Before buying the car I looked it over with an experienced eye and test drove it, checking for major issues or particularly expensive repairs and any real safety concerns.
Overall the general condition of the car was OK. It was drivable but needed a lot of little things, none of which were urgent; it could be worked on for months to spread out the effort and cost of getting it fully functional and reliable.
The car had recently passed Texas state inspection, so nothing fundamentally was wrong. Some recent work had been done based on owner’s report or by my own observation.
No fluids leaking, which is always a good thing, but a pleasant surprise.
Brakes felt solid and performed well and appeared to have quite a bit of life left on the pads front and rear (more so on front).
Front struts had been replaced recently, so that is one big job I won’t have to tackle.
Two new-ish tires on rear and the front ones had reasonable life left in them.
Engine ran well with decent power and no smoke out the exhaust.
No warning lights and no trouble codes on the OBD2 scanner.
Transmission shifted a bit rough but was functional.
No rust or structural issues, just minor cosmetic imperfections.
Alternator appears to be fairly new. I suspect the original voltage regulator failed over-voltage (many lamps burned out) and they replaced the whole alternator.
New crankshaft speed sensor:
and mass air flow (MAF) sensor:
Apparently somebody was trying to troubleshoot some kind of problem based on error codes or symptoms.
Air conditioning works but I did not check pressures or cooling efficiency. At least it’s not dead so some hope for it working well long-term.
Clunks, bumps and rattles all seemed to be something that could be managed one-by-one.
It will only get better from here…
1997 Volvo 850 Wagon Project 