My wife's '93 240 would occasionally have the ABS light come on. If
she had to stop quickly, the car would go about 50 feet and then the
brakes would come on.

This scared the bejesus out of me so I took it to my mechanic. They
could make the problem recur and then went to disconnect, clean and
tighten all connections but they couldn't find any trouble codes so
they sent the car to the dealer who couldn't recreate the problem nor
find any codes.

The dealer asked that my wife come up and show them what happened
(what? Is brake failure a female thing like PMS?!) No problem observed
so they released tha car for a $98 diagnostic fee.

BTW, my mechanic said, "We didn't find anything we could fix and
warrant so there's no charge for what we did." FOUR DAYS of looking
for a problem and cleaning and tightening connections!

If you live in the Dallas area, I know a GREAT shop which is really
both honest and knowledgeable, not only in Volvos but all cars and
commercial trucks.

Chuck Fiedler
Nothing but Volvo since 1974

On Aug 7, 10:17*pm, Someone <some... (AT) somewhere (DOT) com> wrote:
same poop different cow;
i have a honda with abs. although that was one of the reasons i bought
the car, in practice i didn't like them. on the one hand, they
prevented the car from stopping at all when it was slppery in the
winter, particularly on a nearby downhill ending at a red light. i
could stop the car by putting it into first. if there was enough
traction to stop the car by gearing down, there was enough traction to
stop with the brakes. on the other hand, the abs didn't allow the car
to be steered at all; just plowed straight ahead with the abs
pumping. a lot of trying in slippery empty parking lots brought me to
that conclusion. took it in to the dealer for a brake job and
replacing one axle, and it came out with the abs light lit. they
informed me it was the abs computer. frankly, i appreciate the
improvement.

On Aug 7, 5:11*pm, Chuck Fiedler <c.fied... (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote:
same cow, different poop:
brought my 240 to the dealer to have some gaskets replaced. car
emerged with a low speed stumble/misfire it didn't have beforehand.
brought it back complaining. picked it up later with a notation that
they couldn't find anything, and a bill for an hour's labor. when i
argued, they dropped it to half an hour's labor on the grounds that
their system wouldn't allow them to just charge nothing.