1986 240 34,000 miles - synthetic oil for auto transmission?

Forgot to ask two other things:

I'm in Australia and we can only get unleaded fuel with ethanol now.
I've been running my 1978 on the cheapest unleaded for years with no
problem.  Will the cheap stuff hurt the 1986, or should I be switching
to premium unleaded?

Any recommendations for radiator coolant?

In article


34,000 miles on a 25 year old car?!?  Or is there a missing number?


The Volvo manual specifies the type of ATF to use, just use whatever is
compatible with that.


IMHO don't bother.


Probably not.  This stuff is all pretty standardized.


No.  If anything the 86 will do better on that than the 78.


Check it with a hygrometer and look for contamination.  If it's OK, why
change it?  As for coolant, most manufacturers have gone to a universal
formulation with minor differences, so it's generally not necessary to
consider matching colors and all that crap we used to be advised to do.

The only thing I would recommend is taking a really hard look at the
wiring harness of the car.  240s of that age often have problems with
crumbling insulation of the wires.

--
Just a box of rain, I don't know who put it there
Believe it if you need it or leave it if you dare

Heh, it's 34k alright.  I know it's correct too, due to things like:
no dust at all in the air vents; plastic engine sump cover looks like
brand new plastic when you look down from above (still cracked
underneath of course); the cooling fan is immaculate - white and shiny
like a brand new part has been fitted; and the metal clutch the fan
bolts to is bright and shiny metal.  I think you'd have to remove that
from the car and polish it to get the same result.  ;-p...  I also
peered into the rocker cover today when I did an oil change.  Although
the oil was close to had it, inside is mirror finish with no
blackening.


The owners manual says "AFT Dextron II D."  No idea what that means
yet.  The (greenish) Haynes manual says on page 10, "Automatic
Transmission Fluid type F or G."  Clear as mud!


I have had a look but I didn't want to tug on it too much.  If it
starts to happen I suppose I'm aware of it and can take steps.  Has
anyone replaced a wiring harness?  Where on earth would I even find
one...  And being in Australia, surely something would be on the wrong
side (since we drive on the other side of the road).  I wonder if
Australia even had this problem for that reason.  i.e. Maybe we got
different wiring harnesses down here.

On Tue, 19 Jul 2011 02:58:59 -0700 (PDT), thefamilyman


happens. rv's are famous for low mileage. people use their vehicles in
different ways.

"rocker"? cover. i think you have a cam shaft.

dextron II & type f definitely are not compatible. go w/ the owners
manual! different ats were fitted. it should know what you got.

a wiring harness is not a single entity. there are separate bundles
(of wires) running here & there (after passing through your bank
account). i have never replaced a complete bundle. i have just done
work arounds. Volvo can be persuaded to provide a diagram, that &
experience seem to get the job done. (says an old fart) i loved
Hayne's manuals when i was learning. look, pictures! what a novel
idea. a replacement harness will come from Germany by way of the UK.
handedness is not really that important, convenient, but no more.

On Jul 20, 11:54=A0am, rwlangba...@sonic.net wrote:

Yeah, it's usually called a "tappet cover" here.  But you USA guys
have different words for things, so I didn't know what to call it.

In article


I'd call it a valve cover.

--
Just a box of rain, I don't know who put it there
Believe it if you need it or leave it if you dare

On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 11:48:01 -0500, Tim McNamara


my niece would call it "that carbon fiber thingy that goes on top." we
don't send her to the store.

 rwlangbauer@sonic.net wrote:


LOL!

--
Just a box of rain, I don't know who put it there
Believe it if you need it or leave it if you dare

I've doing some reading...  (IPD, old messages here, a couple of Volvo
forums.)  IPD sells a hose to drain the auto transmission yourself.
The general consensus is to drain while the oil is hot/warm.  And in
the instructions for their hose, IPD state: "We advise that you only
do 1-2 quarts at a time."

Do they mean to drain 1-2 quarts, then turn the engine off and add 1-2
quarts back in again, then start the engine and drain the next 1-2
quarts?

The reason I'm scratching my head over it is, I read somewhere that
hot transmission fluid "expands quite a bit".  If that's true, then
you wouldn't want to add back in, the same amount that you drained
out, would you?  (Wouldn't that mean you end up with an overfilled
gearbox?)

On Mon, 25 Jul 2011 03:08:57 -0700 (PDT), thefamilyman


i just use a piece of vinyl hose. to change ATF: warm the engine!
drain the fluid! crank the engine/drivedrain w/ the starter --
disconnect something in the ignition so it won't fire. let cool! close
all the valves/stopcocks/etc.... fill w/ the specified amount of ATF.
run to the nearest transmission rebuild shop!

transmissions are tricky. i have rebuilt more engines than i can
remember, but only one tranny by myself (a mistake). feel free to baby
it. having the ATF analyzed is never a bad idea.

