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Because of my recently wrecked 94 9k cs sitting in the driveway, the only occasionally used 93 Volvo 940 wagon became wife's daily driver for the last couple of weeks. I was using her 94 9k cs turbo to commute. That plus our 19 year old daughter uses the Volvo only on weekends.
The temperature in New Jersey yesterday was 1 degree F with wind chill. All of a sudden wife complains it was freezing cold driving the Volvo. So I climbed into the 940 driver's seat and started up the engine right after sho got home. Lo and behold, the temperature gage is at the red zone. That and no heat immediately tell me there is not enough coolant. How long has the tempearture gage stayed at the red zone because of insufficient coolant I have no idea. This 940 have had a slow coolant leak at the water pump I know for quite some time. I simply top it up occasionally waiting for an opportune time to fix it once and for all. It is my fault to have forgotten it with so many things going on.
Does this happen in your houshold? Do they not check the gages when they drive the car? These two opposite gender in my household certainly do no do that when driving. As long as no steam comes out of the hood they just go their merry way, until when temperature all of a sudden drops 40 degrees and complain there is no heat. Of course there is no heat when there isn't enough coolant to circulate in the heater core.
After topping the coolant up I noticed the temperature gage stays consistently at the very cold part and I get only very luke warm air. That was not right either, I thought. It turned out the 940 wagon has the thermostat stuck open because one arm is broken. I replaced the thermostat this evening.
But the gripes above is not the reason of my post. The stuck open thermostat may or may not be related to loss of coolant and high temperature. My guess the Volvo has been running at least a few weeks with temperature at the red zone with no apparent ill effects. Since there was no steam coming out of the engine it wasn't detected until temperature dropped 40 degrees.
Having 3 SAAB 9k's (two turbo) and the Volvo I know how anemic the Volvo B230F engine is compared to the B234 engine in terms of performance. But at the same time I don't think the B234 engines can survive coolant loss like what happened to the Volvo either. The B230F makes for the lack of horses in robustness. Your thought?
posted by 68.38.90...
, Fri, 31 Dec 2004 17:14:32
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