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New owner of a 945 900 1995

Nice looking car !
sounds like you are on the right track, Yes rubber rot is a time related issue and You will see some rubber parts failing. If you are near a tire shop ask them to decipher the age of your tires, and look at the sidewalls, sometimes cars have good tread and they can look nice still, but the tires can be dangerous if the sidewalls form little cracks, that's a sign so I'd say before you go too far have a look to see if the tires look good but are unsafe simply due to age. I've had them tear right around and pretty much come right off the rim on my 122 twice because I was cheap and they looked ok deep tread, but they were actually too old.

I wonder if you disconnect the battery for a few minutes, would that make the radio display that "off " or "code" any differently? I think you need to reset the code if it's disconnected and you don't have the code now anyway so I dont see any risk in that ? Ive never had a car that new so I dont know that exact radio either.

i think you will find there is a wire that is always hot to maintain the code and one switched by the ignition and a power antenna wire too. It could be that one was not connected or they could be tied together if the installer wasn't so sharp as to do that right. I think when you turn the key with the radio on you should see the antenna move up but you might need the code before that happens.

you might open the ashtray cover with the battery disconnected and check each fuse, see if you see signs of corrosion and clean the fuses and the fuse holder contacts if everything isn't bright and shiny.. new fuses aren't expensive so sometimes I just put new ones. older ones might be slightly better quality, you decide. look on the chart thing to see which fuse is for the radio and make sure that is ok. If the radio saw power from the battery but not power from the key or the reverse, maybe that makes it do what it does now. no doubt the previous owner had a dead battery while in storage mode and it may have just lost the code that way.


if it was garaged that helps, a lot of things last better if stored in a "cool dark place". rubber parts too.

batteries only last so long especially when they sit unused so I'd change that if you see any signs of a brown out , slow cranking , dim lights, etc, see how it is or if it has a date on it. dead batteries and dirty fuses are things you can fix before they fail in my opinion.

mine is an 88 wagon and I like that it still has it's original tape deck , It sounds pretty good. Mine has the power antenna so If I turn it on the antenna lifts. I replaced the antenna , only the antenna itself, and it was easy and cheap which was a nice surprise.

If the fuel pump is original , well you decide, If you go on long trecks then I'd want a new one , if a tow home isn't the end of the world you can wait for failure, usually with a car like that , its in nice shape and you expect another 100 K or so so why not start with a new pump.. but it might have been done.

bad fuel pumps and also bad waterpumps tend to go suddenly , most other things you can limp home or they will at least give you a sign before a sudden failure. I'd rather do that on a sunny day that I choose.

if its not in the service records I'd crawl under and look at the terminals to the fuel pump and how shiny it is , if it looks OEM and unchanged I'd put in another bosche pump.. not a chinese pump.

if the prepump and or the fuel level the sender inside the tank fail then it will probably run with a full tank maybe run bad or not run under 1/2 tank, but a bad main pump will kill the car and that can result in a tow home.

The waterpump could go for a while but I have found that when I found I had a bad one it was not a thing that gave me any warning, itll start spilling from the hole just below the shaft without warning so I like to do those when I first buy cars.

I bought mine at 80 K and it's at 160 now. one thing that I had to fix at 80 K was the front callipers, they didn't fail to work, but they slide on a pin. it was not wear in the pin but the caliper itself , the hole in the casting was worn out

I had to order more than one rebuilt caliper before I found a good one. when they rebuild the capllipers They did not re-bush the worn hole, I changed the pin but the wear was in the hole, not the pin.

yours may have different front calipers. I'ts newer. I thik there are a lot of parts that are not interchangeable with earlier versions.
the sign I had was they rattled over bumps but the noise went away with any brake pressure on the pedal. older Volvos had better brakes with 3 pistons, I think girling, but mine has the ones that float I think bendix? I like the older ones more but they work, I just wanted to note that in case you hear the rattling and it stops when you brake.















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New New owner of a 945 [900][1995]
posted by  Allrounderco  on Fri Dec 2 10:13 CST 2022 >


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