Well, I'm more a VW person and I have a 2004 GLI, but I wanted something to drive for the winter, MN winters are pretty brutal. Found a 1994 850 T-5 on craigslist in Minneapolis for $1000 in october. I ended up getting it for $900 and drove it home that day. Also, it is an automatic.

The car has been running great for the most part, but there are a couple small issues I might as well look into. If I cant fix them for cheap I'm not too worried because I only paid $900 for it and its my winter car. Here they are:

1) It idles a little high (850-900rpm).
2) The paint was faded when I bought it and I cleaned it up as much as I could, but still seems to have no shine to it whatsoever.
3) All 4 shocks seem to be bad, they clunk every time I hit a large bump. when the hood is open I can spin the top half of the shock with my hands and I can push the car down with my body weight and have the top visible bushing move up into the air.
4) It does not do this every time but if cruising at 20-30mph and I mash the gas it downshifts like it should but then the boost "bar" goes crazy and the car feels almost as if it is hitting fuel cut and falls on its *** for a second then seems to have a little less power than it should. I believe stock boost is 9.6, and although I dont have an actual boost gauge I have a feeling it may be going well over that, but only when it downshifts. also, it will not do this if it downshifts when going say.. 60mph. Only at lower speeds. It may be a transmission problem? Im not sure, I dont know much about automatics.

 

First of all SCORE!!! Nice job!

1. Your idle speed is normal.
2. Elbow grease, looking good
3. You have room to buy shocks, you got a great deal
4. Someone may have adjusted the wastegate rod way to far. You might be boosting really high, hitting fuel cut off before the wastegate can kick in and bring the boost down to a normal level. My thoughts.

 

That looks like a great ride for $900. I would do that all day long. Wow! Red 850's look great.

 

I must agree, you go that car for a steal. As for the shock issue, it sounds like you need new spring seats also being you can spin the strut bolt around and it does not rebound.

I recommend getting the XC90 spring seats. They are much beefier then the stock OEM ones and fit find. You can find them here.

As for shocks and struts, the Bilstein TCs are the way to go. They are a little stiffer then stock but not harsh so they are great for daily driving. You can find the fronts here and the rears here. This is assuming that you don't have the Nivomats in the rear.

 

Thanks for the input guys! I do feel like I got a pretty good deal on the car, I'm not sure that the owner really knew what he had on his hands. I think he sold it for cheap because the struts and bushings are bad. When I got it though it was a mess, it took a lot of TLC to make it a decent daily driver. But it had everything I needed for a winter car; heated seats and mirrors, power everything, remote start, and new tires. Seemed like a good idea!

I checked out the struts on the website listed just about, but it looks like if I am going to replace the parts with new ones I will be spending upwards of $500 for everything. Would the classifieds section on this forum be a good place to look for some used replacements, or is there somewhere else I should look? However, if I must buy new, can I get them from a ford dealership? I live pretty much right next to one. I'm not looking to spend much on this car, I may even sell it in the spring. I must say though, I bought it to be a "beater" car, but the I clean it up the more I start to enjoy driving it!

 

Nice Score!

 

Try this on the paint, it's amazing stuff used by body shops all over. It's available in smaller retail sizes just google Finesse-it. Seal it with wax, I've had good results from Eagle one Nano wax.

For the suspension stuff.. I just ordered this

http://www.fcpgroton.com/product-exe...ategory_id/181

It's very comprehensive and seems pretty reasonable. I swore I'd never own a Volvo until I bought my first, 96 850 NA, and now my driveway looks like a Volvo dealership. I think you'll really like it, enjoy.