Greetings,

I'm the proud new owner of a 1992 244. I bought the car to replace a 1996 BMW 318ti because we have 2 children now and I needed a 4 door. In years past I've owned a 1996 122S, a 1971 145 and a 1982 240DL.

The car is a rust and rattle free Colorado car with only 108K. Overall it's condition is very good to excellent. So far we've replaced tires, brake pads, a soon-to-fail motor mount and a squealing power steering bushing. The radio is non-functional and will need to be replaced, any ideas for a good replacement unit with cassette or CD? The drivers seat needs to be rebuilt as I am currently looking straight at the dashboard. The replacement foam offered in the ipd catalog looks very expensive. Also I am considering adding a seat heater during the rebuild process (we are in Mid Michigan). Has anyone else done this? The intermittent wipers setting is non-functional but the wipers work fine at low and high speed; I suspect its the switch in the column--any ideas or suggestions? Finally, before Spring I am looking at suspension upgrades to smooth out the ride and stabilize the handling on these rough Michigan roads. Any suggestions on shock/strut upgrades would be appreciated.

I am a physician and will use this car as my daily driver. My wife who drives a 2003 V70XC questioned the whole process of going all the way to Denver to buy this car. Then she drove it and proclaimed it "awesome". I am very happy to be back in a Volvo 240 again!

"Thanks" in advance to anyone who can advise me on the above.

Joe
1992 244, 2003 V70XC, 2002 Land Rover Discovery, 2 Moto Guzzis

To address the wiper problem it is most likely the wiper timer relay and not the switch. This relay is found under a metal plate at the very top left of where the drivers left foot would be. Pull back the carpet, remove the metal plate, and there should be a relay. Wagons have two relays there for the front & back wipers. Hit the bone-yards or Ebay and you should find tons of them. I would recommend taking the relay out and re-heating all of the soldering points on the relays circuit board. %50-75 of the time this makes the relays work again. When you have a K-Jet 240 you learn to re-solder enough FUEL PUMP RELAYS to know that this does wonders for the relays and costs only minutes of your time. Good Luck & see you on the Brick-Board!

Sincerely,
--
Julio Meza

1979 264GL B27F 122K

Features Added:

BW55 To M46, Central Locking System, 25mm IPD Front Sway Bar, 81+ Dash W/ Oil & Ambient Temp Gauges In C, Oil Pressure, Volts

Next Project:

+Cruise Control

Some great ideas listed below, but I thought i might add one thing that might make the interim a bit more comfortable. Your seats can be adjusted; under the seat, there is a tilt adjustment. You have to feel for it, take a look. You might find yourself looking "up" a bit more.

I did the seat switch with a changeover in upholstery, but I was lucky enough to find a good driver's seat. If you find a passenger's seat, you'll have your controls on the right, which may or may not interfere with the ebrake console. If you're a doctor, i'm sure you'll be able to stitch it back together without any glitches;-)

Steve
--
'90 245 DL 253K M47

Conrats on your new acquisition!

Having done 3 240's, my 'standard upgrade' is this: IPD sway bars, Boge Turbo gas shocks/struts front + rear, new rear A-arm bushings, new ball joints, new urethane torque rod bushings, new trailing arm axle bushings. Then replace all fluids (oil, diff oil, and an auto trans flush), and filters. New distributor cap, rotor, plugs + wires. New flame trap! Either disconnect the air hose from the exhaust manifold 'stove', or open up (remove) the air filter box, remove the thermostatic actuator, and wire the flapper door to only take cool air. Renew the brake fluid with fresh DOT 4, and check the pads for wear. If unsure of the timing belt age, replace it and the tensioner, and all front seals. Even with the IPD bars, if you do most of this simple work yourself, it'll take about 3 easy weekends and maybe $600.

For a bit more steering response and a teensy bit more harshness, add the strut-firewall braces from IPD for about $40. None of the above suspension mods will add noticeable harshness, only crispness which even the non-gearhead fairer sex can appreciate.

I picked up a '91 244 for my boys last summer, and did the above tweaks, and also added 15" alloys with 205/60-15 Yokos. My wife's first Volvo was an '88 245, and she now drives a '97 855, but she LOVES the 244 and remarks how nicely it drives. (But the '92 245 with a cam and other goodies is out here in AZ with ME!)

The drivers seat needs to be rebuilt as I am currently looking straight at the dashboard. The replacement foam offered in the ipd catalog looks very expensive. Also I am considering adding a seat heater during the rebuild process (we are in Mid Michigan). Has anyone else done this?

Don't bother with IPD's foam. Just get a doner seat (preferably a passenger seat) from a local pick-n-pull. The foam is exactly the same from one side to the other, so you could even just swap your driver's side with the passenger's side in a pinch. You can probably also scavange the heater off of the same donor seat. Every brick I've seen has the seat heaters. If your seat bottom is sagging, it's possible that some of the springs have come loose and that your foam might be fine. You'll have to remove it from the car - 4 13mm nuts, I think - to see what the problem is. If you're handy you won't need any instructions to fix the seats. Just take them out of the car and take them apart, keeping track of where all the little wires and clips go. You can't really screw things up. If you take the upholstery off, it will help to have some hog rings and a hog ring pliers handy to put the upholstery back together. Or you can use plastic zip ties. If you do take the upholstery off, the hot tip is that the cloth seat upholstery is machine washable. It makes a huge difference.

I suspect its the switch in the column--any ideas or suggestions?

Again, just get a switch out of the junkyard. I see these all the time on cars, and taking one out of a car in the junkyard gives you practice for how to replace it on your car without damaging anything.

Finally, before Spring I am looking at suspension upgrades to smooth out the ride and stabilize the handling on these rough Michigan roads. Any suggestions on shock/strut upgrades would be appreciated

Most upgrades that will improve the handling of the brick will unfortunately make the ride harsher for bumpy roads. Especially avoid urethane control arm bushings if you want a smooth ride. If you keep your eye out in the junkyard, you might find a turbo 240. These have thicker sway bars in front and in the rear. Grab these and swap them with yours. That alone will really improve the handling. If you want to invest a few hundred, you can buy the IPD aftermarket sway bars, which are even better than the turbo sway bars. Also get some good shocks like Bilstein touring. These two upgrades - thicker sway bars and better shocks - will give you a much better ride without adding too much harshness.

Congratulations on the good buy. You might want to do a search for "zero mile list" or "zero mile maintenance" for suggestions on what maintenance items to take care of.

As a '92 your 240 should have seat heaters in it. I believe that that duel seat heaters have been standard since 1986. There should be two swithches by the e-brake. As, for rebuilding the seats, I took my car to an uphostery shop were the backs were fixed for $75 per side. You may not need to replace the foam.

Good luck and happy Bricking!