and sometimes you're the bug...

SWMBO decided she wanted an automatic car in the fleet. Something cheap that she wouldn't need a lot of insurance on and could carry co-workers to job sites in more comfort than an 2003 MINI. It would also allow us to take the MINI off the road for some needed maintenence. She decided on a mid-late 90's Volvo 850 turbo wagon. She then spent a couple of weeks scouring the web for one, finally settling on one in Baltimore. Yesterday (Sunday) we go down to look and it and maybe buy it.

She likes it, it drives ok, so she makes a deal.

Ten miles away from the dealer, I'm following behind and as she pulls away from a light, I see a big puddle of green fluid on the ground... Hmm... then I see steam coming out the right fender. I quickly flash my lights at her and she pulls over (oddly - no warning lights and the temp gauge was still fine).

The upper radiator hose nipple broke off the radiator. Gotta love those plastic tank radiators... A 113 mile tow later (yay for AAA) and the car is in my garage waiting for a new radiator. Plus other projects... like replacing the stupid lowering springs with something closer to stock.

So much for getting the E30 ready for auto-x season...

I will say this much, Volvos of that era have amazingly comfortable seats.

Can I haz your lowering springs?

DukeOfUndersteer wrote: Can I haz your lowering springs?

She's planning to sell them to recoup some of the various costs. They're IPD sport springs, from what we can tell.

A set of 17" black OZ 5-spoke wheels with decent tires will also be sold.

ooooo, pics and prices please!

I'll let know know when I get them off and cleaned up.

awesome. I'm looking to dress mine up a bit

I wouldn't say you were the bug.. yet. If she had cooked the engine, then you would have been the bug

10 miles from the dealer?????? I would have taken it back and made them fix it!

good point.. if she had bought the car without and cooked the engine 10 miles from the dealer.. would they have taken it back?

Typical used car/ebay sale: no warranty expressed or implied. If the engine had siezed, yeah, she might have taken it back. But as it stands, it's just a radiator and I can replace that easily enough. She'll get out of this cheaper than I did when one of the tires on my truck blew out on the drive home from buying it in West-Fumblebuck, PA.

The thought did cross my mind... the engine bay was clean - scary clean - litterally too clean for a 16 year old car with over 100K miles on it...

with the typical "tail light" guarantee I'm thinking she'd have been SOL

This car now has a name: Loki. Nordic god of mischief. She doesn't want to 17" wheels so she bought new tires for the oe 16" wheels that came with the car. I got the tires mounted this morningand tried to put them on when I got home. The fronts don't fit. Wtf?

Well, it turns out a previous owner installed a 302mm upgrade kit from the stock 280mm rotors and 16" wheels don't fit.

Great. So now we're searching for the stock caliper brackets and rotors...

Let me know what you want for the "big brakes."

• Lee

Sounds like your taking all the fun stuff off. Maybe should have found another one that iwas stock. Oh, well I guess hindsights 20/20.

I might be interested in the wheels depending on price.

In reply to Datsun1500:

Oh nice... After all of this, I think I'll keep that to myself for now.

Yeah... A more "stock" car is what she wanted. A lot of the upgrades weren't described very well. There was a comment about performance brakes, but we saw the rotors and thought that was it, not realizing they had done a size increase as well.

When the car is back together, I'll send messages to everyone who expressed interest in parts. The wheels and brake parts (rotors and caliper bracket) will go first. The ipd springs will get swapped out later. Probably after I can do the maintenance on the MINI.

Ok. The car is back together, off my lift, out of my garage and finally at its permanent home in NJ. The wheels are swapped off, the original sized brakes are installed along with stock height springs. As such, we now have a pile of stuff that needs to be sold to offset some of the costs.

For some reason I can't get the "contact" form to work on my computer here. So for those of you had expressed interest in the parts (17x8 O-Z MSW Type 16 wheels, IPD springs, partial FCP 12" brake kit), please contact me. She wants to sell the stuff asap.

Hmm... odd... Contact link doesn't work from work either.

Datsun1500 wrote:

Ian F wrote: Typical used car/ebay sale: no warranty expressed or implied.

Actually Maryland is one of 14 "implied warranty" States. There is no thing as an "As/Is" car sale in those States. Engine/Transmission/Drive axles are warrantied for 30 days by law.

I would like to add to your comment that the "implied" warranty only applies to dealer sales. It does not apply to private sales.

Contact link isn't working for me either. I decided to go with some 16" wheels instead.

Ian F wrote: For some reason I can't get the "contact" form to work on my computer here. So for those of you had expressed interest in the parts (17x8 O-Z MSW Type 16 wheels, IPD springs, partial FCP 12" brake kit), please contact me. She wants to sell the stuff asap.

email me at my user name at gmail.com . I'm going to the Lemons race at NJMP 04/14 so could maybe stop by on the way there or on the way back to pick stuff up. I'm interested in each of the things depending on price. Do the wheels have good tires on them?

Sorry to hear of the initial surprises with the car. I will say that the car should make a great beater. My DD is a '96 wagon, non-turbo. Like you said, seats are real comfortable. I've had it for a year now and put 20k on it. It's been a great all around car. Hauled all kinds of people and crap in it, knock on wood never had any real issues. I think you guys will like the car.

I am interested in the springs and semi-interested in the big brake setup. I am assuming if they cant clear your 16s, they wont clear my turbo 16s. But if you can give me a shout at paul_hutton07 at gmail.com, I'll talk prices with you.

She's working on the ads. I'll send links when she's done. Thanks!

Yep. But all water under the bridge now.

The g/f posted the parts for sale with pictures if anyone is still interested:

http://matthewsvolvosite.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=47559