What is this, the Volvo lovers forum???

[garethj]

What I really wanted was a 740 Turbo. None of this low pressure turbo they did in the 1990s, in the '80s Volvo were looking at Saab, seeing massive turbo lag and thinking "we'll have some of that". They had 182bhp and would do 0-60 in 7.7 seconds, that's quicker than the Golf GTi of the time and pretty speedy for an estate car driven by an old fogey.

 

I couldn't find a turbo, so a normal 2.3 had to do instead.

 

The Ginetta was sold on Saturday which gave me all of Sunday to find a replacement. Otherwise I'd have to walk to the railway station, stab the woman who works in the ticket office, take the train, walk to the bus stop, stab the people in the bus queue, take the bus and then walk to work.

 

I needed something that'll see me through the winter. Something that will fit the kids in. Something that's even slightly interesting. Something really really cheap. When the 740 was made, those sensible chaps at Volvo had got the hang of doing big estate cars, the 240 had been evolving slowly for years, there wasn't the cost cutting that would come later. When one came up in Norwich with "below average miles for year" I spoke to the owner on Sunday morning and headed over at lunchtime.

 

Behold, the lovely squareness

 

 

Cobwebs on the engine shows it never needs fixing

 

Nowadays we can't buy a pair of sunglasses without celebrity endorsement, here they are for Volvo:

 

Jerry and Margot from The Good Life

 

Lovejoy, before he had that Morris Minor

 

Penny's stuck-up parents

 

It starts, drives, stops and it's got winter essentials like a heater that roasts you and keeps all the windows demisted, heated seats, heated mirrors and a fairly simple fuel injection system. It may be RWD but it's not quite as agile as the Ginetta was; going onto the roundabout a shade too fast I could hear the little voice in my head "if you think you're in trouble now, just wait till it stops understeering"

 

On the plus side, it did 130 miles yesterday without any problem, it's whisper quiet at 70-80mph and there's not a single rattle or squeak over bumpy roads. Volvo didn't have any faith in a 5 speed gearbox so it's got 4 speed plus overdrive. If you want a bit more zip for overtaking you can flick it out of overdrive and speed past lesser mortals in their disposable cars. But there's a layer of dust on the revcounter past 3500rpm

 

With MoT until April, this was £400. So far, I'm pleased with that

[eddyramrod]

Pleased? I should damn well hope so young man! Excellent buy! Your grandchildren will be borrowing it to move into their college Halls...

[trigger]

GR8 4 DOGGIN.

 

Nice work!, These are great workhorses and still quite respectable, What age is it and how many millions of miles has it done?.

[garethj]

GR8 4 DOGGIN.

Yes, see you and Mrs Trig at the next one

Nice work!, These are great workhorses and still quite respectable, What age is it and how many millions of miles has it done?.

It’s 1989 with 164,000 which is supposed to be ok for these 2.3 engines

[eddyramrod]

164,000 in 21 years? It's almost run-in! That's a doddle to a car like this and it should carry on for a long time yet.

 

As for celebrity endorsement, allow me to mention these detectives: Jack Frost, Jonathan Creek, Adrian Monk. In fact the 240/740 series is extremely popular in San Francisco, I quickly lost count of the numbers I spotted there in March. I'll say it again (and again, and again...) well done.

[autofive]

lovejoy only had a volvo in series one and it was always breaking down

[trigger]

Apparently Monk drove one of these, Are you a private detective on your days off with OCD Gareth?

[garethj]

lovejoy only had a volvo in series one and it was always breaking down

Really? Must have been one of those 240s rather than the elegant 740

[Rocket88]

V. nice. Had a silver one of those, which used to scare the shit out of me by ;a] The wireless would randomly turn itself to volume 11 without warning and b] the vents in the front footwells would bang shut [also without warning] I'm sure it was haunted.................

[r.welfare]

The O/D box is for WINNARS. Does the little "5" light up on the dash when it's engaged?

 

GR8 heater, seriously comfy seats, decent enough drives all round. 164k should be fine; v. simple cambelt change on these if you need to. It's a good idea to do if there's no record as (I think) the 2.3 injected lump, along with the rare 16 valve, are the only interference designs of the Volvo B-series lump.

