Thinking about buying a 300k mile Volvo 240D

I need a car to putz around town in for a year or so. Wanted to get the opinion on to buy this thing or not. Info:

Owner drove it almost 2 hours to show it to me. Thought that was nice. The Cl add caught my attention because it had a good record of maintenance. Car is two owners, bought locally (has dealer sticker on it from the place I bought my C30 still). He's had it for 7 years and put 100k miles on it. AC doesn't work and its getting pretty damn hot in Raleigh (but I'm guessing fixing will cost more than the car worth). The engine / transmission felt good, better than some cars from '95-'04 I test drove. Sometimes when breaking from 20 mph I felt a knock on the back drivers side, though I hear the bushings on these cars wear out easily so not sure what that is. The body has another good 10-15 years before rust takes it.Owner said he ordered a new rubber moter/transmission mount from IPD (he is going to swap it in this weekend). Only sketchy part of it was after driving it I looked under the car and there was a bunch of glue dripping where the mount was, but that goes with his story of how he wanted to change it out and put some glue up in there until then.

He gave me a paper of work he did while owning it.

Seems like $1,300-1,450 will move it.

I have to say, that's some impressive service documentation. OCD! Assuming its legit, car looks to be a pretty fair deal. AFAIK those red block cars will run forever.

Also, manual transmission wagon, FTW.

I was going to say the knock you felt could've been a mount going bad. You'll find out soon enough! I'd buy buy buy.

I was thinking since I have $2,100 for a car, i could get it, paint it dark blue, then when it comes time to sell I'd probably get a good 60-70% back on that paint job.

I'd focus that paint money at maintenance and consumables during your time of ownership. Maybe get that lower body cladding off where it's not already AWOL and just deal with whatever that leaves behind.

It's an auto, which i don't really mind as my left foot is fractured from BMXing and I'm old and E36 M3 takes eternity to heal now. He did put a tach on it in place of the clock and moved the clock over a bit, looks good.

You know what i say...do it

Knocking is probably torque rods, the later style arent as robust but easily replacable or check a certain rwd volvo forum and theres usually a dude selling the old style with or without poly bushings

OK. Going by maintenance looks like it will need spark plugs soon (every 50k mileish?). Can I do it without a jack?

And yah that torque rod did look worn..

In reply to Coldsnap:

Yeah you can do it with just a spark plug wrench, stupid easy. Get bpr6es ngk ONLY. They need them ever 10-20k honestly

Ps replied to your email

Edit:torque rods are the upper two going length wise, panhard goes horizontal. Theres two bushings in the two big lower link i cant remember what its called though. One the strut and spring mounts to on the bottom

Just wondering, are maintained and running / not needing work 740s trading hands around this price too? Or are they costing a bit more now adays.

don't paint it. save your money for fixing old car things.

yea, or to fix the AC.

Coldsnap wrote: Just wondering, are maintained and running / not needing work 740s trading hands around this price too? Or are they costing a bit more now adays.

Yep. RWD Volvos are almost perpetually under $2k. The really nice examples creep up towards $4k. I'd go 740 just because the seats are magical. You'll want a turbo if going auto. Non turbo autos are SLOW.

240s are actually starting to increase in price in Volvo circles, but 740s are still worth very little unless it's a stellar manual Turbo wagon. That price seems very fair to me - and if it had decent paint/interior it would sell for at least $3000-5000 up here.

I personally prefer the 740/940 cars because they're quieter, more civilized, but the 240 has a lot of character.

90 is a great year because it doesn't have the biodegradable wiring that the 80-87 models featured. The A/C isn't cheap to fix, figure a couple grand especially if it wasn't converted - ask me how I know. Spark plugs are stupid easy.

I'm a bit perplexed how the 740 and 240 were sold during the same time, one looks from a whole other era.

If you are interested in fixing the ac, (how can you NOT have working ac in the summer anywhere in the South?) you can check to see if the compressor is locked up by trying to turn it by hand. If it is locked up, then it may not be worth it to you to fix. If it turns with some sign of compression, then it probably just has a leak which might be fixable for not too much $$.

In reply to Coldsnap:

The 740 series was supposed to replace the 240, but the damn 240's kept selling. The 940 replaced the 740, and the 240 still survived it by a year. It finally got killed by the 850. Once they came out, you couldn't give away a 240.

Make sure the heater fan works. Its a time consuming job to replace.

Looks like a `90? I see the airbag steering wheel, but it still has the old knob for A/C.

I had an 89 for many years. I can tell you that, even working properly, the A/C never was super effective. Of course mine had been converted over to R134, but many owners have reported abysmal performance regardless of which refrigerant is used, and that temps climb a little too quickly in stop-and-go traffic with the air on. Did overdrive work? if not, ipd sells a little plate to get it functioning again. The cold/hot air valve in the air filter box typically fails in the hot air only position, which can quickly fry the AMM. You can replace the little thermostat, or just remove it. I believe a 90 used Bosch 2.4 LH, so it should have a little diagnostic port on the driver's side wheel well, under the hood. It'll store three codes, directions on which you can find here.

I made an offer on it, we shall see !

Got it. I've got a 1,400 mile trip in July.. Thinking of taking this, so I'll be going through it a bit over this month.

Congrats! I would definitely make sure the OD is working on the AW70 and that the temperature butterfly is not stuck in the hot position, and you should be golden. The B230F is non-interference, but I think it would still be a good idea to make sure it's not in need of replacement.

Esoteric Nixon wrote: Congrats! I would definitely make sure the OD is working on the AW70 and that the temperature butterfly is not stuck in the hot position, and you should be golden. The B230F is non-interference, but I think it would still be a good idea to make sure it's not in need of replacement.

OD def works and I think the hot pipe that puts warm air into the temp butterfly is disconnect. Think that's bypassed iirc.

I would just open the air box and look to make sure it's working or has been taken out. Even if the hot air hose is no longer there, it's probably not getting a lot of air flow to that side of the airbox. Of course I don't have my Volvo to look at right now, so my memory might be a bit off. That, and check the codes.

Although OD confused me. On the dash the arrow that comes up when I press OD button means that OD is now off? So when driving around town I should not have that arrow on my dash.