A month ago I picked up a 1993 245 (M47) off of Craigslist. I came across it about 15 minutes after it was posted. The PO had dropped it off at a garage for a no-start condition and they were not able to get it running reliably so the owner was giving up on the car. The car was definitely in deferred-maintenance status, the body and windows speckled with dust from being parked outside for a long while. They had owned it for 4-5 years and related they bought it from a Volvo mechanic when living in Vermont before migrating to San Francisco.
Since it lived most of its life in the Northeast, it is suffering from rust with several spots visible on the body and under the car as well. The car cranked over but couldn?t do much diagnosing as the battery gave up the ghost in short order. Ended up agreeing on $350 for the wagon, so it now became my project. Removed the battery out to put it on the charger overnight.
After getting home from work the next day, started working on trying to get it running. As I have the hood open, a guy walks over and asks if I had bought the car. Replying yes, and then asked him if he was the mechanic who had worked on it as the garage was a block down the street. He shook his head yes and then we talked about the no-start condition. The mechanic was sure it had to do with the cold start injector, which I then looked at him and said, ?Well, these cars don?t have a cold start injector.? After a little bit he headed for his truck and I went back to diagnosing. Turns out the n-start issue was due to the fuel pump relay. After swapping that out the car fired up. Drove it the mile or so back to my place and that is when I could hear the clunk from the rear end from the rear u-joint at end of life.
One of the things I asked the PO is if there was anything else which would need attention or replacing. They replied back saying the brakes would probably need some attention. Over labor day weekend I decided to take a look at the condition of the pads starting with the rear. Pulling the first tire off I was amazed at the amount of corrosion on the rear caliper. Having lived on the East Coast for a while I am use to finding rust on cars, living in California since the turn of the century, hadn?t encountered anything like this in a long while. Pulled out the pads which were worn down but still usable short-term. Using a wire brush cleaned things up and then put everything back in place.
Pulling off the front tire, I literally shocked at the condition of the front calipers. They literally looked like they hade been pulled from a 1700s Spanish shipwreck in the Caribbean and then installed on the hub. I spent about 10-15 minutes trying to remove the pad pins and they would not budge being so corroded into place. It took a breaker bar with a cheater extension just to loosen the caliper bolts and the brake line going into the caliper was also being contemptuous.
Took a drive to the Pick-n-Pull in the East Bay where I was able to get a set of ABS calipers from a 1993 Sedan in the boneyard. Being the holiday it was ? off weekend so I was able to get them for $25 for the pair. The following weekend after a long struggle with caliper bolts and undoing brake lines, I was able to replace out the crusty calipers with the used ones.
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Since it lived most of its life in the Northeast, it is suffering from rust with several spots visible on the body and under the car as well. The car cranked over but couldn?t do much diagnosing as the battery gave up the ghost in short order. Ended up agreeing on $350 for the wagon, so it now became my project. Removed the battery out to put it on the charger overnight.
After getting home from work the next day, started working on trying to get it running. As I have the hood open, a guy walks over and asks if I had bought the car. Replying yes, and then asked him if he was the mechanic who had worked on it as the garage was a block down the street. He shook his head yes and then we talked about the no-start condition. The mechanic was sure it had to do with the cold start injector, which I then looked at him and said, ?Well, these cars don?t have a cold start injector.? After a little bit he headed for his truck and I went back to diagnosing. Turns out the n-start issue was due to the fuel pump relay. After swapping that out the car fired up. Drove it the mile or so back to my place and that is when I could hear the clunk from the rear end from the rear u-joint at end of life.
One of the things I asked the PO is if there was anything else which would need attention or replacing. They replied back saying the brakes would probably need some attention. Over labor day weekend I decided to take a look at the condition of the pads starting with the rear. Pulling the first tire off I was amazed at the amount of corrosion on the rear caliper. Having lived on the East Coast for a while I am use to finding rust on cars, living in California since the turn of the century, hadn?t encountered anything like this in a long while. Pulled out the pads which were worn down but still usable short-term. Using a wire brush cleaned things up and then put everything back in place.
Pulling off the front tire, I literally shocked at the condition of the front calipers. They literally looked like they hade been pulled from a 1700s Spanish shipwreck in the Caribbean and then installed on the hub. I spent about 10-15 minutes trying to remove the pad pins and they would not budge being so corroded into place. It took a breaker bar with a cheater extension just to loosen the caliper bolts and the brake line going into the caliper was also being contemptuous.
Took a drive to the Pick-n-Pull in the East Bay where I was able to get a set of ABS calipers from a 1993 Sedan in the boneyard. Being the holiday it was ? off weekend so I was able to get them for $25 for the pair. The following weekend after a long struggle with caliper bolts and undoing brake lines, I was able to replace out the crusty calipers with the used ones.
