The wagon has been difficult to start after sitting for more than a few days and I’ve been trying to ignore it until warmer weather. Last time I drove it was stumbling badly when cold, so I figured it was time to move it into the garage and investigate. And since it will be inside …
Category Archives: 245 GL
Stopping the squeal
The power steering on the wagon was chirping quietly when I bought it, and now almost two years later it is more than a little embarrassing when running and has quite a squeal on startup. I ran across a 240 with only 80,000 miles on it during junkyard trip a while ago and since it’s …
Wagon fixes
Despite the fact that I’ve been driving the wagon for over a year now I rarely do much work on it, especially compared to how often I was doing work on my 242. It’s a new experience for me, just driving a car without worrying about modifications or fixes or much of anything. But it …
Charging issues
The wagon came home on a flatbed Sunday night with charging issues and I spent a couple days trying to figure it out. It would mostly run fine but then stumble and want to die due to low voltage. On my way out of town it died in Federal Way and wouldn’t restart, plus I …
Strut Replacement
The wagon’s strut mounts were bad. Really bad. Bad to the point where I wasn’t feeling safe taking the car on vacation, fearing that a strut would punch through the hood at some point. This is what they looked like with the car on the ground normally loaded. So I ordered new Volvo strut mounts, …
Wagon upgrades
The wagon feels far clunkier than my 242 was, and I think a lot of that perception is just the cumulative effect of all the minor upgrades and improvements I made to the 242 over the years. It has been so long since I had a stock 240 that I’ve forgotten just how 80s it …
More little things
It’s all the little things in a car that matter on a daily basis. And the more little things that are broken or ugly or rattling around the older and more broken the car feels and seems. I really like the wagon, and I like that I’ve been able to drive it with some broken …
Small cosmetic changes
The wagon has been missing its drivers side mudflap since I bought it, and it has been bothering me about that long. I had hoped to find a decent one at a junkyard but wasn’t having much luck so I bought a new one. It looks much better now. And I bought a cargo mat …
safer belts
The rear seatbelts in the wagon look like they spent a little time as a snack for someone’s dog. Lots of holes in the belts and cuts on the edges that make it hard to retract and use them. I don’t have rear seat passengers that often, but its pretty embarrassing and its a safety …
Exhaust fix
This weekend’s goal was to replace the exhaust on the 245. Getting it up in the air and getting the old exhaust off took Saturday morning and part of the afternoon. I really thought getting it off would be the hard part. Turns out I was wrong, but I felt pretty good after getting it …