740 Turbo Intercooler estate for sale in Coventry...beware!

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by aardvarkash10

egg-crate grill!!!

Here you go Ash :

http://www.skandix.de/en/spare-parts...-grid/1042973/

Cheaper than buying the car and shipping the grille to NZ - not much but cheaper!

Originally Posted by Selby

I thought it looked a good car on paper.

Glad I saw the thread on here.

Sadly so did someone else on the forum, then found all the problems with it!

[jonnyf90]

Another guy has bought it for £800 - he's trying to get his money back after reading this thread!

Cheers

[AllHailKingVolvo]

The poor thing is beyond f***ed, sadly. The body isn't in bad shape though, if it came for beans it would be a candidate to swap a decent lump and M90 from a 940 into it. The interior isn't in great shape but could be made good with a bit of work.

The engine is the main issue though, it was the roughest sounding redblock I've ever heard (it ran like a diesel lorry engine), and had obviously been poorly maintained and thrashed mercilessly. When I went to view it it had no coolant in it at all and extensive marks down the RH side of the block from what was obviously a severe HG leak. The turbo was haemorrhaging oil and wouldn't boost properly at all (it would pulse hard, making the car buck uncontrollably under any meaningful level of boost) and the gearbox was horribly notchy and almost impossible to select/change gear with. Oh, and the overdrive didn't work.

This was all after the dealer struggled to start it for five minutes, flattened the battery and then realised there was no fuel in it. He crowed loudly about having to spend £500 on getting it through an MOT, but it had a secondhand exhaust that looked like no 740 exhaust I'd ever seen, two bald tyres, front indicator lenses that were from a different car entirely and both fell out when I braked for the first time on the test drive.

The entire thing was a sh*tshow. I rejected the car on the grounds of it being both unsafe and not as described...he still has my £200 deposit for the car too ("Gerry" aka Martin Pittaway at Gerry's Carz & Vanz or whatever pap name they're trading under now. Absolute crooks, and I feel so sorry for the guy who bought the car for £2k plus and has ended up trading it in for pence.

[Selby]

To be fair £800 for a 740 turbo with a ****ed engine isn’t that outrageous.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Selby

To be fair £800 for a 740 turbo with a ****ed engine isn’t that outrageous.

It is when the engine is only the tip of the iceberg! From what's been said, the gearbox was FUBAR too, i can see a tail light cluster that won't pass the MoT (red lens faded so produces white light to the rear) not to mention what else was found.

I don't think anybody has seen it on a ramp yet, i dread to think of the state of it underneath! Also nobody really knows what the brakes are like as i don't think it's managed to go fast enough to need them in anger. However Phil did mention as soon as he touched the brakes on his short test drive, both front indicator/sidelight clusters fell out!

[jonnyf90]

Originally Posted by Selby

To be fair £800 for a 740 turbo with a ****ed engine isn’t that outrageous.

What is outrageous is how it was listed as nearly mint when it’s far from that.

[baggy798]

G165BEV is back up for £1500 on carandclassic wtaf! It's like the never-ending story!

For sale is a 1990 Volvo 740 turbo intercooler
This example is not perfect and does require some TLC to make pristine the car.

The bad:
Lambda sensor on
ABS warning light intermittent
Dent in bonnet
Missing trim on the driver's side front bumper
Radio works but the driver's side speakers are intermittent
A couple of bits of interior trim are loose or broken. (Mainly the bootlid cover, driver's side speaker cover and handbrake surround)
Gearbox is vague but selects all 4 gears once accustomed to it
PCB valve has been blocked off by a previous owner
Driver's side seatbelt stalk shroud is damaged but the mechanism is working
180k

The good:
Bodywork has no rust
MOTed until December
Drives smoothly and stops with no knocks or rattles
Overdrive works
Electric windows and sunroof all work
Good tyres and wheels are in very good condition

Overall I'm not familiar with the 700 series but have been as honest as I can so would encourage viewing the vehicle.
Oadby Leicestershire
07466 690239

[jonnyf90]

Pretty sure these cars are known as redblocks because of the engine colour - not "rustblocks".
What's happened to the engine?!

[AllHailKingVolvo]

Originally Posted by jonnyf90

Pretty sure these cars are known as redblocks because of the engine colour - not "rustblocks".
What's happened to the engine?!

Chronic head gasket leak...it was p*ssing out after I test drove it. The block is a mess of rust and limescale.

I'm not surprised it's back up for sale...it's a rats' nest of problems. I laughed at "gearbox is vague but does select all four gears once accustomed to it"! I found it took brute force to select any gear at all, and after a ten minute test drive I felt like the left hand side of me had been to the gym 🤣

On the plus side, someone has clearly fixed the overdrive, as that was thoroughly kaput when I drove it.

Also "drives smoothly"...perhaps if your benchmark is a 1970s Detroit Diesel powered Peterbilt 🙈. The engine and box are both cacked. Although, as I said before, the body is decent and the interior could be made nice with a bit of work. If it came for £400 I'd buy it and stuff a later B230 and M90 in it, mainly just to give this sh*tshow a happy ending!!

[loki_the_glt]

I assume (and hope) that it only selects one gear at a time!