What's the best model Volvo?

The thing about the turbo 4 is that it's a simpler, easier, and less expensive motor to work on and there's a *LOT* more of them out there so parts are easy to find.

I've got almost 270k on my turbo, quite a bit of play in the shaft but not leaking or rubbing yet. Volvo turbos are no different than any other turbos, my 740 has a Mitsubishi turbo while the 240 has a Garrett. They can be rebuilt for a few hundred dollars or you can buy the whole cartridge for around $650-$800, so it's not a cheap job but it's very rare for them to fail in less than 100k miles and usually the water cooled ones will go more than 200k so it's not really a big issue.

The 960 has a great engine, but there's not any cheaper to run or maintain than a 4 cyl turbo.

Reply to
James Sweet
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You can easily spend $2k on *just* the turbo not even factoring in labor, but typical price is more like $750 for a rebuilt complete Garrett or $1200 for the Mits.

Reply to
James Sweet

Cool, thanks... the only turbo motor we have is in my VW (TDI engine,

1.9L)... I believe it's a light pressure variable vane, never heard of problems with them, but it is something that worries me about the car - I suppose they're not as big a deal as I would think on an older car.
Reply to
Rob Guenther

Gee, and I thought I was doing well with 233K miles on ours.

Mike

Reply to
Michael Pardee

Just curious... How old is your VW TDI and how has it been in terms of durability/reliability ?

The last VW I owned was an air-cooled pancake engine and in those days, one was almost guaranteed that an engine overhaul or replacement would be required at 60k miles or sooner.

The reliability/durability of VWs since then appears to have gone downhill with the late 90's era VWs spending more time in the shop than on the road.

I have been attracted to VWs TDIs primarily because of their impressive fuel efficiency but fuel efficiency would be pretty meaningless if the vehicle isn't on the road 60% of the time.

Now if Volvo were to put a 4 litres/100km TDI engine into a classic 245 body with FWD/4WD transmission, I think we'd have the perfect vehicle.

roughly the

cartridge for

Reply to
Eunoia Eigensinn
1999.5 (I sent you a far more detailed e-mail to your personal address)

1.9L, 4 speed automatic, TDI Golf. 90Hp, 155lbft of torque - approx

105hp/180lbft with tuning box.

Catalytic converter failed with 118K Kms warranty (8yr exhaust warranty) EGR Valve completely clogged (116K Kms, cleaned $100+) MAF sensor failed 61 K Kms repaired under warranty (7 year extended nowadays, reimbursed when warranty came into place) Window regulators failed due to plastic clips at 30K Kms (7 year extended nowadays... covered under new vehicle warranty)

Head/tail lamps lasted 60-65K Kms/4 years... Pretty good i'd say... all (highbeams are original... low beams, rear running, rear brakes except centre... turn signals all original)

Front brakes: Rotors 97K Kms replaced due to warpage Pads ~100 K Kms, replaced due to front rotor replacement, pads still had a "few thousand" left on them Rear Brakes: Pads 57K Kms Rotors 108K Kms replaced due to warpage Pads 108K Kms replaced with rotors, plenty of meat still on them

OEM tires:

57K Kms replaced with S rated Kumho's, terrible tire replaced with: 87K Kms Nokian WR's - still going with 5-6mm left (started with 8mm)

~100K Kms new shocks all around, Tuning box... done to improve handling/ride/performance on highway.

Reply to
Rob Guenther

A friend of mine has a VW TDi which has done a fair number of miles without any major problems so far, it's a nice little car. Though with Diesel fuel costing nearly 50% more than regular gasoline these days the advantages aren't nearly as great at the moment, it gets good mileage but isn't really any cheaper to run in the US than the gasoline version.

Reply to
James Sweet
50% more... ouch, i'd get rid of mine if that was the case (I get 6-7L per 100kms, our gasoline Golf gets 8-11L, so the fuel economy issue would be a moot point)
Reply to
Rob Guenther

It used to be about the same price as premium gas, but last night I drove by a gas station downtown and regular gasoline was $1.96/gal while Diesel was $2.69/gal. Why, I don't know.

Reply to
James Sweet

You have cheep gasoline and diesel we pay ca. 5,37$/gal for gasoline and ca. 5,04$/gal for diesel here in norway. so i drive diesel.

Reply to
Jan-Erik Drangevåg

Sounds fairly in-line with most of the world as far as I know, it's always been cheap over here though, not really sure why, but people sure whine and complain when it goes up a few cents. Diesel *should* be cheaper than gasoline since it requires less refining but for some reason here it's not.

Reply to
James Sweet

"James Sweet" wrote: > "Rob Guenther" wrote in > message > news:l2dUd.65138$ snipped-for-privacy@news20.bellglobal.com... > > 50% more... ouch, i'd get rid of mine if that was the case > (I get 6-7L per > > 100kms, our gasoline Golf gets 8-11L, so the fuel economy > issue would be a > > moot point) > >

Here in Sweden you can find the VW 1,9L diesel in Volvo V40 and VW/Audi 2,5L Diesel in Volvo 850 and some V70 In 240 they used VW/Audi 2,4L diesels with or without turbo I´ts just sometimes around 1998-1999 Volvo started to make their own dieselengines. But in cause of the Swedish taxes its not so economical to drive diesels any more.

