I've posted my Volvo for sale on ebay and thought I'd mention it here... It's in good shape except for a few problems that I've noted in the auction... The auction number is 2447346747 if you'd like to check it out.
Here's the text of the auction:
The car has two major problems, which may not be too major for someone who knows what they're doing to fix. The first is that it just stopped starting one day. I have a Chilton's book for the car and poured over it for a couple days until I realized that I just didn't have the skill to diagnose the problem. I did manage to figure out how to tap the fuel pump with a wrench like the Chilton's book said, but that didn't help...
A couple of months ago (the day before hurricane Isabelle his us) - under the instruction of the son of the guy I bought it from - I put in a new battery and tried using starter fluid on it. The air filter housing is REALLY hard to get on once it's off, so I just figured that I'd leave it off while I was trying to start it. I was watching it while my beautiful wife was cranking it. It was cranking and sounded like it was catching - I was getting so excited! I tried and tried again until the old Vo' decided to backfire on me - sending just enough fire up to catch all of the starter fluid that I'd gotten on the air filter. It burned really well. A girl passing through our alley (who was also a Volvo-owner) volunteered a couple of gallons of spring water that she'd just bought for the storm, and we poured that on it while my stunning wife ran up to get the fire extinguisher. The water didn't put out the fire, but the fire extinguisher did. It doesn't look like any wiring or anything else besides the air filter was damaged, but there is now a bunch of the white stuff all over the front of the engine.
The guy that I bought the car from has a bunch of other Volvos and said that every four or five years he has to replace the "fuel pump modulator", which is something that's just plugged in under the dash. I thought "GREAT! I'll just go to the junkyard and grab a couple of fuel pump modulators!" Well, I looked in my Chilton's book and couldn't find out where the fuel pump modulator was. I couldn't even find any reference at all to the fuel pump modulator... Oh well... I gave up. I realize that I'm giving up pretty easily, but I've already bought another car to replace this one and don't know what I'm going to do with three cars anyway...
Even if the starting problem was fixed, there would be one other major problem - it has an awful oil leak. I mean a really bad oil leak! I would take it to work and back twice (about 40-50 miles total) and put a quart in. If you drive it kind of slowly, you'll actually leave a discernable trail of oil. It was kind of funny when I didn't think about how much money I was wasting in oil. I'm not sure where the oil was leaking from, but I did look under the car once when it was running and saw that the oil was dropping off the car around that 1/2" thick bar that's under and in front of the engine. Because of the leak, there's alot of oil that's been getting sprayed up in the engine compartment.
Another problem is that it has the original wiring harness. Up until 1987 Volvo was selling their Volvos with wire harnesses that were apparently made out of Eucalyptus leaves tightly wrapped around thin strips of salted bacon. As a result they all rot out eventually, and this one is probably on it's way out. I saw a website where a guy was selling replacement harnesses - used, but made of new materials - that came with detailed installation instructions for around $250. I thought about it, but then realized what a joke it would be for me to even try it. What would be a weekend job for alot of folks would end up being a six month journey through injury, physical exhaustion and despair for me.
About a year and a half ago the headlights just stopped working. I ended up taking it to the guy that I bought it from and he traced the problem to the wire harness. He wasn't about to touch that, so he wired the headlights to the fog lamp switch. Now to turn on the lights all the way you have to use the headlight switch to turn the parking lights on, then use the fog lamp switch to turn the headlights on. I thought it was pretty cool. But then I'm pretty easily amused...
The body is in pretty good shape - there are a three or so small spots of rust. The two most significant are on the trunk and on the front of the hood. On the driver's side on the rear panel there is a small dent that looks like it could be pulled out pretty easily if you had one of those plunger things. There are also a couple of small dents on the rear panel on the passenger side. The hood is a little bit dented on the very front. The interior is in pretty good shape - the fabric on the seats is wearing thin and has some holes here and there, and the plastic cover on the glove box came off but probably can just be glued back on. Also, right now it looks like the back tires are flat. There is also a crack in the windshield on the passenger's side - probably about six or eight inches long. Also, the air conditioner doesn't work...
Overall, this car is in good shape - it looks really nice as you can tell from the pictures. If you have any questions or would like a picture of something in particular, just shoot me an email and I'll get them right to you.
This car is located in Richmond, Virginia, and has to be picked up from my apartment building.