I found an ad for a 1998 V70r on Craigslist that sounded great. Lots of recent maintenance, and the owner's brother is a Volvo mechanic and did all the work.

I went to the shop the brother owns to see the car, but the brother was out of town so I needed to talk to another mechanic. I quickly smelled oil burning under the hood and found a leaking hose from a hose below and to the right of the dipstick (see picture). In just a few minutes I saw several big drops of out on the ground. The front cross-member was completely drenched in oil. Seems like an easy fix, but the owner didn't seem to want to fix it, but sell it with the leak and have me fix it. Seemed a bit odd considering the owner's brother could fix it super easily.

The oil leak is circled, but hard to photograph-


Some other minor things. Passenger window switch not working, but working on the driver's side. Odd damage on the driver's seat. A perfectly round hole in the leather and foam on the outside bolster (you can see this at the end of the Walk around video). No clue how this could have happened other than maybe a cigar burn? No real idea. They re-stitched the seat, but pretty worn overall. Also the paint is pretty poor. Scratches front to rear, plenty of small dents and front and rear bumper damage all the way down to the plastic. The rear driver's side tire was completely worn out on the outside. I assume a camber or toe issue, but they say in their ad (below) that they recently aligned the car.

Quick video of me going around the car-

The biggest issue was the car was blowing massive amounts of white smoke. Didn't smell like coolant, but my first guess is a head gasket. They let the car idle for 15+ minutes and the white smoke kept billowing out the whole time. I told them I was unwilling to buy the car unless this issue was sorted out (I took a video and I am posting a link below).

The odd thing is right after I got home, the woman told me another mechanic too a look at the car and ruled out head gasket, she mention something about the carburetor being ok (Huh?), and that they researched it and deduced that it had something to do with the fuel. She said they drained the tank and filled it up with fresh Chevron and the smoke was gone. Does this sound even possible? She said she would send me a video, but I haven't seen it yet.

Sorry for the huge post, but I'd love some feedback. After the smoke I figured this car was off the list of cars I would consider, but if a gas change could really fix it, should I reconsider?

Tailpipe Video-


Thanks again!


The ad:
Volvo V70R AWD Wagon 4D

"Family owned 1998 Volvo V70r AWD wagon 4D - silver
Black leather in nice condition
Automatic transmission
180,329 miles
Clean title
Stock Volvo alloy wheels
Registration is current
Tags up to date
Sew remote
Smoke free
Sun roof
Roof rack
Really a great car

***Fresh car serviced***
HEADGASKET AND VALVE JOB
SPARK PLUGS
SPARK PLUG WIRES AND CAP AND ROTOR
TIMING AND DRIVE BELT AND WATER PUMP
BATTERY
POLLEN FILTER AIR FILTER
ALL NEW VACUUM LINES
NEW RADIATOR HOSES
NEW BRAKE PADS FRONT AND REAR
NEW FRONT SHOCKS
NEW FRONT SHOCK UPPER MOUNTS IN FRONT
NEW FRONT RIGHT DOOR STOPPER
NEW UPPER ENGINE MOUNT
NEW PCV SYSTEM BOX AND ALL LINES
ALIGNMENT PERFORMED
WIPERS REPLACED

OIL CHANGE
NEW AIR INJECTTION HOSES AND GASKETS
TURBO FEED AND RETURN LINES RESEALED
NEW HEADLIGHT BULBS
NEW INNER TAILGATE PANEL AND CLIPS
BOTH NEW FRONT AXLES
BRAKE FLUID CHANGED
TRANS FLUID CHANGED
SWAY BAR LINKS FRONT
COMPLETE CAR CLEANING

Motivated seller 4,000 OBO
Cash only
No trades"

 

Updated video from the owner with no white smoke-

 

Don't walk, RUN!

 

Here's the thing... If the car has had all the things they called "service" which most are REPAIRS, the car should not have been smoking. The smoking could have been something very simple, or could be something serious, like the valve stem seals are bad, not installed properly, etc. You can pull 1 vacuum hose on these cars and they can smoke like that. It could be running rich or that could be smoke from the turbo.

If you want to take a second look, go back, drive the car for 5 minutes, park it and keep it idling for 10 minutes to see if the smoke returns. To get the car to stop smoking, all you have to do is take it out on the road and blow it out. Bring it back to the garage and it will be smoke free for 5 maybe 10 minutes.

The leaking hose up front should have been a power steering hose which could leave a mess everywhere.

 

Yeah I am fairly knowledgeable about cars (but not Volvos at all), and pretty much came to the same conclusion that I should run. I was just hoping that people here would tell me it was no big deal so I could justify getting an R model. I was thinking it might even be a malfunctioning t-stat causing the car to run too rich. I have some good leads for some other Volvo wagons in the area. None are R models, but they are hopefully much nicer cars!

And I have watched at least 10 of your videos so far. I am disabled so I cannot work on my cars any more, but I like to be VERY informed on cars I buy and the problem areas. Your videos cover those very well. So thanks again!

I think this might be the most likely car I buy- 1998 Volvo V70 AWD Turbo A low pressure turbo, but I talked to his mechanic for 20 minutes and it sounds like a car in much better shape. So hopefully I will find one in the next week or so!

Bill

 

The blue one on CL seems great. We have a LPT S70 and it is real strong through 70 mph and beyond.

Thanks for watching my videos.

 

No problem. The advice and videos really help!

 

And if you want to (or can as a Super Mod) close and/or merge this with the thread by the same name in the 850 section that might make sense. It seems the 850 section is far more active as I suspected. So I guess I will just keep posting in that area.

 

I like how they conveniently mentioned the brother's a Volvo mechanic (which implies the vehicle is meticulously maintained) but the facts dictate it's rather the contrary. Vehicle never seemed to be maintained at all.

 

I think this is what happened. I think they found a car absolutely beaten to hell, and they got it very cheaply (of free). Then the brother did the minimum amount of work necessary to make it salable.

The odd thing is I think the car is sold now. As of last night Craigslist was spammed with dozens of ads for this car, and they are all gone now. Unless Craigslist just flagged them with too many duplicates.

I am just glad I didn't buy the car!

 

That 98 V70R with the smoke is the condition of vehicle I keep finding when I go to buy one of these. I have driven hours to see cars like this with high prices.

It's frustrating to hear people's BS, especially when they actually believe it themselves. Some people genuinely think they have something just because they have owned it for ages and spent thousands in maintenance. Remember, any properly serviced car will have money spent on maintenance.

I know they are older cars, but don't lie to me about junk!

Good luck in your search. I know when we were in California visiting family, there were so many more of these available on Craigslist and other sources than I see in our Midwest homeland.