1988 Volvo 740 TD Estate from UK and Ireland - Comments

The left hand front daytime bulb blew and a number of blown dashboard lights needed replacement.

The LH rear caliper seized badly at about 129000 - very easy to put right. Both front caliper rails began to seize, but again, once freed they are very easy to maintain.

The windscreen washer motor needed replacement.

Cold starting can sometimes be a problem and the oil light takes a little while to go out. Oil is constantly leeching out of the rear of the camshaft area and caused a failure of one of the heater hoses (close call that!)

Oh, and the odd glow plug needs replacement now and then.

The above list might seems daunting but ALL of the above were DIY fixable and the list is complete to date. The car could well be superb, save for the standard fitment of the German VW LT28 commercial straight six diesel (which must have come out of a German U-boat). Not the nicest of power units and a complete mystery to me since I am unable to get any manuals on the engine! Despite this, it's the BEST car I've ever owned returning about 34-37 mpg and costing next to nothing to maintain!

I have an engine manual given to me by an audi mechanic? it seems strange that

you can't get an over the counter one eh.can't fault your comments though.

Ian.

I agree about the engine - but it was state-of-the-art in the mid eighties. It was the fastest diesel powered car of its time with a VW derived 6-cyl turbodiesel giving 109bhp, let down by the fact it has no intercooler; it's a shame it couldn't have been added later.

I have A oil cooler fitted to my 740 td. I took the oil cooler from A Mitsubishi galant 2.0 TD. It was fitted at 184,590 miles. I now have 271,456 miles on the clock and no engine trouble.

My vacuum pump for the brakes has recently started knocking, but the brakes are still working fine, any ideas WHY?

Updates from Norman Hart (owner).

At about 160,000 miles...

Rear camshaft seal was replaced. This cured the oil leak at the rear of the engine.

The fuel pump seals were replaced in order to stop fuel being drawn down into the fuel tank while being parked for more than 30+ minutes. This cured poor starting and improved fuel economy to around 37 - 39 mpg!

Dashboard warning lights failure. Although tricky to diagnose, I managed to bypass the breaks in the circuits with bits of wire. All the warning lights function correctly now.

At around 190,000 miles...

Road incident caused severe damage to steering sub-frame. Total repairs came to just under £400. Paid through fully comp insurance after threatening insurers with legal action!

Clutch cylinders now need refurbishing.

Engine is no longer giving its best, with psi compression figures of 400, 380, 395, 380, 260, 340 - all pressures should exceed 400 psi. The engine now needs more on the throttle and is now only returning 31 - 34 mpg. Estimated cost of rebuild is around £1,000 if all goes well! This kind of wear, after just over 60,000 miles (it was rebuilt at 127,000 miles when I bought the car), leaves me undecided as to repair or sell and move on to something else. I'll keep you posted either way.

Many thanks, Norman Hart.

I finally parted with the Volvo some months ago. The engine was in a very bad way and a bloke gave me £200 to take it away. Sadly missed, since I didn't have the money at the time to get the engine rebuilt (quoted about £1500?).

After a considerable gap in time and now a better paid job, I've recently purchased a Nissan Serena 2.3 DGX. I'll keep you posted as to progress in the appropriate section of this site.

I have a 740 Turbo diesel estate and I love it!

But ye olde madde volkswage D24T is not the best of diesel engines. Experience over the last 3 years says this engine Needs to be looked after very carefully - change oil religiously at 3,000 as the turbo cooks oil very fast - using semi-synthetic oil as it will hopfully stand the heat better. Use proper green volvo coolant - it's not that dear! Get the front timing belt changed at the proper intervals. Put a jar of injector cleaner in the fuel occasionally and replace injectors every 80,000 miles. My original engine smoked badly. A reconditioned pump (around £500) cured this completely. First engine died at 150,000 when timing belt broke and wrecked it! Got secondhand engine from specialist Volvo breakers, and it runs like a dream. Only sad thing about car is that drivers side heated seat doesn't work. awww.

I agree with all the above comments. The engine needs religious maintenance if you want it to last, don't skimp on the quality of engine oil. There are a few bits and pieces on all 740s that are not the sort of quality one would expect from volvo. saggy headlining, burnt out panel light rheostat, non-functioning gauges (it's a printed circuit fault) heated seat elements that don't last, basically niggly electrical faults.

The engine's not very DIY friendly IMO, replacing the timing belt is a specialist job (7 hour job going by the book) and the bucket and shim tappets are meant to be checked and set every 25K.

For all that, I LOVE my 740 td, especially the great straight six thrum and mid-range torque.

Later versions of this engine did have intercoolers. You can retro fit to the non-intercooled d24, but be aware the 740 tdi has a different turbo, inlet manifold and all the associated trunking.

An engine manual for the engine is available from Volvo themselves.

I have a 740 TD. All the above comments are right on the money. Vacuum pump knock is common, as is electrical faults. If not maintained, the engine can self destruct at quite low mileages, and it's important NOT to thrash it when cold.

The rear two glow plugs are an absolute swine of a job, but necessary in winter. However, stay on top of it and they can do 500,000 miles.