vvspy.com - volvo 300 questions and answers

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Volvo 340 Central Locking & Heated Seats problem. I was wondering if it is a common problem for these two to fail on the UK 1990 volvo 340. If it is, how would I go about trying to fix the problem? I have tried a different sender unit for the locking, but no joy there.

Hi there i have a Volvo 340 but i noticed a broken Volvo 360 in the neighbourhood. The instrument panel inside it looks better, and i would like to get the tachometer ouit and installed on my 340. Is it possible, as in, is it compatible?

At what speed does a car (in my case: a Volvo 360 GLS) uses the least petrol? I remember there was in the book of my ex-'Volkswagen Golf' a table that said that the car uses the least pertol at 110 km/h - higher and lower speeds used more. (the 360 GLS has a B19A Volvo engine)

Need advice on how to remove lining off 360 sunroof. Haynes manual just says "With sunroof half open, slide it back" It won't slide back. I can see a clip holding it on both sides but don't know how to release them.

When I change gear while accelerating hard then I hear a squeak from the back of my car. It's definitely not wheelspinning (I don't have to accelerate *very* hard). It feels like it's the clutch slipping - but I thought that was at the front of the car.

My father has a Volvo 340 GL automatic, but if he drives away, there seems to be something stuck at the left wheel at the back. (something scours) The Volvo dealer has already looked at the brakes, but nothing wrong there.

Having recently read of the water leaking problems associated with some of your 480's I thought I would ask if anyone knew anything about similar problems with a 340 (GL, '89, 1.7)?

Twice since we've got the car (5 months) both the passenger's footwell and the rear passenger footwell have been sodden with water. This occurred when there had been some snow / severe frost and it had melted.

But recently we've had problems with the car and didn't start it for a week with the result that battery was dead and then it took us almost another week to arrange to get it jump started by a relative. All this time it has been sitting outside in the best weather that Scotland's winter can throw at it.

And so today when we finally got it going we noticed that there was mold everywhere. The front and rear passenger footwells are sodden as is half the boot (but drivers side this time) and there is mold on the rear seatbelts and on some of the heater switches. In addition to this the seats are generally damp and the car steams up a lot (especially when you park it after having driven a short way)

Now by this it seems to me that we may have the same problem as some of the 480 owners with water leaking through the heater vent and tailights (and their solutions are something we will try).

But the question is would this cause the general overall dampness in the car?

Answers:

- Heated seats always fail IMHO after about 70~80 K miles.
  Central locking fails if the windows leak significantly into the interior of the door. Its unlikely it was linked to the seat failure (but nothing is impossible).
  The transmitter fails less often than the motors, but my GLT was done when I bought it, as were 2 of the motors in the rear doors, whereas my same year 87 GLE has covered 200K with all motors working well.
  Whatever you do don't buy them from Volvo, there are plenty of good units in scrap yards for 5~10 GBP per go.
- Take your far passenger door apart and swap the terminals around in the power lock motor electrical connector. It is just a DC motor, and the power lock system changes the direction of current for up/down. Or maybe you can find a different connnection inside the car, (under the dash, door pillar or wherever), but the one in the door has the advantage that you can trace the wires back from the motor.

From what I've seen the 340 has an analogue clock in the instrument panel where the 360 would have a tachometer. The wiring won't match up.

- It's probably just a coincidence, but the only car I've owned that had a comment about optimum speed was a DS-21 Citroen in the early '70's. Being *old* I remember all too well when the OPEC folks drove us all to the wall and, among other things, the U.S. repsonse was that ludicrous 55mph limit that lasted for about 20 years!
  
  On point, my Owners Manual stated that optimum fuel economy was obtained at a sustained speed of 70mph. Unfortunately, it was just a statement, with no graph of alternative choices. I always felt that it was costing me +/- 5% on trips of any length.
  
  With your 110kph number from your VW days being so close, I wonder if the 70Mph number is some kind of hot spot?? We'll see what others say.
- Another vote @ + - 110km/hr? Thats interesting because almost all Free/Motor/Toll-ways in Australia are limited to 110km/hr... would be an interesting coincidence.
- Hard to say, exept you have the possibility to make a number of tests in a row with different speeds on the same course.
  
  I found, that my previous 460 Turbo had a sweet spot at 3000 rpm (5th gear about 120 km/h). Here the car didn't care about ascents or wind gusts and maintained the speed anyway.
  