 

My brother had two in succession, saloons both (even cheaper!) - the second had done 230k (from carbon dating the MOT certs) even if the clocks said otherwise and ran like a top; I took it on a 250-mile round trip for work when it was in my custody for sale and was impressed to get 28mpg given I was running at 85 in the outside lane most of the time.

 

As yours is a prefacelift you shouldn't suffer from the intermittent speedo/fuel gauge issue which is pretty much the only real fault on these (affects 89-91 models).

 

The bumper stripes (white at the front, red at the back) always make me chuckle. As does the superfast "tickatickatickatickatickatickatickatick" of the seatbelt reminder when you first switch on.

 

I think you've done well there.

[dieselnutjob]

Think it was a 265

PRV engine before Volvo bug fixed it.

If you want a V6 and don't like rattly cams get a 760 with the B280 engine which was the only tough V6

[warren t claim]

Well done! How is it on fuel?

[garethj]

The O/D box is for WINNARS. Does the little "5" light up on the dash when it's engaged?

Oh yes. It's classy.

v. simple cambelt change on these if you need to. It's a good idea to do if there's no record as (I think) the 2.3 injected lump, along with the rare 16 valve, are the only interference designs of the Volvo B-series lump.

Yes, I'll give it a service and do the cambelt, goodness knows when it was last done.

My brother had two in succession, saloons both (even cheaper!) - the second had done 230k (from carbon dating the MOT certs) even if the clocks said otherwise and ran like a top; I took it on a 250-mile round trip for work when it was in my custody for sale and was impressed to get 28mpg given I was running at 85 in the outside lane most of the time.

The saloons seem to be worth less than nothing. I felt that £400 was a steal for the estate, I'd have been embarrassed to hand over half of that for a saloon instead.

As yours is a prefacelift you shouldn't suffer from the intermittent speedo/fuel gauge issue which is pretty much the only real fault on these (affects 89-91 models).

Ah, my fuel gauge doesn't work. Therefore I appear to have used no petrol at all and am getting a million mpg

The bumper stripes (white at the front, red at the back) always make me chuckle. As does the superfast "tickatickatickatickatickatickatickatick" of the seatbelt reminder when you first switch on.

The bumper stripes are supposed to be like that?? I thought it was an old duffer modification! The frantic ticking is less annoying than the incessant boings that later Volvos do

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Apparently Monk drove one of these, Are you a private detective on your days off with OCD Gareth?

 

Monk doesn't drive, it was his assistant's car.

 

That's a delectable looking Volvosaurus, I like the caramac seats.

[worldofceri]

[pedant_mode]I'm pretty sure Jonathan Creek couldn't drive. It was her off of Men Behaving Badly that drove him around in a Volvo.[/pedant_mode]

 

PS: Very very nice impulse purchase gj.

[mouseflakes]

Smart buy GJ.

 

I've been looking at these too. Stupidly, a few weeks back, I didn't bid on this, which went unsold at £345, no reserve. Full MOT and just 97k!

 

 

I think that auto box is the same as in my old 2.8 Toyota Crown - nice tough unit I believe.

[Pete-M]

LOL, the autobox is the Aisin Warner 03-71. About as hard wearing as a K series head gasket.

 

This is mainly caused by the 740 auto having the transmission oil cooler in the main coolant radiator. GR9 idea when it works, GR1 idea when the radiator rusts between the two and sends lots of nice coolant through the gearbox instead of ATF. Naturally, the ATF ends up in the coolant and people assume OMG HGF and scrap 'em.

[mouseflakes]

^Oh - that's a shame. The one in my Crown was still going well at 160k.

[warren t claim]

LOL, the autobox is the Aisin Warner 03-71. About as hard wearing as a K series head gasket.

 

This is mainly caused by the 740 auto having the transmission oil cooler in the main coolant radiator. GR9 idea when it works, GR1 idea when the radiator rusts between the two and sends lots of nice coolant through the gearbox instead of ATF. Naturally, the ATF ends up in the coolant and people assume OMG HGF and scrap 'em.

 

I'm sure modern BMWs use a similar system.

[Owain-328i]

These are still classy now 20 years on. Especially In GLE and GLT trim.

 

My parents had a G reg 740 GL estate in white, which was a superb car. G693 YLP i wonder if its still about.