On Jul 26, 2:55=A0am, rwlangba...@sonic.net wrote:

Thanks, but don't you have to actually have the engine running in D,
to drain the oil that's in the torque converter?

On Tue, 26 Jul 2011 02:45:50 -0700 (PDT), thefamilyman


the torque converter drains to the sump. the engine does not need to
be on to drain. in fact it is dangerous. i forget which yr we are
talking about. i just gave basic at instructions. the geartronic is
weird. the friend who helps me has a masters from Stanford in
mechanical engineering & we don't want to touch the geartronic. we'll
just do an r & r. oh the " run to the nearest transmission rebuild
shop!" was just a joke. if you have the BW it is bulletproof.

"a great people, divided by a single language." i now know a little
more Strain. thank you!

On Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:54:19 -0700, rwlangbauer@sonic.net wrote:

thefamilyman wrote:

My '83 has the missing number. 340k miles.


Better yet, I recall reading in some manual use Type F unless the
transmission has been rebuilt. Looked all around mine and didn't find a
'Rebuilt' sticker, so I'm using Type F.
Been fine for 15 years and 150k miles.


Volvo might have solved the harness leprosy issue by '86, I dunno.
Google is your friend.
It's pretty obvious if the wires are bad. There is a plug at the
firewall on the intake side of the motor that is one end of the harness.
If the wires there are pristine, chances are it's a good harness.
They will be black and crumbly and mostly bare if it's bad.
I nursed my rotted harness for years until one day the starter pulled in
at ~ 30mph. I caught it quick so I didn't lose a starter or starter ring.
If it happens at highway speed, really bad things happen.

This guy is the guru of harnesses:
  <http://www.davebarton.com/volvoharnesses.html>

Replacing it is a (leisurely) days work. Moderate difficulty. Rebuilding
it is an option if a good replacement can't be found. Lots of soldering
and shrink tubing.

Yep, already looked it up before I bought the car - 1986 was the last
year of crumbling wiring harnesses.


I'll check again - if it ever stops raining, sigh!


Thanks.  I'll have a look.


I could do that.  Lots of experience with both of those.

why do i bother? oh, right beacause my neice cares & i will get
punched in the gonads. i have her this weekend, so ----. the BW's on
240's used type F. newer Volvos use Mercon (Dextron II, III, IV). i
race so i just use what my suppliers/owners give me. ok, wrong again.
i tend to use Castrol (they are a little company based in Long Island)
products. i also prefer gas from Shell. i doubt it matters much. ATF
does expand, but only in comparision to oil & brake fluid. i use -5/90
oil (find that if you can) & dot 5.3. 10/40 & dot 3 will be fine if
you keep it below 100 mph. changing ATF can get boring. it's why we
have children. yes i would change the coolant. not because it has any
value, but it is a fun way to spend a weekend w/ friends. i do many
purposeless things.

you have a fine car

I have seen such a car ,a doctor brought it in to sell at the local Volvo
service agent it had a scratch on the back mudguard/ fender where his old
mum/ mom backed into something .Other wise it was like new, a fawn or pale
blue 240 ,wouldn't be the same car by chance would it ?One old dear In
Tasmania brought a new car and would be lucky to have put many klm on it as
she only drove to Worship .Mary died a few years later and I doubt if the
car needed it's first oil change .
As for synthetic oil look in the rocker cover of a car that's run synthetic
oil and it will be clean as.I have seen older cars with normal oil full of
crud around the filler cap internals  which you could scrape off. aft
dextron 4 is now the current tranny oil .

No, it's white - blue interior.  (I hate blue interiors, but where you
are going to find a 50,000km car AND the colour you want.)


That's what it's like - shiny clean metal inside the tappet cover - no
deposits at all.  I just did an oil change using Castrol Magnatec
because that's all I had at the same viscosity as the manual
recommended.  I just now checked their site and they say to use
something else, LOL.  I guess I'll have to change it again soon that
being the case.

On Mon, 18 Jul 2011 05:32:53 -0700 (PDT), thefamilyman


synthetic transmission fluid just has better thermal characteristics,
but if you're not racing it will never matter. remember teflon brake
fluid that wouldn't mix? i don't think anyone still markets it. again
the "dot" classification is mainly thermal. coolant is watered down in
some of the warmer climates. i don't know about Oz.