Well, I was cruising down my local car district, looking for a Toyota AE86, a blue car caught my eye. I was looking for one of these a while ago, but gave up. It was a Volvo 240 turbo, 4 doors, and a manual. It looked in pretty good shape for an 18 year old car. The interior was clean. The dash had a couple of cracks on it. The rims were in good shape. I don't know the milage, but the car was priced at $1,400. Heres the kicker, it doesn't have keys.<P>Does anyone have any check up tips? Things to look for, problem spots, funny noises, etc?
Would you buy a car without a key?
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There are a few less people on this board, so have patience. If I were you, I'd run CARFAX on the car and see what comes up. At least you know it is clear.<P>There are some guys on this board who know the 240s much better than I so I'll bow out to them, though I will move a copy of this to the 240 section as well so that they might spot it.
OK, let's see, I don't know the 240 Turbo all that well, but there are some things to check out.<P>Maintenance records: very useful in determining what's new and what's needed. Since I don't know the mileage that you're looking at, I'll just name some things that may need to be replaced at some point, ranging from "immediately" to "1-3 years" down the road, in no particular order: steering rack, radiator, rear bushings, shocks/struts, upper strut mounts, cat converter, heater hoses, clutch (plus the rear main seal, clutch cable, and resurface the flywheel), water pump, t-belt (plus the tensioner and front seals), tie rods, ball joints, motor/trans mounts, master cylinder, calipers (rebuilt), intercooler hoses (if applicable), WIRING HARNESS (<---one of the most important), and of course rust (probably not a big concern if the Arlington that you're from is in Texas).<P>If the engine wiring harness is brittle, cracked, and crumbling, you may need to replace it when you run into the strange electrical problems that are hard to diagnose.<P>The dash cracks you mentioned are normal, and are what I'd expect to see on most 240s. The wheels are soft (assuming stock 5 spoke alloys), and they may be dented but probably still hold air and balance fine. The common problem to the 240 in the early to mid 80's is the wiring harness rot that I mentioned above. Reliability depends greatly on how the car was maintained. If you can do most of your own work on the car, then it should be very reliable and easy to work on.<P>If you do buy the car, do a tune-up and replace the injector seals along with the regular tune-up stuff because bad seals can cause problems with poor running, hard to start, bad idle, etc, similar to vacuum leaks. You should also replace the transmission fluid and maybe service the OD unit. Re-solder the OD and fuel pump relays. Also buy a Bentley manual for the 240, which are available on ebay quite frequently and offer the best resource other than the Volvo green manuals ($expensive$).<P>Other details: 2.1L, 8-valve, non-watercooled turbo (may have been upgraded to a water cooled unit by now), '84.5 and later came with a factory intercooler, K-jet fuel system, dana 30 rear axle, 2950lb. curb weight for the 4-door 240, 3.73 rear end ratio, 7.5:1 CR, 127hp, 150ft-lb torque (for non-IC'd turbos, 162hp/181ft-lb for Tic), the engine requires 4qt. of oil, the gas tank holds 15.8 gallons, the stock tire size is 195/60/15, and, um, that's about all I can think of right now.<P>Check with a Volvo dealer to see what it would cost to get a replacement key. I'm not sure if they can make you one based on the VIN or not, so check with the dealer.<P>Good luck.<P>
ALL RIGHT!!! Your advice was worth its weight in gold. <P>And the ignition was still in the steering column...<P>Is 1,400 a desent price to pay for an example with 120k miles on it? The rims are perfect. There is barely a scratch on them. The hood has some paint fade, and other usual 18 year old car stuff.
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That doesn't sound that bad if it's in good shape. Run the carfax just to verify the car's legitimacy (doubt it is stolen <IMG SRC="http://www.swedespeed.com/ubb/wink.gif"> ), but I'm also looking right now and am finding virtually no turbos. Of course I am limiting myself to wagons, which hold their value a little more (as do coupes) and are anywhere from $1500 to about $4K depending on the years of the one I am looking at.
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BTW, you got some responses in the 200 series forum where I set up a duplicate thread. You may want to check it out.
Thanks, I appreciate it. <P>It rained today, so I thought this would be a good time to see how the seals were holding up in that old volvo. Got there and opened the door, dry as a bone.... <IMG SRC="http://www.swedespeed.com/ubb/smile.gif">
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