[Pete-M]

LOL, the autobox is the Aisin Warner 03-71. About as hard wearing as a K series head gasket.

 

This is mainly caused by the 740 auto having the transmission oil cooler in the main coolant radiator. GR9 idea when it works, GR1 idea when the radiator rusts between the two and sends lots of nice coolant through the gearbox instead of ATF. Naturally, the ATF ends up in the coolant and people assume OMG HGF and scrap 'em.

 

I'm sure modern BMWs use a similar system.

 

Lots of manufacturers do, but Volvo seem to be the masters of the ATF / coolant swap.

[eddyramrod]

[pedant_mode]I'm pretty sure Jonathan Creek couldn't drive. It was her off of Men Behaving Badly that drove him around in a Volvo.[/pedant_mode]

 

PS: Very very nice impulse purchase gj.

 

Well spotted ceri, and the words you were looking for are "Caroline Quentin." Indeed, of the detectives I named, isn't it suspicious that two didn't drive and were chauffeured by ladeez in Volvos? I know several of the celeb Volvos were 240s, not 7s, but having owned both, I think the bloodline is strong enough. Didn't the well-known champagne socialist Ricky Tomlinson have a short-lived cop show that saw him driving a grey 740 Estate?

[garethj]

And Ingvar Kamprad, the boss of IKEA who's worth billions, drives a 1990ish Volvo 240

 

I can look down on him with my 740

[Volksy]

G693 YLP

 

 

 

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Sadly not.

[eddyramrod]

Wasn't it Ikea who ran a series of ads featuring Swedish mafia-types with a silver 240GLT?

[Guest]

Na na na, WE R TAKIN OVA.

 

Ironically the seven electric functions on my Amazon work perfectly.

14 of the 66 functions on my 480 do not.

[scaryoldcortina]

14 of the 66 functions on my 480 do not.

 

Hey, you are doing well then, that's almost a third of them! Worry when it is under half - my sister once let her BF and his mate "fit" a stereo to hers - they hacked the power from the gauge feeds (above the stereo slot) and the poor thing was never the same again. Has yours done the one headlight up, one down trick yet? (they swap when you switch them on....)

 

anyway... 240's and 740's are tougher than leather boots. Fred's new one has 218,000 on the clock but drives exactly like my dad's 240 did 25 years ago.

[Guest]

14 of the 66 functions on my 480 do not.

 

Hey, you are doing well then, that's almost a third of them! Worry when it is under half - my sister once let her BF and his mate "fit" a stereo to hers - they hacked the power from the gauge feeds (above the stereo slot) and the poor thing was never the same again. Has yours done the one headlight up, one down trick yet? (they swap when you switch them on....)

 

anyway... 240's and 740's are tougher than leather boots. Fred's new one has 218,000 on the clock but drives exactly like my dad's 240 did 25 years ago.

 

No, they won't go down. At all. Or light up. However, the fogs and DLRs now work brilliantly. As do all of the rear lights, now.

[scaryoldcortina]

Ah. I remember having no end of bother getting the headlights to behave. Lit but down? Up but off? nowt at all? All of the above, and the aforementioned one up one down trick. In fact, I am perpetually reminded of the little beggar because I spent September 11th 2001 changing a cambelt (1 hour) and trying to fix the bloody headlights (all day, failed.. unplugged the motors with the lights up in the end...)

 

Libby phoned that evening to give me the awful news that the speedo had stopped working and the tailgate wiper wouldn't turn off.

[Guest]

Ah. I remember having no end of bother getting the headlights to behave. Lit but down? Up but off? nowt at all? All of the above, and the aforementioned one up one down trick. In fact, I am perpetually reminded of the little beggar because I spent September 11th 2001 changing a cambelt (1 hour) and trying to fix the bloody headlights (all day, failed.. unplugged the motors with the lights up in the end...)

 

Libby phoned that evening to give me the awful news that the speedo had stopped working and the tailgate wiper wouldn't turn off.

 

With the engine on, the headlights are up, but off. Doesn't matter what you do with the rotary knob. DLRs on, stop \ tails on. Rear foglight switch now inop, heated window OK, front fogs okay.

 

I think replacing the fuse and leaving it unlocked might have switched something. Going back tomorrow first thing to see what's what.