As I already mentioned I had my new 1991 940 2.3i GL checked over by an

independent Volvo shop yesterday. They also found that the rear end is noisy.

Obviously the car is not quite as tight as a new one (it does have 160,000

km=100,000 miles), but it doesn't sound worrying to me.

The car being under warranty from the garage who sold it to me I'm not

concerned about costs here but I am wondering. Are they being picky for my

benefit, or does the car have a real problem?

Would the rear end go bad? Lock up? And how do you repair a noisy rear end?

Thanks for all you comments and help,

Rob

Last September I bought a 91 945T with 91K miles and noise coming from the rear. I hoped that it was a driveshaft center bearing and one clever garage fixed it for me before I had a chance to blink. Well, it wasn't the driveshaft center bearing. I spent the better part of a Saturday afternoon checking the oil level and listening to the rear with the wheels up off the ground. I couldn't believe a car with 91K on it would have a bad rear. I have driven lots of Volvos to closer to 200K miles without noise or drivetrain problems like that. But, a bad rear was the final solution. I had the rear replaced by a Volvo shop in Central NJ and had a chance to check the old rear when it was out of the car. It felt like I was turing gears that were in gravel, no wonder it whined. I probably could have gone on for several thousand miles but the repair bill wasn't that bad and tha car is now quieter than any I have owned.

How bad was the bill and what exactly did they do?

Thanks.

They replaced the entire rear end with another from a junk yard. I was told the replacement part had something like 40 to 50K miles on it and it is absolutely dead quiet. The shop was located in Central New Jersey. E-mail me off line and I'll give you the details (price, name) but I thought it was a good job and fair price. A local dealer wanted about 1000 and the other shop that did the center bearing was talking the same maybe a little more (I will never let them touch my car again). I did, I think, much better than this and if you are capable it does not look all that hard but you better have some lifting capability or friends to help. I got a quote on the part itself of about 275-300 from a brickboard advertiser.

A noisy rear end could just soldier on forever, getting progressively noisier, or could exhibit faults like slop/play, or even (as I once had on a 145) destroy bearings. Noisy rears are a fairly common Volvo problem, and usually more annoying than dangerous.

If you're being picky depends, I'ld say, on how much you payed for the car. If you got it exceptionally cheap you might want to live with it. If you payed fair market price or maybe even a dealer markup, take it back if it was sold to you as being in good/exceptional condition.

Fix is to either rebuild the rear end or find a better rear axle and swap them out.

Bram