I'm thinking about buying this V70 but have a few questions for the V70 experts. I have not seen or driven the car yet since it's 130 miles away. Timing belt replaced 10k miles ago. He says it has a dash light flashing & says it's an 02 sensor. Any way to know for sure? Is this a major red flag? The price seems like top dollar, what are they going for.

https://cincinnati.craigslist.org/cto/4951435544.html

 

I know an 02 sensor isn't a major red flag, but how do I know he isn't just passing the dash light off as a minor issue? Any way to decode it by the number of flashes or the sequence of flashes?

 

What light is flashing? If it's the check engine light, that means there is a misfire that is damaging to the cat. I doubt it is an oxygen sensor. You need to have the codes read to have any idea though.

 

ES6T is correct - the flashing CEL usually means a misfire that can damage the cat by allowing unburn fuel to gum it up. Usual culprits are the plugs or the direct ignition coils. If you pull the OBD2 codes you should get a clue as to which cylinders have gone wonky, ie code P0301 means #1 cylinder is misfiring, P0302 is #2 and so on. Its pretty typical for the coils to want replacing after 100K miles or so - I'd suggest you ask the current owner to drop in the new coils/plugs (not that hard to do - parts should run $150 for 5 coils/5 plugs). It would suck to drive it home 150 miles and then wind up needing to replace the Cat ($300-$500 and the O2 sensor $100 ).

 

mt6127

Thanks for the info here is what he said in his last text.

"I took it to my family mechanic & he said it was the 02 sensor and that it is pointless to replace it. The previous owner didn't replace it for the same reason."

So I doubt that he will cheerfully replace the coils if he thinks the car is fine. The other red flag is he has only owned the car for 3 months. I'm starting to smell a rat. I think I will just let this one go by.