Our 340

[Colin340]

Hi all

My wife and I are the proud owners of this red F reg 1989 Volvo 340 GL 1.7 5 speed that we have enjoyed since new.
Last week, after nearly 25 years 3 months the odometer passed 100,000 miles.

Why 340?
My father had a red A reg 340 1.4 CVT, a white E reg 340DL 1.4 4 speed and a white H reg 340DL 1.7 5 speed and we liked the original car so much that in 1985 we bought a B reg 1985 Volvo 340, without having a test drive. This was later traded in for our present car.

Problems and solutions
Right from the start, our car cut out on roundabouts and in the middle of junctions :-O. We were told that the Solex carb was difficult to balance. Eventually, we dumped the Solex carb and had it replaced with a Weber equivalent and have had no problems since.

We also have an engine misfire/starting problem every two years and this is sorted out by a new distributor cap and rotor arm.

Since we have had the car, we have had a power leakage problem and various garages have been unable to find the source of the problem. This was resolved by a gadget that disconnects the positive terminal of the battery.

Parts are becoming difficult to find and we had a replacement speedo cable made up by Speedograph Richfield who were brilliant.

Our only disappointment with our car has been the fuel consumption which we had checked after we had had the car a couple of months. The garage found that Volvo's estimates were wildly optimistic.

We also bought my father's white E reg 340DL 1.4 4 speed (see above) but this was eventually traded in as part of the scrappage scheme. It had done over 144,000 miles and whilst it was reliable we were finding that it got lighter every journey.

Now we are on the look out for a radiator and window regulator to keep the old girl going. Hopefully, derskine (pm sent awaiting reply) can help with the rad, but can anyone help with the window regulator please?

Thanks in anticipation

Colin

[Hell Driver]

Hi and welcome, there can't be many on here who have had thier car from new! The one I've had longest was 10 years old when I got it. My parents have had theirs since 1991 but it's an 85 car.

I have an 1989 GL 1.7, it doesn't do many miles a year. I've not had too many problems, but when I first got it, it cut out on junctions too, the problem was a loose connection on the fuse box to loom inside the car. No carb issues or much else, Fuel is probably around 25 mpg around town best ever 38mpg motorway. I get 22mpg towing a caravan.

[bogbasic]

That's an awesome motor.

[Colin340]

Hi Hell Driver and Bogbasic

Thanks for your warm welcome and the tip about the loose connection.

I believe the H reg 340 had a Weber and apart from sorting out our problem Weber sounds sooo much better than Solex.

The Owner's Manual suggests
Urban cycle 30.4 56 mph 52.3 75 mph 38.7
Lex Volvo fitted test equipment in 1991 and carried out a fuel consumption test (before the carb was changed) and recorded
Urban 27.77 actual 56 mph 37.0 70 mph 32.3

We probably get a bit less now and in the interests of economy she rarely goes above 60 mph on the motorway, so one day you may see us poodling along in the nearside lane on the M5.

[trabitom99]

Hi Colin,

congratulations on keeping your car for such a long time! I guess there are very few V300 owners about who have had their car since new.

If you don't get lucky in the UK, try sending Danny from Dafhobby an email. He's more "into" DAFs than Volvos, but I've bought lots of V300 parts from him in the past.

http://www.dafhobby.nl/produkten.php?au ... onderdelen

Don't forget to say you need the window mechanism for a 3 door - although the cog may be the same as a 5dr , you'll probably want to swap the whole lot over.

Welcome to the forum!

Tom

[MCHUDD]

Hi Colin and welcome.
Car looks great. I havn't had the Banana from new but i have had it
since 2004. It was 23 then and hasn't missed a beat since lol.
If you have no luck with the rad, i have a spare.
Cheers Mark.

[bogbasic]

I love them 'ills. Let me guess - Shropshire??

[mac]

Evening Colin,

You seem to have found the "usual" 1.7 problems - cap and rotor every two years and the erratic Solex Z10.

I confess I don't recognise the "difficult to balance" story (and I do know a leeeetle bit about these carbs) but they can be troublesome and suffer from well known issues - all of which are now fixable. The main issue is a tendency for air leaks around the base caused by the base distorting - exacerbated by repairers overtightening the securing bolts.
The other issues relate to a lack of knowledge in the trade (there are many young mechanics out there who were not born when carburettors were last used).

The Solex Z10, whilst having problems, has a reputation not really deserved. In the late eighties Weber produced a conversion kit which was popular with repairers but this was never fitted by Volvo who stuck with the Solex.
The Weber itself whist "having the name" was often no better in service suffering also from base warpage. In general a well fettled Solex, fitted and adjusted correctly is as good as, if not better than the Weber - especially fuel consumption.

As for your power drain - the usual test would be to disconnect the positive connection to the battery and place a test ammeter in series sensitive enough to register the drain - Do not start the engine - remove each fuse in turn until the drain disappears - this would identify which circuit is responsible. The most drain should be from the clock and perhaps a radio memory - a total of a few milliamperes.
Check to see if your boot/hatch light is remaining on.

If you're intending to keep your car it often makes economic sense to have a local repairer re-core your radiator rather than fitting a second hand unit or a "cheap" new unit (often of poorer quality) from a factors. I recently had my own 1.7 rad refurbished with a high quality core for less than £100 - considerably less than a "no name" new replacement.

I have "put out the word" to try and locate a window regulator - I assume manual rather than electric?.

Again, welcome to the anoraks - Mac.

[SteveP]

Welcome! Good to have someone here who's had their car from new, interesting story! Do you have any photos of the other 340's?

Mac has outlined most of the things, I'd echo the fact a Solex working correctly will be better than the Weber replacement judging by other people's experiences in the past. They can be troublesome but we now have the info

[Colin340]

Wow, what a response.

Thanks Tom. All noted and good to know.

Thanks for the radiator offer, Mark. I'm waiting to hear from derskine about a nearly new one. It looks like he is on holiday. I've sent him a pm and will hopefully hear from him shortly on his return.

Recoring - thanks mac for reminding me. We previously had two cores replaced on the E reg Volvo's rad by a commercial vehicles company near Keynsham. They were very reasonable and did an excellent job. On another occasion, they re-soldered the top hose radiator connector when the joint fractured and it started leaking. I now have several options.

Shropshire - correct bogbasic - but please don't tell anyone else

Weber v Solex. Hindsight as they say. I was probably taken in by the Weber caché, but we had at least 2.5 years of regularly going back to Lex Volvo to get the problem resolved. Indeed, at one point we refused to drive the car as it became unpredictable and in our opinion dangerous. Lex Volvo chose to drive it back to the garage and it was ok for a while. Meanwhile, we expressed our concern to Volvo enclosing a letter that appeared in AutoExpress from someone with similar problems who said they had had 3 replacement carbs and the Weber seemed to be the solution. In the end, Hoopers of Hanham fitted the direct replacement carb and whilst the old girl is thirsty, she is reliable and belies her 25 years.

window regulator mechanism - madseb has kindly offered a replacement so my wife will be pleased come this winter.

Photos to follow...

Thanks ever so much for all your interest and support.

Colin

[Colin340]

PS
Power drain solutions - thanks mac, much appreciated.

Colin

[thododd]

Hanham, keynsham ... are you bristol based?
Give us a wave if you see my black glt, therell be a crusty looking hippy behind the wheel

i might have a pair of 3 door manual window mechanism, ill consult my parts store and get back to you