My daily driver - "low" milage 1997 LPT 940

[Blillpers]

Hello!
Long time lurker, first time poster here on Turbobricks. The wealth of knowledge here has been a lifesaver many times in the past when I've had a problem with one of my Volvos, and I thought it was time to post something myself!

I have been in old Volvos all of my 28 years on this earth, it all started the day after my birth when riding home in the family 240 wagon. I got my first 240 a few days after turning 18 (a white DL sedan from -86, still in the family) and a few Volvos have come and gone since then. For the last few years I've driven a 1994 940 sedan, NA B230FD and 4-speed auto. It was a good car in decent condition, but I've yearned for a manual turbo wagon for ages. Finding something is surprisingly hard here in Sweden, either the cars have been driven into the ground, are heavily modified or outlandishly expensive. One evening while scouting the internet I suddenly came across a 1997 940 wagon. It ticked all the boxes: rust free, turbo, manual, ECC, one owner and reasonably low miles: 180K kilometers or around 110K miles. I messaged the seller and went to see it the next day - somehow. Over 70 people had messaged him. It cost me 50.000 SEK or just about 5K USD. It felt like a reasonable price for a seriously nice car.

 

[Blillpers]

I had promised myself this wouldn't become a project car (we'll have to see about that...). However there were a few little issues I needed to look into right away. The rear wiper washer didn't work, so I replaced the pump. As usually half the light bulbs were blown, so I did that as well. The airbox was a bit broken, so I got a better one from the junkyard. The taillights and indicators were faded and in pretty poor condition with some cracks, so I decided to swap all of them for a set of new ones with white lenses. You can see the difference in the photos above and I think they went great with the paint.

With the immediate issues fixed, there were two things I wanted to improve. Firstly, it didn't have cruise control. I drive quite a lot, I commute over 100 miles to work twice a week so it was absolutely essential. I found a complete kit via Facebook Marketplace which I bought and installed. Very easy install on these late model cars, as the wiring is already there from the factory.

 

[Blillpers]

I also wanted a better sound system. The car left the factory with only the cheapest front door speakers and a very basic 90s aftermarket stereo. My first thought was to find one of the nicer factory stereos, but I wanted a better way to connect my phone than one of those FM transmitters. Eventually I decided to get myself a Blaupunkt Bremen, the modern one. It fits in very well with the rest of the interior, and it has all the features I could ever want. A bit pricey though, so I hope it lasts. I also upgraded all the speakers. I decided to go for the Alpina E-series ones all around as they seemed to offer a decent balance between price and quality. 5.25 inch ones for the doors, and the little 3.5 ones for the dash. All wires were already installed from the factory. I modified the stock speaker grilles a bit and glued the speakers to them. That way I have a completely hidden installation. The holes in the dash is just about the right size to take a 3.5 inch speaker.

I'm no audiphile by any means, but I'm very happy with this basic setup. I see no need for any subwoofer or amplifier. However I am planning to install some sound deadening in the doors, as I get some very annoying rattles at certain frequiencies.

 

[Blillpers]

As for the future of the car, the current plans are to mostly enjoy it as it is. I have replaced various little broken pieces, mainly in the interior. Next up is a major service. I want to replace every filter, fluid and the ignition components as I don't really have any service history on the car. The previous owner did everything himself since 1999 and he didn't believe in keeping any records. I did notice the ignition cap is the factory one, manufactured in 1996, so it's high time to have it replaced. I do have minor misfires every now and then so a new cap, rotor, wires and plugs will surely make a huge difference. I've gone with only Bosch parts and Mann filters. I plan to do the work next week. I also need to replace the brake dust shields, they are totally gone. The front ones are actually an inspection failure over here, as the ABS cables are attached to them. In other words I need to get this done before the next yearly inspection in the end of October.

I've also considered getting a high-quality tune and upping the boost to HPT levels, mostly for improved fuel consumption (I'm not sure how much a tune really does, though) and easier overtakes, but we'll see. My fuel consumption so far has been an average of 8.3L/100 km or 28mpg, which I'm pretty happy with. I suspect this will drop a little bit with fresh ignition parts.