Reply to
BigSwede

I put my two penneth in earlier in the thread and have obviously been following it since. Something came up I thought you might be interested in. I had 2 940T estates, my son a '89 740GLT estate 16V. He decided to swap me the 740 for one of my 940's 8 months ago, because he prefers the lively 2.0T engine, plus it's more economical! The 740 had 170,000 on it so I put it in for an MOT, failed on n/s balljoint, other than that perfect, engine smooth as silk and no oil being used. Left it on the drive, decided to sell it last week. Now this has not moved in 8 months. I had previously removed battery so I charged and refit. It started first turn of the key, perfect. Got my son to take it down the M'Way for 10 or so miles to check it out and get the water and oil circulating, still ran perfectly. So I've advertised it for £450, more as it's a waste not being used.. Whoever wants it will get an excellent car for buttons. Funilly enough the 940T, is a '91 with almost 300,000 on the clock, although it has been well maintained. My 940 is a '95 Wentworth 2.0T but it's only got 45,000 miles on it. Drives like a new car. However doing so few miles annualy now, I make sure to service it at shorter intervals. I still think the last 740GLT's were the best though!

Reply to
Dave

Diesel was

Although I don't know the ins & outs/specifics of the matter, there are a few people on some non-automotive-related email lists who have mentioned that they use biodiesel in their VW TDIs and at least one fellow who talked about using waste vegetable oil from deep fat fryers.

Stop in at a McGreasePucks, pull up to the deep fat fryer and say "Fill 'er up, ... and _no_ fries with that" ?

A few people have mentioned that in their opinions, the 940 turbo (as opposed to a 960 non-turbo) is the best Volvo in terms of performance/fuel efficiency/durability while others mention having reservations with the turbo option due to ease of failure of the turbo unit and expense when it comes to replacement.

So the obvious question is:

How much of an improvement in fuel efficiency with the turbo and what is the life expectancy of the turbo unit (assuming that one takes a reasonable (not excessive) amount of care in letting the turbo cool down before shutting down ?

ie Does the increase in fuel efficiency over the life of the turbo work better than balance out the replacement cost of the turbo unit ?

(From someone who is wondering how different (read: magnitudes better) Volvos would be today if Volvo had merged with Volkswagen instead of with Ford.)

Reply to
Eunoia Eigensinn

Improvement? You'll get much better performance with the turbo, but the fuel economy will be noticeably lower.

See above, I don't really see the problem with the replacement cost of the turbo though, it should last 150k-300k miles, you're looking at perhaps one turbo replacement over the life of the car, sure it comes all at once but even if you pay a shop to do it the cost is dwarfed by the cost of consumables the car needs over the same time period. If you don't work on your own cars and don't manage money well enough to pay for a $2k lump sum when the turbo does eventually fail then don't get a car with one, same if you're looking for fuel economy, the turbo on a gasoline engine will cost you around 3mpg, more if you drive it hard. But if you want a perky and often downright fun but also practical car, go for it.

Of course if you get a Diesel model I would go so far as to say the turbo is an absolute necessity, I don't know how it affects fuel economy in that case having never compared similar enough cars with and without.

Reply to
James Sweet

i am squezing about 250hp out of my 93 940t...almost 250,000 miles on it...origional turbo...and i drive it hard...i have been told to expect about 1,000$ bitt w/labot to swap out the turbo, when it goes...i have ocassional blue smoke (just a bit, under wot)...and some minor oil leaks....i fig its to be expected the way i drive and the miliage...i will let you guys know how much it is in ttl, if i have to replace the turbo...i am thinking if i should just swap w/a stock mitsui...or go for a built up turbo..or remafg mitsui, w/special berings...teflon, i think i was told...

anyway...in 6 mos , or so...the boost gets turned down...the car gets de tuned...and goes to daughter #1 (#1 of #3) for 1st car ... dad gets to pick out another used volvo to mess around with...1998-2003 v70....i am thinkin' ...... so, it the 940t holds out till then...i may never end up swapping it out...unless it gets real bad.....

richard colorado

Reply to
~^ beancounter ~^

in article snipped-for-privacy@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com, ~^ beancounter ~^ at snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote on 3/1/05 7:50 AM:

Yeah, that's sort of my plan with my '92 240... hand it off to daughter #1... here's a reliable, slow tank to learn on!

-jeff

Reply to
Jeff Olsen

yep....slow, steel and air bags...a nice combination..

;-)

Reply to
~^ beancounter ~^

in article snipped-for-privacy@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com, ~^ beancounter ~^ at snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote on 3/2/05 7:24 AM:

Well, my '92 240 only has the one airbag, but it does have ABS... I do with it had a passenger airbag as well. Still a very safe car for a kid to learn on.

-jeff

Reply to
Jeff Olsen

"Still a very safe car for a kid to learn on. "...

yep...safer and better than the car i 1st owned, or learned to drive in.....heck, at that age...anything beats walking...right??

Reply to
~^ beancounter ~^

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