This is my first post, but I've found these boards to be a good resource for repairs.

My mechanic has a professional shop, but he, his brother and dad are the only mechanics. This means things tend to be a little shadetree-esque. They only work on European cars, and I've found their repairs reliable before. My only question is this:

I took my car in this morning because it was sometimes dying through low-speed turns or when shifting into reverse, or sometimes when braking at low speeds. I figured something was wrong wtih the idle, but wasn't sure what. They diagnosed it as a bad idle control valve.

Rather than sell me an expensive part, they suggested a fix they claim to have used on quite a few Volvos. They bypassed the bad valve completely by replacing it with a PVC ball valve assembly. (The kind you can buy at any hardware store!) I assume they had to do a little trial-and-error testing to see how far open it needed to be to get the right idle speed.

As shadetree as this fix might seem to be, the car is running perfectly compared to pre-fix. My question to those who might be "real" mechanics is this: do you suspect I'll have any problems with the repair being done this way instead of using the actual $120 (according to my research) part? I can afford to have a $120 part put on, but I am perfectly happy with the $30 repair and I appreciate the idea of getting things done cheaply with a little ingenuity.

What do you all think? I've run it with extra load (automatic climate control and aftermarket stereo running) and haven't had any problems with it idling since the PVC ball valve was put in.

Aaron
'87 764ti (and an '87 240DL that's in the same shop now for rough idle!)