Just want to know how the S90s are. Any problems I should be aware of about them. I saw two nice ones on the internet for sale at this one used volvo car dealer in florida for around $6000. See links below.

1998 Volvo S90 DESC

1998 Volvo S90 SE (Special Edition) DESC

 

Yea I called them and they said that the lowest they will do on the green one will be $5500. And the lowest they will do on the white one is $5000 because it does need new control arm bushings.

 

Very nice S90's. The white one is incredible other than the trip was stopped at 666. :0

I have owned 3 960's and they are rock solid. I can't wait to get another one. Shop around, you can get them a lot cheaper than those are being sold for. I sold mine for $4,500 and it was every bit as nice and clean as those. Mine had 112,500 on it when I sold it. I only sold it to get this rare wagon I now have.

 

Our S90 reliability has been pretty good, we bought it new in 1997. Beware the orphan nature of these cars, 1998 was the last year of manufacture. A lot of the trim parts are now longer available as OEM and the aftermarket stuff is generally not as good. Also note that the S90 is a "pre-Ford" design and that Volvo is now Chinese. I have normally used genuine Volvo brake parts, in particular the front rotors as they are marked for minimum lateral runout and that has worked very well for me. When properly aligned with the front hub markings, the combined lateral runout for new rotors has been below limits and I've not had the considerable expense of getting them trued (I don't have the grinder). As an example of things changing, I recently purchased Volvo sourced rotors (in Volvo boxes) and they are from China instead of Italy (Brembo mfg parts) and the brake pads I also ordered were from India instead of Denmark.

 

Get parts from www.ipdusa.com or some other good source.

 

Try Tasca too. My local dealer can get me everything too, at double the price of course. Although not always possible, try to inspect a part before your order it, as databases sometimes are wrong. For example, if you order a transmission pan gasket, you may get a 14-hole. Our cars have 19-holes.

 

I just repowered my 1998 S90 with a used motor. It has worked out well so far. The new motor was needed because the tension roller broke bearings broke up and wound its way through the timing cover, relieving the belt tension and thus smashing the valves. When browsing junkyards for a new motor I saw another 960/S90 with exactly the same tell-tale hole melted though the timing cover. I bought my S90 with 87K and the timng belt had been changed at 70K. I have no way of knowing whether the tension roller was also changed, but it failed at 128K. Needless to say I did a complete timing gear replacement on the "new" motor, and would absolutely recommend that ANY timing belt change should include new hydraulic tensioner, plus tensioner and idler rollers.

Make sure you get a Carfax, and if it shows the phone number of the last shop that did service, call them and ask for a copy of the last invoice. That should show whether the car is on the market because it has problems. Might also tell you something about the current owner.