advice on buying a 240 please

[cton]

I've been looking at an '89 240 wagon with just under 200,000km. Its in
decent shape with a bit of rust on the tailgate and a bit on the
fenders. The rest of the body is decent. The owner has recently put a
new starter in, a new muffler, and changed the pads in the front about
a year ago. His elderly father has been driving it for about 4 yrs and
another family owned it before since '89. I took it for a test drive
and it seems to have a rubbing sound coming from the front brakes as I
take off from stop position but it goes away fairly quickly until the
next stop. I haven't taken it to a mechanic yet but from looking
underneath it seems to have a possible fuel leak on the top of the fuel
tank, and may have an oil leak on the rear of the engine. The guy is
asking $2000 as is, or $2500 safetied. I've been looking for a 240 for
a while but they seem to get snatched up around here (Toronto, ON, CAN)
in less than 24 hrs of posting on the major classified sites. This one
is somewhat un-advertised and I came across it by accident. The owner
isn't really in a rush to sell and hasn't put it on the regular spots
such as Autotrader, Craigslist, etc. Does anyone have an opinion on
this before I take it to my mechanic? Any advice would be nice!

Thanks.
cton.

 

[surfbug]

YO


here in the us...NYC you can get that stuff for a little cheakper....

cheaper...

but you are talking canadian dollars prolly.....

some thing like that is about 1300- 1500 USD....and its gonna needs
some attention to the front brakes....maybe the new pads were put on
wrong or sumptin


hey, if you work on the car yourself...could be a good deal...

check out hte volvo forums....swedespeed.comand brickboard.com and
turbobricks.com

that should help;



I just got a 87 760 turbo wagon ...225k miles 500 usd.....but that was
REALLY good deal...raare

timing just right

 

[cton]

Sounds like you scored a pretty sweet deal with your 760. Thanks for
your experience in NYC. I've decided that I'm going to keep looking for
a better vehicle or deal. I called the guy back today and offered him
$1200 CAN for the car and he eventually said he would come down to
$1800, as is. This is still too steep in my mind for the condition, so
i'm gonna keep looking. I do plan on working on the car myself, but
would rather find one with less rust and problems if possible. A few
240 wagons usually come up for sale every other week or so... we have
our share of them up here, but usually they're pretty rusty. Seems they
go for anywhere from $800 - $5000 depending on condition. Thanks for
the links and enjoy the turbo!

 

[James Sweet]

Funny, I got a '87 740 Turbo sedan for $500 which also had 225K on it at
the time. That was 6 years ago and I'm still driving it.

 

[TKM]

I've been looking at an '89 240 wagon with just under 200,000km. Its in
decent shape with a bit of rust on the tailgate and a bit on the
fenders. The rest of the body is decent. The owner has recently put a
new starter in, a new muffler, and changed the pads in the front about
a year ago. His elderly father has been driving it for about 4 yrs and
another family owned it before since '89. I took it for a test drive
and it seems to have a rubbing sound coming from the front brakes as I
take off from stop position but it goes away fairly quickly until the
next stop. I haven't taken it to a mechanic yet but from looking
underneath it seems to have a possible fuel leak on the top of the fuel
tank, and may have an oil leak on the rear of the engine. The guy is
asking $2000 as is, or $2500 safetied. I've been looking for a 240 for
a while but they seem to get snatched up around here (Toronto, ON, CAN)
in less than 24 hrs of posting on the major classified sites. This one
is somewhat un-advertised and I came across it by accident. The owner
isn't really in a rush to sell and hasn't put it on the regular spots
such as Autotrader, Craigslist, etc. Does anyone have an opinion on
this before I take it to my mechanic? Any advice would be nice!

Thanks.
cton.

$2000 Cdn. is too high. You would be getting an old car with lots of miles
and unknown rust problems (there's bound to be more than what's visible). I
had one a few years ago. It did very well
for 100K plus (miles) in northern Ohio and it seemed to go for many miles
more for the person I sold it to (at least he didn't come looking for his
money back). The main weak spot for me was the exhaust system -- replace
the whole thing when one of the mufflers or pipes rusts out. I also found
that I had to replace all of the fuses every few years because the ends
corroded and various electrical things went dead unexpectedly including the
ignition. That's cheap and easy, however. I did the front brakes a couple
of times -- also replaced everything -- rotors, pads, etc.

The rear oil leak is a seal. I don't recall if that was expensive to fix or
not -- seems like there was much that had to be taken apart to get at it.

I spent days replacing the heater motor when it failed. It's impossible to
get to it unless you take the dash apart; but it is a do-it-yourself project
as long as you don't mind laying upside down on your head for hours on end.
You might ask any seller you contact if that's been done since you do need
the heater in
Toronto.

I had the gas leaks too. I think they were due to the seals for the access
holes or fuel pump.

Check the lights on the rear tail gate. If they don't work, there's
probably a break in the wiring harness that goes through the hinge. It's
best to install a new harness rather than try to splice the wire.

But, it was a good car. I loved the room for hauling stuff and the part
that I thought would be an expensive problem (the computer) never gave any
grief. It always started in the cold too.

Good luck.

TKM

 

[surfbug]

hey...just got home after driving about 150 miles....car is great!


few things....


OD we all know they never work


the climate control only comes out of the defrost....I hate that!
gonna do a search...any one know how to fix that?

and....the front brake rotor was locked....or not addjusted right, have
to rip into that tomorrow....


hey,.....but I did get it washed!


hahahahhaha

 

[TKM]

hey...just got home after driving about 150 miles....car is great!


OD we all know they never work

Might be just a switch or fuse though.

the climate control only comes out of the defrost....I hate that!
gonna do a search...any one know how to fix that?

Probably not a biggie. Take the glove compartment out (easy) and fool
around with the hoses and flaps. May be just a leaky air hose.

and....the front brake rotor was locked....or not addjusted right, have
to rip into that tomorrow....

I smell a new brake assembly.

hey,.....but I did get it washed!

If it stayed in one piece through the car wash, rejoice.

TKM