[brucepick]

Yes, the Volvo air intake thermostats die, and need replacement. Not too difficult. It's a wax-based thermostat; you can look that up in wikipedia for an explanation.

For an on line parts source for Volvos, try fcpgroton.com. Pay attention to what brand you get and where it's made. I also second the motion to use junk yards. BTDT with excellent results.

Volvo alternators (the 240 ones at least) have an easily replaceable brush and diode assembly. Comes out with a screwdriver with the alt still in the car! Costs about $35 from fcpgroton and usually gets your alternator working again. Sorry I'm a bit late with that news! Consider it a "wear" part, it just takes something like 100-200K miles for it to wear out.

We drove nothing but Volvo 240s (rear drive) for about 13 years and my stepdaughter still has one. I've done lots of work on those. Yours is newer though, front drive.