After searching everywhere within a 200 mile radius for the last two months, I think I've finally found a decent 960 wagon in Richmond, VA, about 2 1/2 hours up the road.

Unless it's been badly misrepresented by the seller, it looks to be a good deal, with a couple of dents, a ripped driver seat, and an occasionally wonky fuel gauge being the only reported problems. Also has the third row seat and a fairly recent timing belt service, so I'm very hopeful.

Incidentally, I went for a 960 on the advice of some board members here, so if it turns out to be a lemon, I will, of course, not hesitate to place all the blame on the community as a whole. Nothing personal.

But seriously, I really appreciate all the advice.

Here are a couple of pictures the seller sent me.

 

jealous! I have a 93 sedan and its been great, though now I want a wagon. Enjoy your 960.

 

You'll find the engine behavior and timing belt requirements very similar to your 924S. In the 80s Volvo hired Porsche Engineering to help Volvo with the development of the "whiteblock", alloy engine. This engine launched the 960 and 850 lines of the 1990s, which later developed into the S/V70 and S80. Small world heh?

 

Yeah, I can definitely see the family resemblance to a 944S2 or 968 engine. If only Porsche could have crammed an inline-6 into the 968, that would have been the ultimate sports car. And, if they could fit it into a 968, then it could be swapped into my tiny 924 body. Talk about a giant killer.......

Oh, wait, what were we talking about again??? Oh yeah, Volvos. Pardon the digression.

Well, I ended up buying the car, and it made the 140 mile trip home without incident. It's got 162,000 miles on it, and it runs and drives pretty well, but it's going to need quite a bit of tinkering to get up to "Road Warrior" status.

The Good:
Fires up and runs good, with no funny noises, smells, warning lights, or other nonsense. Paint looks very good. I believe the drivers rear quarter panel has been replaced, but it seems to be done well, and the paint matches nicely. The rest of the paint looks to be original or a very good respray. All accessories work, sunroof opens and closes, radio sounds good (very good for an OEM), and not a spot of rust anywhere (very important to me. I hate rust!).

The Bad:
Engine is not quite as smooth as I think it should be. Probably needs the MAF cleaned, or maybe some new plugs. Tires are mismatched and out of balance, needs an alignment, small oil leak somewhere around the oil filter area, all leather needs to be cleaned/conditioned, driver seat needs to be recovered, plastic panel on the inside of rear liftgate is loose and flopping around, transmission seems a little forgetful. It shifts through the gears fine, but it doesn't seem quite sure of itself sometimes. I'm going to drop the pan and replace the filter and fluid this weekend.

The Ugly:
A giant dent running almost the entire length of the passenger side rear door. It's not creased, so I'm hoping I can take off the interior panel and have Dent Wizard pop it out without having to repaint it.

All in all, it seems to be a solid car that needs some tweaking. I think it's well worth the princely sum of $1400 I paid for it. (knocks on wood)

 

LOL

In the 70s and 80s oil crisis and Japanese pushed Volvo upmarket, so Volvo designed the 960 as a Mercedes wannabe.

240s proved to be a dog in terms of engine performance, so Volvo developed and produced a turbo'ed redblock. Volvo used this experience to turbo the whiteblock too (850, S70, S80).

I-6 is inherently the smoothest platform of all engines designs. Add an Porsche's assisted alloy engine, and you have a nice engine.

The weak point of these engines is the timing belt, especially with the 6 cyl valvetrain. Some early whiteblocks are also know to suffer from a "porous block", a manufacturing defect where cracks develop on the exhaust side of the block. Volvo blames owners for not servicing the coolant. just FYI.


You can also check the COPs (coil on plugs) and boots. They both or either can crack.

Oil leak -- it's probably the cooler gasket and 2 o-rings. It's the sandwich looking thing, where the filter attaches too. $ 10 parts from the dealer, a 43 mm socket and you should be able to stop that leak.

Transmission is a Aisin Warner unit, the same transmission used on Toyota Supra, Previa, Pickup, 4Runner and even Sequoia. You can't kill it, unless abused and neglected.

 

Nice grab and low miles. Hope things tinker out well.

 

Update: I've had the car for almost a month now, and I'm finally starting to put some miles on it.

I've named the car "The Hydra", because every time I fix one problem, two more pop up in its place.

A slight fuel pump buzz turned into an in-tank pump/sending unit R&R (twice. Don't ask), the out-of-balance tires turned into two bent rims, the downpours from Hurricane Irene gave me a nice indoor swimming pool in the rear passenger floorboard, a leaky rear main seal has reared its ugly head, and I'm sure there are a few other problems that I'm forgetting. Or maybe I'm in denial.

But the funny thing is, I haven't had the urge to light the car on fire or hit it repeatedly with a 10lb maul (yet). It's actually pretty easy to work on, and it's a great car to drive, so I can forgive a certain amount of hassle. That is, assuming there will be an end to the hassles at some point. There will be an end to the hassles, right?

 

Yes there will be an end. I had the 1 of 2 deal going in July with a Saturn I got for my mom. Charge the problems, don't back up. As for the RMS leak, make sure the flame trap & PCV system is serviced & clear and just maybe the leak will slow a little had hold until you can get it fixed a little later.

 

For me, cars are on probation for the first 6-12 months, that is, if they last that long...

 

That's a pretty good idea. I usually try to figure out what's wrong with them within a week or 2. After that I fix what I have to but really don't get in any hurry unless I need to pass it on to someone or sell it.