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Hy ,
i would like to know what to look for at an xc90, an overturned xc90 , the one in the pictures below.
the owner says that the only problems are at the bodywork , mirrors, headlight hood,roof, stuff like that that can be repaired .
the car starts and runs fine but i dont know if it could suffer mechanical damage during or after the overturn.
is the engine and the transmision still ok , what should i look for ?
thank youin advance.
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Good question,
I’m no expert on this but my main concerns would be whether the chassis is twisted or lozenged and whether the door and boot pillars are bent.
Also have the wheel alignment checked paying particular attention to camber angle and vertical alignment.
As far as the engine starting, if it’s started and runs id say that’s a pretty good test in its self.
Like I said I’m no expert will be interesting to hear from somebody who is!
Its a project at the end of the day and depends on the price how much time he has etc etc…
I wouldn’t buy it either but I might if it was all I had to do and I had the money to throw at it.
[quote=”KerbDragonRider” post=123896]Its a project at the end of the day and depends on the price how much time he has etc etc…
I wouldn’t buy it either but I might if it was all I had to do and I had the money to throw at it.[/quote] My thoughts exactly.
It is not worth it. The frame is compromized. Any time a car rolls it twists the frame and crushes the pillars. There are probably curtain air bags that need to be replaced and the regular air bag probably also. BTW it is at least 1k per air bag. The rear quarter fender has frame damage. The rear wheel bearing on the crushed side also probably needs to be replaced. You need new glass. The door on the drivers side more then likely doesn’t open without dragging. The front drivers side frame by the wheel has been pushed in.
Aka it is a part out vehicle at this point. The amount of money needed to bring it back to life from me just looking at the small pictures not even downloading or opening them would be enough to put a massive down payment on a new car.
I agree that the chassis is more than likely compromised and when all was said and done you would be left with a repaired vehicle that is still on shaky ground at the best.
If cheap enough it’s a parts car.“The owner says….”. Right. I imagine the owner is either seriously ignorant when it comes to body/chassis damage or they’ve been advised of the worst and are now whitewashing (a.k.a. lying) the problem in an attempt to unload the car.
Based on the pic and the location of the car, I’d say it had a pretty rough ride if it came down the terrain shown.
Thank you for all the replyes ,i haven,t seen the car yet .
yes it has just one side airbag detonated and the price of the car is about 30% of the market value.
wih the estimated repair bils i gus it would clime up to 50% .
i wil check all of the pilars for twists and turns and if the structure is ok i hink it’s woth te effort.
if not, no.
Thank you all .For the last 2-3 years I have only purchased total loss salvage vehicles for myself, family, and rec’d to friends. If you know what you’re doing and are careful the benefits far exceed the risks and drawbacks. In fact, usually they are better cars than most of what you’ll find on Craigslist, eBay, etc as far as condition and maintenance go. However, it’s certainly possible to get in over your head and end up losing. I have never purchased a roll over to repair, only for parts, and it’s damage far exceeded this Volvo you’re looking at. In fact, I almost can’t believe how light the damage on that is. Volvo makes a very solid vehicle. The main things I would look out for / consider:
1) What do you expect out of this vehicle? If you expect it to be cosmetically indistinguishable to a car that was never wrecked, you may be disappointed. Anything can be restored, but at what cost? I’m plenty satisfied with “close enough” that an untrained eye from 5-10 ft away can’t tell.
2) What are the regulations in your area? Are there additional inspections, requirements, etc for salvage vehicles? Where I live, there are not, but I have heard of others having nightmares with this.
3) How much work can you do yourself? I can’t imagine it being very economically viable to pay someone to do all of this. Sometimes the airbags and ABS can be tricky and require diagnostics with expensive equipment, especially on a newer luxury vehicle like this.
4) Parts – what is the availability of used or aftermarket parts? With this much damage, dealer parts will quickly drain this project.
5) With all that in mind, does it make financial sense? 30% of market value is not unreasonable but a tad high if you ask me based on the damage and how expensive the repairs are likely to be. You should aim to finish the car for 50% of retail like you mentioned. A “professionally repaired” salvage car is generally worth about 70% of retail value.
Stiv,
In your opinion what’s the best way of checking the trueness of the chassis?
I’ve heard of drop testing with plumb bobs but it involves stripping down the whole care, there must be a better way.
Ed
You know, I don’t really have a good answer to that. I only buy front end wrecks because generally cars are engineered to take a hit straight on in the front the best. Rear, side, roll over, or at an angle seems dicey to me without professional frame work. I just goto a used car lot with a same model car I’m working on and either take a test drive or flat out ask them if I can take some measurements. In my experience, if the end of the frame rails measure up right on a straight on front end wreck, you’re in good shape. I’ve only had one car that I had to pull the engine in order to get access to do some more involved frame pulling and finagling with. I did not pick that car out or get to see it before the person bought it, the vehicle was hit head on while making a left turn, so on one corner, and pretty hard at that. Broke the transmission housing! Only salvage car project I’ve been in that I would have liked to have back but again she didn’t ask me to look at it first…
Some of the cars I’ve worked on didn’t even need an alignment. Some were off quite a bit but nothing the shop couldn’t correct so far except the car I mentioned above, I’m not sure if it’ll ever track perfectly straight.
A long time ago, before I ever messed with any of this, my aunt bought a cute little Mercedes convertible that was driven off an overpass bridge. It had very little cosmetic damage which is why she bought it I’m sure, but it was never repaired properly. She still has it, but drives it very little. It handles like crap and goes through tires about twice as fast as it should.
For the benafit of others and maybe people can add to this I know:
To look ant the door bonnet and boot gaps and see if they line up properly with even gaps on both sides. If not its a good indication that the chassis may be twisted.
Look for dents in the roof. An untrue car could cause the roof to buckle
When you drive down the road if you can see more of the car in one mirror than the other while still looking straight back the car is Lozenged.
Without stripping it down that’s the extent of my knowledge on this.
Any other tell tail tips?
Run, don’t walk away from this. I promise you don’t want the endless headaches. If you really have your heart set on it, have it put on a 4 wheel alignment machine before purchasing, check for any weirdness. If it had none (unlikely)Then and only then should consider buying it. There are many things in the underpinnings that can get off just a little, and no, you cannot feel it driving it, that will cause unexpected headaches down the road. As somebody else said, eating tires is quite common among wrecks as well as an unalignable vehicles and all sort of other nasties. S title vehicles are like poison to some markets and I would keep looking. ;
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