  My V40 now seems to be similar, but due to the automatic transmission not so obvious.
- Thats just characteristics of the engine, it may be confortable for the engine but it might be drinking fuel on the asend. Do you get a real time MPG meter readout in the 460?
  
  I think its going to be difficult without a MPG meter, and these things are impossible to get now. Probably safety regulations stopping aftermarket ones being sold (like the cruise control), and the change to injection making fitting aftermarket ones uneconomical (you need 2 flow sensors)
  
  I remember a magazine article about 15 years ago have a design for an electronic one for a carb car. Can't find it now, anyway you'd want to use more modern components like a Pic microcontroller.
  
  All our 360s get about 30 MPG on the motorway @ 60MPH and less at 70, guzzels at 80MPH. We just got a 1989 low miles GLE limited ed, seems to be quite good but my partner is not motorway driving nor measuring it. Also owners of 940 (B200) Turbos report upto 40Mpg on long journeys hitting 80 frequently.
  
  However all our 360s (4 at the moment) have some problem GLE-200K miles, I think economy drops significantly after 100K GLT-130K miles but has minor injection fault GLS-75K miles but has old ignition map, but doesn't get motorway and has has minor carb problems, but runs very well. GLE lim ed-70K miles, not run on motorway, might be good.
The quick answer to this first basic question is that you need to pull the front of the lining down to release the 'poppers'. Then with a bit of twisting and light bending release the 2 side strips from their slots, then you can slide the lining back.

Then you can see the workings, this is where to nightmare begins, and every one is a different problem, be very careful, bits from Volvo are very expensive. eg the main seal is around Ł100, mines knackered but it shouldn't leak into the car as long as the gutters are in place.

The sideways locating pins are held in place by plastic blocks the position of the pin within these blocks is important. Too far in and the mechanism won't go all the way, too far out and the sunroof drops and flaps about in the wind.

The tilting bits (like auminium chain links) tend to fall apart but can be repaired with glue or staking.

Yes clutch at front, gearbox at back, dodgy driveshaft in middle, bomb proof diff and CV joints attached to gearbox.

Uh Oh, sounds like the drive shaft end is slipping. Thr drive shaft is an Aluminium tube crimped onto hard rubber at both ends. If the drive shaft has been hammered brutally at some stage (probably to get it off) the crimp may not have as good a grip as it should and might slip (rotate) under clutch snatching.

Try it in 4th with the hand brake on.

The drive shaft needs to be treated gently on removal, although some persuasion is needed. Also the spline clamps at either end must be torqued correctly with an accurate torque wrench on reassembly.

Solution, usually just replacement. But its a popular part in the scrap yard,... cost new not worth contemplating.

I'll assume it feels like the left wheel is dragging. Assuming its not the brakes, the only other possibilities are :
-The differential, if so it needs replaced totally
-The wheel bearing, unlikely if no noise
-Front wheels brakes binding or bearing problems.
-Some strange automatic problem (some of them don't use a differential)

Frantly I'd check the brakes again. Does it happen all the time? If so is the wheel stiff when turned by hand when jacked up?

I have have had a couple of floor sodden 300 series also, most of them I have been able to fix, heres the causes and cures:

1. Rust on window seal at top on roof, clean under the rubber as best you can and squeeze a tube of silicon sealant into the rubber. Push the rubber down a little and run down the edge of the rubber with a blunt edge but try no to penetrate the paint (looks should matter that much if the car is in this state) then peel off excess when dry. Otherwise take out the windows and refinish the affected paint.

2. Door inner damp guard missing, ripped or not sealed at bottom. Water tends to come into the door and drip through the large hole at the front, the moisture sheet then catches this and it collects in the bottom, water dribbles down under the door pocket on the front doors. Check the window outer seal plastic strip, and the innner plastic sheet, use silicon as glue for the sheet if necessary.

3. Wiper bearing holes worn, water drips down the wiper mechanism and onto the front bulkhead, then down onto the caret. This was a very old car (1980), and never reocurred on any high milage later models which seem to have a different mechanism.

4. Factory fitted sunroof drain blocked or kinked, check both front and rear drains by filling channels with water, block front ones to check rears, and look for draining near the wheels on all 4 corners of the car.

Most likely I would say would be the roof rust generally, but a 1989 car should be mint.
You need to do some investigating, but I hope this gives you somewhere to start. Its not a very common problem on 300 series, usually the result of corrosion or badly reassembled doors.

BTW the 1.7 engines are notoriously unreliable.