960, what to look for?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Marc Onrust
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M

Marc Onrust

Hi,

I might be interested in buying a Volvo 960 because they are relatively cheap to
buy and offer so much comfort and luxury in return. Although I recently owned
an 850 and later an S60 D5 (sold it because I started my own company with
office at home), I'm totally new to the 960. Can someone tell me whether this
car has specific weaknesses I should know? I'm especially interested in the
facelifted modell ('95 and later?) with the 2.5 or 3 liter engine and automatic
gearbox. Probably it will have run 250,000kms (156,000miles) or more.

All information, hints etc are seriously appreciated!

Cheers
Marc
The Netherlands
 
Marc said:
Hi,

I might be interested in buying a Volvo 960 because they are relatively cheap to
buy and offer so much comfort and luxury in return. Although I recently owned
an 850 and later an S60 D5 (sold it because I started my own company with
office at home), I'm totally new to the 960. Can someone tell me whether this
car has specific weaknesses I should know? I'm especially interested in the
facelifted modell ('95 and later?) with the 2.5 or 3 liter engine and automatic
gearbox. Probably it will have run 250,000kms (156,000miles) or more.

All information, hints etc are seriously appreciated!

Cheers
Marc
The Netherlands
Click to expand...


Keep up on timing belt changes because if it breaks the engine will be
destroyed before you know what happened. Other than that they're pretty
solid cars.
 
James said:
Keep up on timing belt changes because if it breaks the engine will be
destroyed before you know what happened. Other than that they're pretty
solid cars.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your answer. So I shouldn't worry too much about automatic gearboxes,
differentials and electronics?
 
Marc Onrust said:
Thanks for your answer. So I shouldn't worry too much about automatic gearboxes,
differentials and electronics?
Click to expand...

With a 960 of that mileage I would make sure that they can show that
regular oil changes (around every 3000 miles, +/-) and tranny fluid
changes (about every 25,000-50,000 or so is what I like) have been
done throughout its life. Longer intervals are acceptable if there is
evidence of synthetic lubes being used. Additionally, open the oil
fill cap and look to see if there is a lot of crud builtup in there.
Pull the tranny dipstick and smell it to be sure it doesn't smell
burnt. Test the anti-lock brakes at around 35mph. If the suspension is
good it will stop with authority without excessive pulsing or
suspension hop. Once it is warmed up put the tranny in S mode (if so
equipped) and stick your foot in it and check that it shifts with
authority.


__ __
Randy & \ \/ /alerie's
\__/olvos
'90 245 Estate - '93 965 Estate
"Shelby" & "Kate"
 
Marc said:
James Sweet wrote:




Thanks for your answer. So I shouldn't worry too much about automatic gearboxes,
differentials and electronics?
Click to expand...


Well you should check that all that stuff is working, but there's no
glaring weak spots in any of that stuff.
 
960s should use fully synthetic ATF from factory which Volvo say does not
need replacing during the life of the car. In UK we recommend that fluid is
replaced every 100,000 miles as an extra precaution.

All the best, Peter.

700/900/90 Register Keeper,
Volvo Owners Club (UK).
 
Peter K L Milnes said:
960s should use fully synthetic ATF from factory which Volvo say does not
need replacing during the life of the car. In UK we recommend that fluid is
replaced every 100,000 miles as an extra precaution.
Click to expand...

50k or even less if you regularly tow is the recommendation actually.

Tim..
 
Marc said:
Hi,

I might be interested in buying a Volvo 960 because they are relatively cheap
to buy and offer so much comfort and luxury in return. Although I recently
owned an 850 and later an S60 D5 (sold it because I started my own company
with office at home), I'm totally new to the 960. Can someone tell me whether
this car has specific weaknesses I should know? I'm especially interested in
the facelifted modell ('95 and later?) with the 2.5 or 3 liter engine and
automatic gearbox. Probably it will have run 250,000kms (156,000miles) or
more.

All information, hints etc are seriously appreciated!

Cheers
Marc
The Netherlands
Click to expand...

Thanks for all your answers. It appears to me that the 960 is a pretty
problemless car if it is maintained at the right intervals. Buying one with
150k + miles (220k + kms) should give me at least 100k miles of driving
pleasure without the engine or transmission dying on me. Well, looks good to
me.
 
That its been maintained properly... Pretty much it, you might find the A/C
doesn't work, many people don't repair those... ours was just a series of
bad gaskets and one bad section of pipe... Some people assume it's the
condensor or evaporator and leave it.

Our power drivers seat memory kind of sucks.... you have to manually correct
it to get it right.

The radio stopped working on Tape and FM - I got a used radio from an 850
for 30 bucks.

