2001 Volvo, deal or money pit?

I have a line on a 2001 Volvo XC70 with 200K miles but no body damage and new tires.

Seller says it "shut off" on the interstate a couple of months ago and he had it towed home. Hasn't started since due to a dead battery and utter lack of mechanical skills. I don't know these cars well but if it's just a wonky sensor it'd be well worth dragging home. If it was something bad I'm looking at a possible money pit.

Any thoughts from the collective about what to look for? I'm thinking I'll go look at it on the 26th.

Probably broke a timing belt. The dead battery is a nice excuse to not let you hear it turn over. Bring jumper cables and see if it spins fast like there is no compression. These are interference engines with some special tools required to do the belt. Look at any Volvo of this generation in a junk yard and you'll find zero body damage. They're all there because of broken timing belts or bad automatics-both due to lack of proper maintenance.

agreed that 5 cylinder is a great engine.. except when that belt goes

Yup. 200k on the original belt. Assume that no other maintenance has been done and that you'll need to swap out the engine. Unless it's not much more than scrap money I'd run.

By that many miles these awd models have "transfer case" issues but it is possible to pull the drive shaft to run fwd only.

I loved my 850 wagon but I agree with those above that you do not want a neglected example.

If "I have a line on ..." means "I can get for free ..." then I'd give it some consideration.

I have been searching the ads for a turbo Volvo for a couple of weeks. There are a ton of them out there and they are cheap. Keep looking.

On a side note, Step 1 when I buy any car, but especially a European car, is to clean every fuse, relay, electrical connection and especially the grounds. Magic happens.

http://lexington.craigslist.org/cto/4798048473.html

$400. Nearly free

Disregard what I said up there^. I'd be dragging that home.

Woody wrote: On a side note, Step 1 when I buy any car, but especially a European car, is to clean *every* fuse, relay, electrical connection and especially the grounds. Magic happens.

Step 2 is bring it up to maintenance because Euro car owners are the worst for deferring maintenance. Mine had the original timing belt at 205k. Mine was serviced by the on-board service system with standard oil, which the owner's manual says is fine. The guys on that oil-guy forum will also say that's fine.

After 2000mi of driving with a roughly 50/50 mix of ACEA synthetic oil and ATF, the oil filter was maybe 1/3rd plugged with carbon crust. I'll try to get pictures of the element. It's glorious. Screw the oil guy and the owner's manual, small turbo engines in big cars need frequent changes of synthetic, period. 2 quarts of Agip and 3 quarts of Dexron VI went in, going to take it out after another 1500-2000mi and cut the filter open, repeat until the crusties stop coming.

If I had the $400 and the space to tinker, I'd buy it for a why-not purchase. If it hurt the timing belt, even if it cost $2000 to pull the head and repair everything, you're ahead. If it's some electronics issue (rare on Volvos, admittedly) beyond a simple fuel pump or something, you know that people are putting those turbo fives in 240s and such using 960 pieces.

i think if you go there you may be murdered, from the look of the surroundings.

2nd answer is because it's up on "blocks" - they found something horrible and are playing dumb. "automatic engine cutoff came on" translation: "timing belt broke, engine locked up, trans slips horribly but you wouldn't know because you can't test drive it"

And note the collision damage to the front.

I chased an electrical gremlin in a 2000 Volvo. These have more wiring than your average stealth fighter jet. I would run from any car that "just has an issue with a sensor" that is unless you have hundreds of hours of free time to tinker.

At $400 you're picking from my end of the market. You could part it and make money if fixing it doesn't work out.

Wayslow wrote: At $400 you're picking from my end of the market. You could part it and make money if fixing it doesn't work out.

This.

Well, someone bought it...

Knurled wrote: Well, someone bought it...

probably full of the bodies of the first 10 people that went to look at it.

honestly.. my old 850 I only paid $1000 for. It ran perfect and only needed $100 in seats and door panels from the Junkyard to make it near perfect. These are not expensive cars, so it is worth holding out for the best one you can find