Hello,

I am the proud new owner of a nice 1989 245 with 138k. It seems to be running well and I have practically all the service records since it's creation. I am a volvo newbie, but I'm psyched to learn to work on one.

It is having a somewhat erratic starting issue. Occasionally it just takes a little too long to crank up. It always starts, but sometimes it feels like it needs a little more gas (?) Particularly when it is hot, it just starts right up. Another clue is that the idle seems to low. The idle just bumps around and normalizes/feels good when I give it a hair of throttle. I know it has a computer that should be controlling this idle, so I don't know why it would be off. The air mass sensor was replaced with a used one by the mechanic 8 months ago for a "stall problem". I'm unsure whether this helped/changed the situation because the previous owner did this.

Basically, with my limited experience, I'm wondering what things I can check/replace relatively easily to ID the source of the problem. From what I've read the AMM could be a likely issue. What about vacuum leaks?

Please help and thanks for your time/knowledge in advance.