Venting in 1980 240?

There is a small metal hatch underneath the hood pop for my volvo on
the drivers side. A little lever can be pushed/pulled to open and
close the vent about an inch or so. Any ideas on what this might be?

 

It's a vent... it lets air in, what else is there to say about it? Open
it while you're driving and you get a nice breeze on your feet.

 

Please forgive me if this response sounds crass, I do not mean to
offend. However, this post appears quite often and granted, my 1987 740
does not have this.

So, for the purpose of knowledge, I ask this: Is it not obvious that
something that looks like a vent, acts like a vent and is a vent - must
be a vent?

Now that this question is solved, I guess I must ask this. Was this
just some bonus vent that the Volvo engineers invented? Does every
Volvo not have a fresh air option in the dash board vents? I know not
all have A/C, but even those with heating only - does this not allow
fresh air?

So the question I ask, is even if the obvious answer is the vent, is a
vent, is a vent, why add another vent? Why there? Because they COULD,
or because they SHOULD. If the former - great, more air. If the latter,
why?

Takers?

 

Alright. I was just curious. Because I opened it and shined a light
in there and I didn't see any venting inside that led outside and I
looked under the car and such and I didn't find anything...

 

I think I may have an answer! Alas -- should someone be driving along
and feel a sudden onset of flatulance, he might stealthily release the
noxious fumes by casually opening the vent and allowing the scent to
escape the cockpit without the passenger (beautiful Swedish swimsuit
model) knowing (or smelling).

That's my best guess.

?????

 

Smoooth. :]

 

The inner fender where this is installed hollow and connected to the air
intake grille at the base of the windshield. It continues down into the
rocker panels where rainwater drains out. Also air is forced through
the rocker panels by the car's motion and helps to dry them out after
the rainwater cleans them. Next time you're washing your car, spray
water down the grille and watch it flow out the rocker panel holes.

240s have these air vent holes on both sides, but since on the later
cars the fuel computer is mounted on the passenger side in front of this
area, that is blocked by a galvanized plate. Early ones had vents on
both sides.

740s have this feature too, but in all North American cars the holes are
filled with a plastic plug. Cars with the base heating system and no
computers have plastic vents in these holes, similar to the metal ones
in 240s. As an aside, the plastic plugs often get broken, if you have
water on the floor of your 740 after a rain storm, look at the condition
of these plugs.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

.... And I owned my '83 245 for 3 years before I even found that vent one
day while crawling around under the dash, looking for the sond reset.