I looked at a 1993 960 with 130K miles,the car was spotless.
Two problems
#1 Check Engine light owner said it was some temp sensor?
#2 It had a hard time starting,and idled rough.

Anything to be concerned with?
He is asking $3300 as is.

 

Thats really not all that bad.
The coolantemp sensor isn't that bad to replace. That could also cause the rough idle.

 

I looked at the car again,it starts pretty hard 5 sec or so.
Engine shake bad enough to shake whole car,but drives nice in the city and highway.I asked a again and the owner clarified it was a ecm or ec something sensor on the engine by the firewall,he said it also leaks oil at the sensor?
Does any of this make sense or add up to something??
Thanks tech

 

Sounds like maybe a Cam sensor. The cam sensor is on the back of the head. But usually if it is bad then the car won't run.

Did someone pull codes from the car yet?

 

Yep the Volvo dealer is the one that said that its the EC something or some kind of abbreviation
If it helps Volvo said it would cost $170 to fix it.

 

Do you have access to the receipt?
I think they are talking about the ECT (coolant temp) sensor.
If so you have to see which type it is. Some of the early 960's have 2 sensors. One in the head and the second is in the thermostat housing. That would make it run really rich and run rough.
But be careful I have seen cars with the bad sensor not start when they get hot.

 

That sound right since yesterday he told me it was the temp sensor and than today he told me it was the EC something sensor.And it does run rough and starts hard.
Does the sensor fail because of age ,ware and tear or it's part of a bigger chain of events?
I made the guy an offer of $2300 since it has a brand new rad and the timing belt was changed last month.
Thanks a million Tech

 

It goes bad because of age.
Hopefully you can get it for that price. I think you will be very happy with it.

 

Have an other question for you
I brought the car home today,looks very nice drives very nice,but the owner told me that he has to add about 3 litres of oil every 2000miles(he was told it was something to do with the flame trap?)
Also the car had a working A/C in the fall but today nothing,anything 960 are known for?
I'm bringing the car to a Volvo only shop,I just want to be in the know.

 

The vent boxes do leak on these cars. They will need to remove the intake manifold to get to it.

The evaperators leak on the 960. What I would do is have them fill it with Freon and Dye. Then when it blows warm again they will be able to find the leak easy.

 

Thanks Tech
One more I removed the cover to look at the coils to see how the wires are,and found a lot of oil sitting there?

 

The Vent box could be clogged as well as leaking causing the oil to come out the filler cap.

 

Do you know how many hrs labor it takes to clean it/replace it?
Also I just finished cleaning the Throttle Body,the butterfly would not open,it opened maybe a 2mm at 3500rpm and could not be moved by hand?Is that normal?
Thanks AGAIN

 

The Labor would be like 4 or 5 hours if I remember correctly.

If the throttle body hasn't every been cleaned it will get like that.

 

Well the Volvo service center had the car for two days now,they can not figure out what's going on.It's idles like it's running on 5 cyl,but all the plugs a clean.
There are two codes one for mass air and one for temp sensor.
Can't wait to see what it is!

 

Are all coils firing?
Did they replace the temp sensor?

What have they done?

 

The temp censor was changed but nothing changed,so today they took the intake off the flame and oil trap were both full of gunk,one injector was missing a round piece that goes between it and the rail,and one of the six rubber things connecting the intake to the head) was installed incorrectly or slipped off,so I'm getting six new ones(do you know how much they are?)
Other than that the car needs rear ebrake shoes,the radio only plays AM,and the A/C compressor is not turning on.
So I think I will call the bank and get a second Mortgage!

 

Things are not looking good!
After all that work still idles rough(oil leak is gone),so they did a leak down test and #3 has 0 psi,and only 90 when they "turned or flexed" something to get the valves to move.

 

It could very well be a burned valve.
We have been seeing alot of them lately.

 

Any fix for that outside of taking the head off?