Somewhere along the road, someone might have installed the wrong strut. If your car is turbo, they might have put a regular one on, or vice versa. One way to tell is look at how big the piston shaft is.

Could be tired springs, possibly from overloading. The rear trailing arm bushings are a definite possibility. One 87 I had was so worn out that I thought something was broken in the rear- the bushings were so bad that they raised the back end a good inch when I replaced them.

One other real serious thing to look for- the 240 was susceptible to failed spring plates on the front struts. These can rust out and tear away from the strut tube, bending down onto the front tire. Check the spacing to the tire, right and left side and inspect the weld at the strut tube under the spring support.
Seen a few of these let go, though the 86+ cars seem to have much less of a problem with this, possibly due to the little drainage slots they added.

Good luck!
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 234K, '82 245T/M46-182K, '89 244DL/AW70- 212K Not too distant past: 86 244DL 215K, 87 244DL 239K, 88 744GLE 233K, 88 244GL 147K, 91 244 183K

Is it the left side?

Check for worn bushings and also the rubber cushions above and below the spring. When new, my 1992 740 Turbo wagon was 1/2" lower on the left. My dealer said it was "normal" because the gas tank is on the left, not the center. I called Volvo directly. They had the dealer install spacers on top of the spring to compensate...hmmm...is there a design flaw or assembly flaw.

Good luck!

A bad rear trailing arm bushing.

Mike
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Mike Brown Greenville, NC 1996 965 113K 1994 940 135K 1986 244 137K