Rear shocks are expensive

Our brake rotors lasted 160K Kms tho! all around, and no new calipers.

Make sure the tranny fluid and timing belt changes were kept up.

Ours in a 1993 and it feels pretty new aside from the squeaks from the
dashboard.
 
Tim I made the recommendation on behalf of the VOC which stands at 100,000
miles if using the correct fully synthetic ATF for the AW30-40 and AW30-43
gearboxes fitted to 960/90 series cars. Also for The Europe market 2.5 Litre
models with M90 gearbox (manual) which also uses fully synthetic ATF.

All the best, Peter.

700/900/90 Register Keeper,
Volvo Owners Club (UK).
 
Hey there, Rob! Haven't talked to you in some time... How's it going.
As you can see by the sig, we gots us tu-u-dem now! ;-)



Rob Guenther said:
That its been maintained properly... Pretty much it, you might find the A/C
doesn't work, many people don't repair those... ours was just a series of
bad gaskets and one bad section of pipe... Some people assume it's the
condensor or evaporator and leave it.

Our power drivers seat memory kind of sucks.... you have to manually correct
it to get it right.

The radio stopped working on Tape and FM - I got a used radio from an 850
for 30 bucks.

Rear shocks are expensive

Our brake rotors lasted 160K Kms tho! all around, and no new calipers.

Make sure the tranny fluid and timing belt changes were kept up.

Ours in a 1993 and it feels pretty new aside from the squeaks from the
dashboard.
Click to expand...

__ __
Randy & \ \/ /alerie's
\__/olvos
'90 245 Estate - '93 965 Estate
"Shelby" & "Kate"
 
Provided you change the cambelt at the stipulated regular intervals.

All the best, Peter.

700/900/90 Register Keeper,
Volvo Owners Club (UK).
 
My Volvo newsgroup stopped working for months... literally MONTHS...
Everythings good... the old 960 feels like its new again with her new
suspension and brakes all around. And her A/C is now ice cold since they
fixed all the leaks and recharged it with some "colder" refrigerant (new
technology stuff I guess)... Engine still pulls hard and such - and it
drinks 0 drops of oil... and it broke the illustrious 100K Mile/160K Kms
mark (has 169K Kms on it now!!)

She had a minor electrical fault with the taillamps this summer tho... I put
a new bulb in, cleaned the contacts but the bulb fail light still lit...
restarted the car another time and it went away :-)

The Volkswagon fleet (the 2 Golfs) have been running perfectly with no
problems other then routine maintenance.

Congrats on the 2nd Volvo... Gotta love the 240s... I want to get one for
some amateur racing, but I'm sure that will cost me too much damn money.
 
The local independant Volvo guy campaigns a 240 that is quite trick.
he even went completely over the pan to make it as aerodynamic as the
rules allow. It is even street legal.. sort of. It does have a plate
and before a race, to be sure it is ready, he runs it up a local
canyon road. I would love to race but, as you stated, it is a hobby
for folks without either life, wife, or financial restrictions...
maybe all three! ;-)



Rob Guenther said:
My Volvo newsgroup stopped working for months... literally MONTHS...
Everythings good... the old 960 feels like its new again with her new
suspension and brakes all around. And her A/C is now ice cold since they
fixed all the leaks and recharged it with some "colder" refrigerant (new
technology stuff I guess)... Engine still pulls hard and such - and it
drinks 0 drops of oil... and it broke the illustrious 100K Mile/160K Kms
mark (has 169K Kms on it now!!)

She had a minor electrical fault with the taillamps this summer tho... I put
a new bulb in, cleaned the contacts but the bulb fail light still lit...
restarted the car another time and it went away :-)

The Volkswagon fleet (the 2 Golfs) have been running perfectly with no
problems other then routine maintenance.

Congrats on the 2nd Volvo... Gotta love the 240s... I want to get one for
some amateur racing, but I'm sure that will cost me too much damn money.
Click to expand...

__ __
Randy & \ \/ /alerie's
\__/olvos
'90 245 Estate - '93 965 Estate
"Shelby" & "Kate"
 
Peter said:
Tim I made the recommendation on behalf of the VOC which stands at 100,000
miles if using the correct fully synthetic ATF for the AW30-40 and AW30-43
gearboxes fitted to 960/90 series cars. Also for The Europe market 2.5 Litre
models with M90 gearbox (manual) which also uses fully synthetic ATF.
Click to expand...


*drool* a 960 with an M90 gearbox would be a fantastic car, over here
the entire 900 series only has the silly slushboxes.
 
I have a feeling that someone has done that over here, like stuck an M90 on
a three Litre 960/90. It sure does perform sweetly!!

All the best, Peter.

700/900/90 Register Keeper,
Volvo Owners Club (UK).
 
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