.... is stephen@cluas.com

Hi all.

I'm moving to Australia at the end of May and it is with great regret that I am saying goodbye to "The Beast", my 18 year old grey Volvo 340.

It's great for the city - cheap insurance, reasonable fuel consumption, it passes MOT first time (has done this past three years), spacious and it ...

No... when driving. Just a very slight amount.

No rev counter on my model.... I'm sure it's fine - I'll get it sorted. I need to take some longer journeys just to make sure that it has stopped conking out!

Just seems slighty.... chuggy? If that's a word?

Well I looked for this silver cardboard like pipe... and of course it was completely missing except for a remnant near the air filter.

I took that to Halfords and got some similar ducting for £3.79.... and it seems to have done the business.

As with all old cars though, it seems to have introduced ...

http://bangernomics.tripod.com/breakdown.htm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/mai ... rjon24.xml

Those are the sites what I found the information on - I hope it is that this bloody pipe is missing!

PE?

Huskymeister?!!

Tell me where I need to go and I'll go.... ;-)

I did find this on Carburettor Icing... so I am confident this is the issue:-
"When an older car with carburettors splutters to a halt on the motorway, as you write in your Book of Motoring Answers, all too often the problem is ...

Wow... this is amazing.

I'm going to take it to a garage tomorrow in Wembley - I live in NW London. I could get to Uxbridge if I needed to - do one of you have a garage there? Of course I would pay for your time!

Can someone explain Carb Icing to me? This sounds intriguing. I'm going to print all ...

You reckon this is it?!!

But forgive my ignorance, but why does it drink fuel if there is a blockage?
Shouldn't it be the opposite?

Stephen

Temp gauge seems to stay steady.

I thought the new carb had fixed things... the car ran beautifully for a week.

No there doesn't seem to be any correlation with other events. I've been trying to piece together why this might be happening to no avail.

The only real clues are that the car only does it on longish journeys (though sometimes it's fine), it drinks petrol, it always starts again and then it happens ...

No it was a refurbished carb, not a new one.

I'm bring the car back to the garage on Saturday and I'm trying to make a list of things for him to check as this is an intermittent and extremely dangerous problem.

Any hints would be appreciated - or ideally if someone has seen this problem before ...

HI.

I know it's running rich because when this issue occurs, I can virtually see my petrol tank emptying! The car will use a half a tank of petrol travelling 60 miles.

I had all the pipes and filters checked when the problem first happened.

Would it be fair to assume that the mechanic did not do ...

Hi there.

Thanks for such a prompt response.

As I mentioned in the message, I've had a new carb fitted and tightened on.

I had a question around your suggestion about this hose - how would such a blockage make the car run so rich? I'm not a mechanic - just curious.

Stephen

Hi all.

I have a '88 340 DL, manual choke.

About a month ago, it developed an issue where intermittently on longer journeys, the car would start to drink petrol, slowly become more and more unresponsive and then grind to a halt at the side of the motorway.

After a min or two, it would restart ...