Do you all mind if I ramble a little? Scroll down to the "-=-=-=-=-=-" if you want to get to my point.

I like practical cars (big, sigh, duh from the crowd.) I really like saturn s-series, don't laugh. For giggles, my wife's SL1 2nd gear synchro was shot recently. I bought another 200k mile saturn, swapped trannies between the two, then flipped the dumpy car with dumpy trans.

I have two boys, four and almost-two, and a dog. Been hauling them around in my saturn wagon, but with the dog in the way-back there's no room for suitcases and stuff. First official kid-hauler was an olds silhouette van I got for $300 with a bad fuel injector that flooded its cylinder all the time. Drove this van for a year and a half. Even the AC worked. But it was getting rusty. On a road trip from Maine to Ohio the rear "air ride" compressor and bracket fell off the frame and were dangling by the wires. I dumped the van hoping to get a Saturn VUE but they were overpriced and a poor value... as are other "cute utes" I looked at.

Got a 2000 buick century at a tow yard with no brakes, fixed them. Car seats in the middle and right rear position, dog sitting "he thinks he's people" behind the driver. OK until there was unrest between the three. Dead AC. Sold it in May (disclosed the AC problem) and got a Town & Country van.

This stupid van had a computer issue (low lead solder burned holes when it let go and arced) so I put a JY computer in. VIN mismatch kept the speedometer and OBDII port from working. Dealer claimed (refused to?) they couldn't re-burn the VIN and I had to buy a new $600 computer from then. No way!

My county has OBDII scans for emissions inspection, a hassle when cars get to 200k. Especially "evap small leak" codes. I want something older. When the van got towed away I declared to the wife I was volvo wagon shopping. She wholeheartedly approved. This might be indecisive or blasphemous but I was looking at both FWD and RWD ones. Drove a 1994 850 stick shift I kind of liked, but the ABS/Trac lights were on intermittently and the seller wouldn't budge on price even though she didn't mention the issue (and hoped it wouldn't happen on the test drive ) Also she added coolant right in front of me and said it was the first time in two months. (but she had two gallon jugs.)

I looked at a V70 AWD that was saved from the junkyard, three years ago. Brake rotors were raise-the-Titanic-rusty. No battery, no cat. No sale.

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So I look at this 940 on CL; was listed as "high mileage" which is stupid, name the number; the buyer who buys will think, well hey, it's not that high. 229,9xx miles. Stick my head all around, underneath. Undercoating in the right spots. Solid rockers, brake lines, everything I can see. New state inspection three months back. Two sets of new tires. Claimed one family ownership. I buy the thing. To be continued...

 

In this shot the interior actually looks okay! Reading here though shows that I am not alone with embrittled twenty year old plastic trim issues.

Fixed the AC thanks to this forum, was a control head wiring issue. It also needed a blower fan. Since my "two prong" fan connector wiring was spliced on, I thought the car was originally a "one prong" motor. This distinction was important as Advance Auto had a one prong for $15 (minus coupon) vs $65 for a two prong. I got the one prong. The holes didn't line up for squat. A lesser man would have returned the thing. I sawzalled the projecting pips off the plastic HVAC box and made the new motor home with a bunch of self-tapping screws and duct tape for the air leaks.

The sunroof was catching on the front flap that pops up. I pried up on the little levers that push it down so they'd have more effect. Works. E-brake was non existant. Just needed cable tightened a lot. (And I pulled a wheel and rotor to make sure.) The thumb button on the hand brake had no spring but I saw it inside the metal lever. The slot in the bottom, I stuck a flat blade screwdriver in, and I fished the spring back up to the button. Must have just popped off its perch? Works now.

Honey do list-- ordered a liftgate strut from rockauto. Even with shipping it's cheaper than I can get locally.

Oh yeah... with any new car it's always fun to get up on ramps the first time. Found this:

 

Welcome to the Forum.

 

Good luck with your repairs.