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Car Forum / Volvo Cars / May 2007Buying a 240
Hey, I found a 1985 240 Wagon, thats in my price range (300-600) and is in decent shape. Seats are firm, clean and nice, dash is nice, new tires, strong clutch, OD works and has 207K miles on it. And it handles real nice when I drove it. But the wiring harness needs to be replaced (the oil warning light wire was toast) and the owner didn't know that the oil was incredibly low (nor that the OD worked..or possibly that it had it or what it was). Also, the wiper relay needed to be replaced (I think thats what it was) and it needs to pass DEQ. He wants 500 for it, and a good friend of mine (who is a volvo nut) suggested I "walk away from it", due to the wiring harness mostly. My question is, how hard is it to replace a wiring harness on it? If I was to replace the wiring harness, I'd do it myself. So Im not expecting it to be easy. I know it'll be time consuming (but I think worth it). Are they ungodly expensive though? Also, and I realize that none of you know what it looks like, should I lower my offer (if I were to buy it) because of the wiring harness issue? He didn't seem to know it was bad, which suggests he didn't price it based on that knowledge. Part of me says "stay away" because he didn't know about the wiring harness problem, or the oil being so low or the power steering fluid being low. And I don't want to buy a car that I have to fix a lot of and then have to pass DEQ. But part of me realizes for the price I can't expect it to be perfect. If he lowered it to 300, or would accept 300, I'd think long and hard about taking it. I can provide more clarity if needed. > Hey, > [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > If he lowered it to 300, or would accept 300, I'd think long and hard > about taking it. I can provide more clarity if needed. Unless it's been done before, *all* '80ish to '88 Volvos will need to have the wiring harness replaced, it's really not a big deal, you can buy a new harness for about 300 bucks or you can just do what I did and pick up $50 worth of wire and heatshrink tubing and build a new harness with the existing connectors. Once you have the harness it takes about 2 hours to replace if you take your time and do a neat job, no special tools required. If the body is straight and rust free, and the interior is decent, $500 is a great buy, with a new harness the car is worth at least double that. If you can find a local U-pull yard with some Volvos and are not opposed to working on the car yourself, you could get a sweet classic 240 wagon for relatively little cash and a bit of TLC. > <BlazerFan...@gmail.com> wrote in message > [quoted text clipped - 49 lines] > on the car yourself, you could get a sweet classic 240 wagon for relatively > little cash and a bit of TLC. thanks > <BlazerFan...@gmail.com> wrote in message > [quoted text clipped - 49 lines] > on the car yourself, you could get a sweet classic 240 wagon for relatively > little cash and a bit of TLC. do you know of a diagram for the wiring harness? So I know the correct gauges etc? >> <BlazerFan...@gmail.com> wrote in message >> [quoted text clipped - 59 lines] > do you know of a diagram for the wiring harness? So I know the correct > gauges etc? I've never seen one that was readable, they're always mixed in with other wiring. What I did was cut out each bad wire one at a time and solder in a new one, if I were to do this again, I'd go get a junkyard harness, lay it out on the floor and copy it, but in my case the car broke down and I had to get it running again on the street in front of my house in the winter. On May 28, 8:00 pm, BlazerFan...@gmail.com wrote: > Hey, > [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > If he lowered it to 300, or would accept 300, I'd think long and hard > about taking it. I can provide more clarity if needed. For $500.00 I think you will have a car that you could work on over time to fix the inevitable problems that will occur on a car that is close to the quarter century mark. On a $500 car that runs you should look closely for extensive rust damage. Given that the previous owner was oblivious to things like the oil sensor I would think that he would have ignored things like panel and floorpan rusting. > On May 28, 8:00 pm, BlazerFan...@gmail.com wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 42 lines] > think that he would have ignored things like panel and floorpan > rusting. actually, my friend who is a volvo nut, checked for rust and said it was pretty solid. On May 29, 9:48 am, BlazerFan...@gmail.com wrote: > > On May 28, 8:00 pm, BlazerFan...@gmail.com wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 47 lines] > > - Show quoted text - Then go for it. How wrong can you go with a 240 wagon that runs for $500.00!! Should have a lot of miles left in it after some repairs. >> On May 28, 8:00 pm, BlazerFan...@gmail.com wrote: >> [quoted text clipped - 45 lines] > actually, my friend who is a volvo nut, checked for rust and said it > was pretty solid. Check the floor pans under the undercoating, you may be able to pull the carpet back enough after removing the trim piece inside the door, also look at the lip up under the back bumper, in my experience that's where these cars tend to rust if they do. Neither is unfixable, but do know what you're getting into. > My question is, how hard is it to replace a wiring harness on it? If I > was to replace the wiring harness, I'd do it myself. So Im not > expecting it to be easy. I know it'll be time consuming (but I think > worth it). Are they ungodly expensive though? I replaced the harness on an '86 240DL (sedan) using a harness from IPD ($318 at the time) in a day. The biggest hassle was routing the new harness properly, particularly around the injector rail and intake components, but it's certainly a DIY job. Personally, I wouldn't recommend trying to "roll your own" harness by soldering the old connectors on wire from the hardware store. There's a *lot* of connectors, and even being sure you get all the wire lengths -just so- would be a PITA. And having the correct wire color coding could make future trouble-shooting easier. YMMV... >> My question is, how hard is it to replace a wiring harness on it? If I >> was to replace the wiring harness, I'd do it myself. So Im not [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >-just so- would be a PITA. And having the correct wire color coding >could make future trouble-shooting easier. YMMV... *I* would hit the fact that this vehicle needs a harness (previously stated as unknown to the current owner) and offer $300 assuming US denomination. This offsets your out-of-pocket for a new harness but nowhere near makes up for the time you will spend in making the repair. Yes, a replacement harness is available and I would recommend this over hand cobbling something from new and old parts. Chuck Fiedler Nothing but Volvo since 1974 >Hey, > [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] >If he lowered it to 300, or would accept 300, I'd think long and hard >about taking it. I can provide more clarity if needed. Check here for a new harness: http://www.davebarton.com/index.html I think you'll find instructions there too but the page has changed extensively since I last visited it. Good luck! blurp thanks all, I ended up buying it for 400. for the time being, Im going to try to fix what pieces of the harness I can (i know, not strongly suggested). But I'll get a new one as soon as I have enough free time. > thanks all, I ended up buying it for 400. for the time being, Im going > to try to fix what pieces of the harness I can (i know, not strongly > suggested). But I'll get a new one as soon as I have enough free time. You know, come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I have a good used later style (non crumbling) 240 harness I'd let go for $100, I'm pretty sure it's for an '86 but I can check the part number. Maybe someone would know for sure if this would fit your car? > <BlazerFan...@gmail.com> wrote in message > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > for an '86 but I can check the part number. Maybe someone would know for > sure if this would fit your car? hm...shoot me an email (at blazerfandan@gmail.com) with the subject of VOLVO and give me some info (if it applies)
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