Hi, I am very happy to join this forum, which I only just discovered through the Volvo owners forum.
I am happily the owner of a Right Hand Drive 1996 940 diesel estate which I have now owned for 8 years. I have owned several rear wheel drive volvos in the past including a LHD diesel 245 (converted from petrol), but, by far, my present vehicle is the best car I've ever had
. When I purchased the car it had only just done 110k miles, it has now almost reached 220k and am hoping it will reach at least another 100k.
Before the present car I had learned a bit about the engine from owning the 245, which had a burst cylinder head gasket, and the pump packed in. Someone had told me that because the head is alloy, and the block is steel, when you cold start the engine, it heats rapidly, and the steel, and the alloy expands at different rates, thereby causing a lot of pressure on the head gasket, and so the more cold starts you do, the shorter the life of the head gasket. So when I purchased the 940, the first thing I did was install a Kenlowe Engine Pre-heater. (Kenlowe also say that up to 70% of engine wear is due to cold starts). So since I've owned the car, It has done very few cold starts, and I don't know if this is the cause or not, but the engine seems to run just as powerfully, and as fuel efficient (if not more) as the day I got it
.
When the pump packed in on the 245, I had to take the car off the road for 3 weeks waiting for my local diesel injection specialist to recondition it, and then pay them £500 for their services. So when I got the 940 I put a search on ebay for a spare pump, and found a brand new one on sale from Bosch on ebay.de for only about £500, which I purchased, and still have in my loft.
Fortunately I've had to do almost nothing to the engine since I got it apart from changing the oil and filter every 5k miles, changed the timing belt, the brake servo pump and connecting rod, reconditioning the injectors and changing the glow plugs, and the usual fuel and air filter changes.
The engine is now due a timing belt change, which I am getting my local trusted mechanic to do ( i used to do the timing belt on the petrol ones, but I find the very high torque setting on the crank shaft pulley bolt on the D24 too scary for me), but he won't do the pump belt because of the special tools needed, he says I should take it to a vw specialist for that. I was wondering whether I should get the new pump fitted at the same time, rather than wait for the old one to pack in, now that it is 18 years old and done 220k miles. Does anyone know what the life expectancy of these pumps are before they need reconditioned, or replaced?