I’m thinking about buying my friends’ 1998 V70 2.4L 5-cylinder turbo with about 172k. With the cold mornings around here however the car has trouble turning over. A good chunk of the time the car has no problem turning over immediately but on cold mornings it can take upwards of seven times before it will turn over. I’m no mechanic, does anyone know what could be causing this and how big of warning sign is this? Thank you in advance.
This is a bad sign. The motor at minimum needs a tune up with for that motor is required every 30K miles (dist. cap, rotor, plug wires, and new spark plugs). Also this is a very expensive car to own. It will need frequent repairs, and those repairs are very expensive. A $2,000 bill to repair a '98 Volvo is not unusual at all, and from my experience having owned a '98 V70XC I got tired of all those big repair bills and dumped the car.
After thinking about it, don’t do it. The body, interior, and seats on these cars hold up great. The mechanics and electronics are awful and that’s where you end up spending a bunch of money on repairs.
I agree with Uncle T on this. This one will be a money pit. To run well, an engine needs cood compression, good fuel metering (injectors that provide a nice fine spray at the right times and the right pulsewidths) & supply, and good spark. I’d bet lunch that this engine has none of those things. I’ll bet that the cylinders and rings have seen better days as well as the injectors.
And that’s only the beginning.