I looked at a 1993 940 Turbo today. It was very clean, had high miles,
162,000. It handled ok. But I have a couple of concerns.
It's a turbo.
It failed the last smog (it did pass after some monkeying around, according to a CarFax report I pulled).
Radio (probably factory installed) doesn't work well. I didn't try the cassette player.
My plan is to take it to a Volvo repair place locally & have them check it out. But I have this gut feeling about. Asking price is $3995, which is below book, pp or retail. But that doesn't assauge my fears about it being a "gross poluter."
162,000 is more or less "average" mileage for a 12-year-old daily driver. The motor and drive train are good for 250,000+ if the car is well maintained.
The turbocharger may be nearing the end of its useful service life. One telltale sign is fore and aft play in the shaft.
You did not state which portion of the emissions test the car failed. Generally, smog failures on these cars are attributable to fuel injection components that are out of spec, e.g. the oxygen sensor or air mass meter. The fuel injection computer uses signals from these sensors (as well as the coolant temp sensor) to set the A/F mixture. An overly rich mixture can definitely raise emissions. The air mass meter trim is actually user-adjustable with a screw driver and a volt meter/dwell meter. This could have been part of the mechanic's "get the car to pass smog" ritual. Anyway, the fact that it passed with a little 'tweaking' means that there is (probably) nothing seriously amiss with the emissions equipment or motor. Wouldn't be too worried about it.
I would be very interested in the car's service records. Has the oil been changed regularly? How about filters, plugs, wires and so on? Check under the oil filler cap and in the coolant expansion tank. If the coolant is discolored, or the oil cap/dipstick has a frothy white residue, you have evidence of a previous engine overheat and pending headgasket failure. This is more common on turbos. Also have your mechanic check compression. This will give you a good idea of the condition of the engine, and of how well the car has been maintained in general. Compression should be between
120-160 psi with a maximum variation between cylinders of 10%.
How is the cooling system? The factory radiator has a useful life of 8-10 years. The heater control valve is also a plastic affair that has been known to fail after about the same period of time, resulting in a massive loss of coolant and overheating.
Something else to look for is replacement of the rear trailing arm & torque rod bushings, as well as the conical bushings in the front end. If this hasn't already been taken care of, they are due in the very near future.
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