Going Turbo

[Socal]

See page 2. These two cars I was looking at here I decided weren't worth following up on.

First I'm not quite sure what board to put this on, but I figured moving from an NA to a turbo'd car is a performance upgrade. So what the heck. If not, I'm sure a friendly mod will move it to an appropriate location.

I'm looking for some advise on what to look for and diagnosis of some things I noticed on the test drive.

I'm looking at 2 cars at the moment. A '98 S70 T5 SE, and a '95 T-5R.

I got to test drive the T-5R today. I really love the look of Titans.

The T-5R has 134,000 miles on with 3 previous owners. Body looked good and straight, and paint was in pretty nice shape. From the Carfax, it looks like the car had only been driven about 1,000 miles in the past year though. Otherwise mileage was consistant.

3 things I was bothered by when I checked out the car:

I'm concerned there might have been some front end damage at some time, the R bumper looks brand new. The grille was slightly loose, and there were was a scratch on a plastic cover that looks like it might have been caused by the T-bolt clamp from the turbo piping being forced into it. You can kinda see in this pic (in yellow). The cover I mentioned also seem to also have broken loose.

The other 2 things, there was a good amount of play in the steering wheel. I was thinking it probably will need new tie rods.

Last thing, on the test drive I could hear the turbo spool up and it would start to pull, but the car didn't pull like I expected and not smoothly. I felt like my S70 NA pulls harder at 4k RPM. The last time on the freeway when I went to open it up the car threw a CEL. Is this the infamous limp boost problem?

Over the starting price is reasonable, and the owner was willing negotiate.

I haven't had a chance to check out the S70 T5 yet, but it only has 89,000 miles on it. It's also only $350 more:blink:, but the outside doesn't look well kept. Its got a good number of dings (I'm thinking the owner was a careless driver), and the front bumper has scrapes on both sides, like someone wedged it in between something.

Anyway, if you made it this far through the post, major thanks. What I'm looking for in getting a new car is something that is going to be reliable and allow me to cut my teeth in car tuning.

Also, if you need a CARFAX run please feel free to PM me. I've got the unlimited for 30 days.

[Mesoam]

slop in the front end can be ball joints as well..134k is right around the time major things tend to need to be replaced (suspension components, rear main seal e/t/c)

boost issues could A LOT of things but the most common problem is a boost leak, the intercooler hoses and vac lines are probably getting dry cracked

looks like the throttle body cover isn't on straight which would cause it to get scratched

if you aren't 100% comfortable with determining the condition of a car bring it to a trusted mechanic...

[Asinine]

i know when i bought my first car unbenounced to me shortly after the purchase i found a tubro leak (or i created) on the vaccuum hose at the TB. once i got that fixed, and adjusted the adaptives to lead foot from lady driver it was great.

It does seem you'll be very diligent in your shopping though - good luck!

[Socal]

Thanks for the replys. I will definitely be taking the car to a mechanic before I buy. I'm just trying to get an idea of what I'm looking at before I decide to spend time and money to get the car looked at professionally.

One other major cosmetic thing, the rails on the roof have almost totally peeled. How much does replacing those run?

[StickThatClutch]

Rails? You mean the rubber trim? Its spendy. I think like ~200 ducks.

Andrew, how much these things going for?

[Aequitas_Veritas]

slater is supposed to come out with a repair kit for those around the beg of 2006 for under $50 bones. just wait for that

[Ivanfbi]

i would check out S70 properly and then decide

[Socal]

I got to take the S70 for a test drive this afternoon. It was a real joy to drive. Steering is tight, and acceleration was very smooth. The auto trans. shifted very smoothly. Trans fluid looked nice and pinkish-red. Oil has been changed recently.

Some cosmetic dings like I mentioned, but the asking price is right ($6250 with 89,00x miles on the odometer). . I ran the carfax and it came back clean with 1 previous owner in California and registration for a time in Georgia. The gentleman who owned the car said his adult daughter had owned it, and before that her friend had been the original owner. The carfax also showed it had regular service for the first 20,000 miles.

I'm going to have a independent volvo mechanic take a look at it tomorrow. Is there anything that I should be asking the mechanic to take a look at specifically. I would like him to check for any damage to the frame and a compresion check, but I think those are probably things they would do anyway. Anything I'm missing? Coolant/radiator leaks?

[Patrick.]

sounds to me like the S70 is the safer choice... but if you have the $$ to spend on maintenance, the T5-R would have quite a bit more character

[maiku]

if i had a choice, i would go T-5R because of the rarity

but if it isn't in the best quality, then the S70 may be better

[Socal]

I have to say I initially really wanted a T-5R when I started shopping, but the car is just not in that good of shape and has 45,000 more miles than the S70. This S70 drove like it was in great shape, and has all the extra goodies. It's a SE T5, so thats relatively rare too.

One other major plus, the S70 is 3 blocks down the street :)

[Trunks850R]

they only brought 1000 T5-R's into the US in 95. ive always wanted one too, but if the s70 is in good shape, and only 350 more, go with it.

if not, hell ill buy it for 5500 right now

[Socal]

Well, I got the results back for the S70. The car had been in a front end collision, which explains the V70R front bumper, the skid plate missing. I had them check the thrust angle, which the mechanic said would check the to see if the frame was straight, and it came back within spec. So thats good.

The short list of things:

- No known date of timing belt replacement. So it would need to be replaced.

- Small leak in the water pump

- Turbo oil return line leaking around gasket

- Needs an alignment

- Corrosion on underside (which I saw)

- Brakes at 30% front, 10-15% rear

The mechanic estimated that I would probably have to put about $1000 into the car in the next few months. Not pretty, but the owner said he would come down to 5750. Right now I'm still leaning towards getting the car seeing that some of the stuff I can probably do myself. I have till 4pm to decide.

by the way anyone know how much the aluminum IPD skid plate goes for? Their website is down right now.

[RBoy8]

If it were me, I wouldn't even look at a car that had a front end collision. Did you take the T-5R to a mechanic yet?

[Socal]

I didn't take the T-5R to a mechanic, but there are things like I mentioned in the first post that make me thing the T-5R had been in a front end collision (the throttle cover being broken, and scratched by the turbo hose T-clamp {see pic at top}, the loose grill, and brand new R bumper). I honestly thought the T-5 SE drove great, and the T-5R was in rough shape.

One really important thing to add, the mechanic that looked at the S70 said the actual crash bumper under the new plastic bumper looked like it was original. He said the accident was most likely something that damaged the hood and headlights (like nosing under a large truck), and the body work seemed to have been well done.