New 940 soon to be owner

[zchael6]

Originally Posted by tom9

Money always talks so you’re right, if he’s come down this much, I’m sure there’s more room to negotiate.

When you talk about budgeting for coolant - are we talking a coolant flush and change or overhauling the whole system? It’s going to be a second car so will be doing about 3/4k a year.

Thank you again for your help. The advice from everyone is invaluable, especially given the fact I’m not mechanically minded!

Do nothing or do it all was my approach, seems like a waste of money to half bake the cooling system overhaul, seeing as if one component fails you may as well have not done it at all. I guess it just means if you change a few bits out maybe slightly less chance of a failure

[volvo always]

Originally Posted by tom9

Money always talks so you’re right, if he’s come down this much, I’m sure there’s more room to negotiate.

When you talk about budgeting for coolant - are we talking a coolant flush and change or overhauling the whole system? It’s going to be a second car so will be doing about 3/4k a year.

Thank you again for your help. The advice from everyone is invaluable, especially given the fact I’m not mechanically minded!

Replacing the rad and all hoses.

I had to replace my 940 rad as top rad hose stub cracked, which is common. Replaced with a nissens brand for £100.

Go for Volvo coolant too.

James.

[griston64]

Initially if nothing is leaking and not losing coolant ( although as I said it looks like there isn't any coolant in it ) all you need to do is drain, flush with a garden hose and replace with new coolant. Give the header tank a good clean and put a new stat in. If you feel for peace of mind you want new hoses you can replace later

[volvo always]

If your keen on it check oil level, coolant level/colour etc no mayo on filler cap. No bubbles in coolant reservoir/overflowing. No oil in coolant and check everything works. indicators, brake lights, reverse lights, windows, central locking, hazards. Clutch biting point good, no squeaks/vibration, changes gear smoothly. Check underneath for rust/corrosion.

Go for at least a 30 minute test drive, keeping eye on temp gauge, should be midway position around a mile-2 miles. Check for smoke out the exhaust when you give it some welly. Steering heavy or working as it should. Check reverse works. Any knocks from suspension over bumps.

When I sold my 240 we must of been 30-40 minutes on a test drive which I selected the route to give various speeds and make sure the buyer was happy.

James.

[MiniNinjaRob]

Originally Posted by volvo always

If your keen on it check oil level, coolant level/colour etc no mayo on filler cap. No bubbles in coolant reservoir/overflowing. No oil in coolant and check everything works. indicators, brake lights, reverse lights, windows, central locking, hazards. Clutch biting point good, no squeaks/vibration, changes gear smoothly. Check underneath for rust/corrosion.

Go for at least a 30 minute test drive, keeping eye on temp gauge, should be midway position around a mile-2 miles. Check for smoke out the exhaust when you give it some welly. Steering heavy or working as it should. Check reverse works. Any knocks from suspension over bumps.

When I sold my 240 we must of been 30-40 minutes on a test drive which I selected the route to give various speeds and make sure the buyer was happy.

James.

I bought mine (from an ex-forum member) after driving it 3 yards on his drive........

[MiniNinjaRob]

Originally Posted by tom9

Money always talks so you’re right, if he’s come down this much, I’m sure there’s more room to negotiate.

When you talk about budgeting for coolant - are we talking a coolant flush and change or overhauling the whole system? It’s going to be a second car so will be doing about 3/4k a year.

Thank you again for your help. The advice from everyone is invaluable, especially given the fact I’m not mechanically minded!

I would say that if you have a half decent DIY knowledge you can work on a 940. Before I got my 940 the only things I had ever done on a car was change brake pads and spark plugs/air filter.

The engine bay is very spacious and easy to access everything, parts are easily available from Volvo dealers and all you need is a decent socket set and some spanners and you can do loads on the car.

What I've done on my car:
Changed plugs/dizzy/oil/filters/leads/battery - all easy
Cleaned throttle body - easy
Changed cooling hoses and flushed system (twice) - easy
Sorted out a water leak into the cabin - harder only because I had a lot of things to check but they weren't hard to do.
Changed all suspension - nearly did this but got a garage to do it for £180
Changed wheels
Changed all discs and pads and brake fluid

A lot of this was done at the side of the street......

There's lot of help available on here too - don't be worried!

They aren't a car you can avoid doing some work on unless you want to run it into the ground but its all pretty easy and they are reliable.

[Foeux]

I'd be patient and bargain hunt...

That said, spend your money as you wish. If you pine for something, get it. Since getting mine, I've loved it.

I recently sourced a manual, 940 estate (2.3NA) for £561 and had it freshly MOT'd for less than £800 all in. Great service history (oil every 10K) so 200K on the clock wasn't an issue. Nothing menacing in the MOT history checks or paperwork and importantly something for me to beaver away at.

The thread about getting it...

[AllHailKingVolvo]

Pros (for resale and enjoyment of ownership) are that it's a nice colour, a 2.3, manual, a seven seater and in decent shape bar the bits of lacquer peel here and there.

If you like it, £750 isn't a terrible price. I'd go and view it and see what you think. If you love it, £750 is a relatively low outlay for a car you'll enjoy, which is likely to give you plenty of reliable motoring with the right maintenance.

A B230FB is a desirable engine as it has the 531 head and VX cam, and makes the most power of any of the naturally aspirated Redblock motors in stock form (other than the B234F motors which are an entirely different kettle of fish) and should be a rewarding drive.

When I buy a new-to-me 2/7/900 series car, I always budget for a new cat-back exhaust system (£250ish from Volvo...buy genuine as they are a superb fit), a new distributor cap, rotor, HT leads and plugs (always Bosch cap and rotor, ideally from Volvo, Bougicord leads and NGK plugs...this stuff is REALLY a case of buy cheap, buy twice...budget £120 all in for this), new air, fuel and oil filters (all MANN, around £50 for the lot) and a flush and change of engine and gearbox oil (again around £50ish for the oils)

That stuff should get you in the ballpark in terms of basic stage-zero maintenance which will have the car running sweetly. You can do all of it yourself in your driveway in the space of one afternoon. I LOVE working on these cars...super simple and rewarding work!

A coolant system flush is a good idea too. The car looks and sounds like a decent enough Redblock in the video to me, albeit a Redblock with a noisy exhaust. They're not refined engines but do the job with character and plucky spirit.

For reference, I have a '96 940 MkII estate, 2.3 LPT manual, which I paid £1200 for at the start of this year with 75k on the clock. I considered the car an absolute steal at that price, and was so excited about it that I took a 7hr train ride across the country to collect it! Everything worked when I bought it, but it needed all of the above to bring it up to what I consider daily driver spec. After some detailing work, it now looks as good as it runs and drives.

It all comes down to how much you fancy it...the naturally aspirated Redblock cars have their own charms, I've owned many of them and they are a simpler, easier to maintain motor than a turbo, (but that's not saying much as the turbo cars are still 100x more straightforward than modern cars!) and, when well sorted, are an enjoyable car to drive, even the (very!) stately 2.0 NA cars.

[360beast]

Everybody has said it all already but I notice it has Westlake tyres which are cheap chinese junk, bin them and get some Bridgestones.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by 360beast

Everybody has said it all already but I notice it has Westlake tyres which are cheap chinese junk, bin them and get some Bridgestones.

In the dictionary, where the definiton of "Chinese Ditchfinder" is, there are pictures of Westlake tyryes and Jinyu, WanLi, Landsail, Rotanza and a few others i can't think of just now, all made by the same company.

Some Chinese tyres are ok but you have to be careful which ones you get.