960, what to look for?

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

Reply to
Marc Onrust
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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.

Reply to
James Sweet

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

Reply to
Marc Onrust

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"

Reply to
Randy G.

Well you should check that all that stuff is working, but there's no glaring weak spots in any of that stuff.

Reply to
James Sweet
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).
Reply to
Peter K L Milnes

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

Tim..

Reply to
Tim..

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.
Reply to
Marc Onrust

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.

Reply to
Rob Guenther

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).
Reply to
Peter K L Milnes

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" wrote:

__ __ Randy & \ \/ /alerie's \__/olvos '90 245 Estate - '93 965 Estate "Shelby" & "Kate"

Reply to
Randy G.

Provided you change the cambelt at the stipulated regular intervals.

All the best, Peter.

700/900/90 Register Keeper, Volvo Owners Club (UK).
Reply to
Peter K L Milnes

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.

Reply to
Rob Guenther

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" wrote:

__ __ Randy & \ \/ /alerie's \__/olvos '90 245 Estate - '93 965 Estate "Shelby" & "Kate"

Reply to
Randy G.

*drool* a 960 with an M90 gearbox would be a fantastic car, over here the entire 900 series only has the silly slushboxes.
Reply to
James Sweet

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).
Reply to
Peter K L Milnes

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