1993 Volvo 240 - Overheating Problems

cjmny

Does anyone have any experience with following recurrent problem with volvo 240 (1993): Arrow on temp gauge goes up and up and up temporarily and then returns to normal. According to mechanic, there's nothing really wrong with the car. It's not really overheating. Apparently the problem is an electrical one with the gauge and/or thermostat. I've replaced the thermostat and that seemed to work for a while, but only for a while. it drives me nuts.

cjmny

I asked the service department at Bentwood Volvo about this problem. they really are wonderful. Here's their reply (which I will pass along to my mechanic and hope it works):

I would clean contacts as we have had that problem or replace the component
as well,the other boss fix is to rewire from coolant hemp sensor to
mufti-plug at fireball.
hope this fixes your problem
Beanie east
service manager BENTWOOD Volvo

trwichman

You need to replace the temperature compensating board (a small computer chip) that is part of the cluster. This usually fixes the problem, however, sometimes you still can get a bad board. I have to replace them more than once.

TW
'90 240DL Wagon

cjmny

thanks for info. i've already changed it once several years ago and i guess i'll have to do it again --- or do i ??? is there any reason to repair this ?? as i recall, it wasn't a cheap repair. i assume that if the car really overheats the gauge will creep up to high and stay there, not spike. do you know if that's correct ?

monroede

I am having the same problem,I would like to know if you were able to pin point the problem? My car spikes to overheating danger zone and then it moves back to the middle. Is there a valve or something that might be stuck?

dj

Mr_Shiftright

Spiking like that certainly points to either electrical glitches or a bad thermostat or air trapped in the cooling system...what you might do is get an engine thermometer and stick it in the radiator cap or overflow tank (CAREFULLY--you can SCALD yourself) and see if the car is really overheating or not. You could also possible screw in a mechanical heat guage and test the temperature--this might be safer. Usually for a car in the "danger" zone, it would be impossible to even touch the radiator hoses or upper radiator. If either is cool to the touch, or touch-able, then your gauge is probably lying.

whacko

My girlfriend drives an 83 Volvo 240 and her car started overheating only when the car idled. But when the car was in motion, the guage would drop back down to normal. I then took it to her trusty Volvo mechanic, and they simply replaced the clutch fan with a used part that only cost her $25 for parts and labor. The job only took about 15 minutes and the overheating problem was cured.

shatz

The cooling system is rather straightforward with a minimum of parts to fail. First determine whether the car actually is overheating, by measn of a temp probe. Volvo temp compensator boards are very flakey, but easy to replace. If you buy it yourself, the dash cluster comes off easily with a couple of screws. Follow the wiring to the temp guage and remove the board, or clean the contacts.

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