Klaus. And I would like to get the Audi in from the rain of fir tree needles that is a regular occurrence on my property every windy day!

My poor old 244 endured eight years under a forest of fir trees and was covered in drops of pitch and needles both of which I have cleaned off over the last month or so. Paint is forever marked on that car I am sorry to say but it is still a pretty good looking car and the body is generally rust free.

I am putting all four cars up for sale in June and I will let the fates decide what cars I will be left with for the remainder of the year.

But there will always be a Volvo in my future.

Bob

Hi Bob,

Here's a list of 46 Volvo repair shops near you, use your phone
to see if there's any mechanics familiar with Volvo RWD era cars.

https://ca.volvomechanics.com/volvoshops/british-columbia

I suppose you are familiar with
Miles D Automotive Ltd
1002A Herring Gull Way
Parksville, BC V9P 2N1

I looked at your previous posts and didn't see any comments about
getting reports from engine management, OBD
This is easy to do for you. Go to the car and check OBD ports A2 and A6.
The FAQ explains how to do it.
See if the computer reports anything to assist diagnosis.

Herring Gull Way? Is that the Great White Way?
We have giant flocks of those feathered characters around here. (Boston)

Cheers, Bill

Morning Bill,

I found Miles D to be quite expensive and so I stopped taking my previous car, a 1982 Volvo GLT, to him and I took it to a regular garage with a good reputation for a number of years and that kept it in pretty good shape. I did some work myself as well.

But it has been a long time since I went to Miles D so I will give them another try this week.

Given my indifferent mechanic's skills I do wonder about taking on a car that has been inactive for four months and which a professional mechanic could not get fully running over that period of time. He changed the cylinder head and I can see that some of the anti-pollution gear has been closed off.

As I said we got it running briefly but the exhaust system is not connected and I am not enough of a mechanic to know whether the O2 sensor is impacting the general running or not. Perhaps I could have a read through the FAQ on using the OBD system and getting some kind of leadership there.

Off the top, will the OBD systme give me a readout when the car is not running? I could certainly arrange that fairly easily.

I only wish that Herring Gull Way was the Great White Way but I am more likely to get my wallet picked by a gull than to spend an evening watching great entertainment I am sorry to say.

Bob

Morning Bill,

I found Miles D to be quite expensive and so I stopped taking my previous car, a 1982 Volvo GLT, to him and I took it to a regular garage with a good reputation for a number of years and that kept it in pretty good shape. I did some work myself as well.

But it has been a long time since I went to Miles D so I will give them another try this week.

Given my indifferent mechanic's skills I do wonder about taking on a car that has been inactive for four months and which a professional mechanic could not get fully running over that period of time. He changed the cylinder head and I can see that some of the anti-pollution gear has been closed off.

As I said we got it running briefly but the exhaust system is not connected and I am not enough of a mechanic to know whether the O2 sensor is impacting the general running or not. Perhaps I could have a read through the FAQ on using the OBD system and getting some kind of leadership there.

Off the top, will the OBD systme give me a readout when the car is not running? I could certainly arrange that fairly easily.

I only wish that Herring Gull Way was the Great White Way but I am more likely to get my wallet picked by a gull than to spend an evening watching great entertainment I am sorry to say.

Bob

Hi Bob,

The computers will store OBD codes and are read with the engine off,
so you can get codes for an engine that wont start.

It's too bad that you did that work with the O2 sensor since the OBD
codes will tell you if there's O2 sensor problem.

Getting OBD codes is where to start diagnosis. This is something easy to do.

You can check the FAQ's for OBD code info, or if you wish,
give an email address and I'll send you some Volvo docs for OBD.

Cheers, Bill

Hi Bill,

A little misunderstanding here. I did not take off the exhaust. The garage must have taken it off to enable them to install the rebuilt cylinder head and they did not hook it up again. The car was brought to me in that condition.

Friend of mine mentioned the O2 sensor as a possible culprit in the idling issue. When I am able to get my right hand functional enough I will try to match the exhaust pipe to the manifold. Need two hands for that and a gout attack and arthritis issues have rendered my right hand somewhat inoperative over the last month or so. Getting better by the day though.

I have some information on the OBC codes so I will be taking some time over this week to see what I can find. Thanks for the tip. If my information is insufficient I will get back to you for that kind of information.

Thanks again for your help.

Bob