Hello everyone,
I've been driving Mopars for years, mostly fwd turbos. Parts are getting a little hard to come by and my LeBaron convertible is getting rough so I'm considering a new direction. I've been looking at Volvos for a while, off and on and well to make a long story short. I've located a 93 GLT turbo with ~75K on the clockfor which they are asking 2500.oo. Does it sound like something worth looking at? I'd appreciate any helpyou guys can give, things I should look for, if I should look at all.......

 

I just bought a 1997 8503monthsagoand I love it. I did have to do some maintenance stuff since I am not sure if the had been done, but it is a super stable, comfortable car. That's low miles on a 93. Not too bad of a price, depending on the paint, leather ( which most seats usually have some sort of cracks) and maintenance. Knowing what I know now about 850's, ask about the timing belt and the tensioners and see when it was lastly changed, Oil changes and the intervals. Transmission fluid (change), Overall maintenance. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

 

Welcome... Volvo 850's are a good car and are fun to drive.
Read over this post - https://volvoforums.com/m_48928/tm.htm - for more info on the car and what to look for. If you are near another forum member they might help you look at it. Or just take some photos and post them if you have more questions.
There is plenty of knowledge on this car in the forums online that I think most anyone could repair most anything on the 850.

Hope this helps you out...

 

The ~75k miles should be taken with a grain of salt. Each and every Volvo 850 out there with a VDO instrument clustereither has or has hada broken odometer gear at some time or another. I'm not sure if the gear fails due to time or due to mileage but between 75k and 125k more than 95% of them are either broken now or have been broken before. You can read the actual mileage out of the instrument cluster through port A-7, the details are here:

http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/for...pic.php?t=6731

The thread is mislabeled as the mileage is stored in the instrument cluster rather than in the ECU.

At the end of the day it is an easy repair to getthe odometergoing again but you should know the true mileage before you pay that much for the car.

1993 is a unique animal for the 850s and many of the suspension parts are unique to the 1993 and very early 1994 models. The 1993 has 4 bolt wheels while all of the rest have 5 bolt. Should you want to upgrade the wheels you are very limited and since you are looking at a GLT then it likely has the Cetus 4 bolt wheels.

The 1993 has a unique timing belt as well and it MUST be changed at 50,000 mile intervals. I'm not sure about your LeBaron but a Chrysler Concorde that my wife had ate a timing belt and lived to see another day, with an 850 that is not the case since it is an interference engine on all US models.

You indicated that parts were becoming a problem for your Lebaron. I'm not sure what constitutes a problem but virtually no part for the 850, any year and particularly the 1993, is available at any of the chain auto parts stores. The will try to sell you things that will actually fit on the car but they will not work properly. I have three 850s and 97% of the parts come from mail order through places like FCP Groton or eEuroparts.com. I think both of these companies have rotating banner advertisements atthe top of this page. When ordering parts from any of the online stores avoid anything marked as Scan Tech like the plague. The same thing applies to anything from a company called Hamburg Technic.

The 850 is a great car if you are handy with a wrench. They are a blast to drive but they are somewhat maintenance intensive. If you need to rely on a shop to maintain your car forget about it, it will bankrupt you.

I'm not sure where you are geographically but anywhere in the USA, for $2,500, you should be able to find a later model turbo, they get particularly cheap as they approach 140k miles since that is a major service interval. The turbo models have a ton of power when you want it and are only slightly more maintenance intensive. A complete set of prior service records are a must but they are usually entombed in theglove box with a broken latch.

I'm not trying to scare you away, I am a Volvo enthusiast, but I would hate to see you jump out of the frying pan directly into the fire.

...Lee

 

I certianly appreciate the replies. It would seem the very thing I was wanting to get away from, i.e.turning wrenches, will follow me to this car...crap. I was hoping for something I could get in and drive for a couple hundred thousand miles with only simple maintainance, this doesn't sound like it.I'll be passing this one up. Thanks again.

 

I am fairly certain that the 93 GLT is NOT a Turbo. I really like 850's, but would only buy a Turbo model and would stay away from the 93 model year. You can find a very nice one for around $2500 too. In 97 the GLT model had a low pressure turbo, but all other years of the 850 the GLT was not a turbo.

 

+1.

Happy New Year,


JPN