Volvo 480 Club Europe

Good times! And fixing an unwilling headlight popup motor is simple, just bridge the relay contacts and let the popup motor run for about 15 minutes. 9 out of 10 times it's working fine again.

same here, have a lifetime supply of fuses and relays after stripping 2 480's of its electronics

Bought my 480 in 2014 for € 1500. Spent € 600 for parts and labour immediately after for the first service and repairs (fluids, spark plugs, brake discs, brake pads, engine mount), MOT fail on suspension arm mounts so decided to have the entire suspension front & rear replaced (springs, shocks, all ...

May I strongly advise against using 15W40 mineral oil in a 480? It needs at least semi-synthetic 10W40 (A3/B4 spec) and a Turbo should run on fully synthetic 5W40. See Volvo specifications in the manual if you don't believe me. 10W40 will set you back an additional 10 quid, though. Also, spark plugs...

Looks like a very tidy car, if it wasn't RHD and located more than a day's travel from here (if you include the ferry), I'd be all over it. :hopping: And the instrument cluster has had an interesting holiday. After I've built up a complete new one (so Martin didn't need to put this one off the road ...

Speaking of stupid prices, there's a German breaker who really thinks everything with Volvo on it is worth its weight in gold. A 2 liter B20F engine with 230,000 kms (143,000 miles) on the clock ... 699 Euro! I can buy complete cars with lower mileage for that amount. :rofl: https://www.ebay.co.uk/i...

Perhaps it’s £495 for the car and £8000 for the digital clock? With my desperation for one, I'd half consider that. But if you could take the rear lenses, clock or belt tensioners what would you choose? Oh, do drop me a message with your address, I'll be most happy to post you a digital clock for p...

There are some people who have bought all the remaining stock of the Volvo dealers, and sell them for inflated prices. Not mentioning any names, those who wander the forums and Facebook groups know who they are.

Well, what I have noticed after tinkering with 480's the past 6 years: moisture is the biggest enemy of the 480. Not just rust, also the electrical system will suffer a lot. I have been lucky, my car hasn't lived near the sea, the previous owner fixed all the leaks and I have a dry storage for the d...

I think there were some updates in the software controlling the 8-bit CPU in the infocentre, because the behaviour changes a bit through the model years. It could very well be that the early cars' infocentre had a bug.
Also, poor earth connection will make the measurements unreliable.

YouTuber Matt "furiousdriving" Richardson has bought the cheapest 740 with MOT and made an entire series about how he is restoring it. Worth watching, especially the bits that deal with rust, so you know what to watch out for. Start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iykk_vxzwqQ Playlist: https:/...

The actual winning bid was at £ 4725 plus applicable fees. This is what I found in the Dutch forum (translated by me) ]"This 480 with identification number XLBEX143EGC5000184 has been sold in the UK at an auction on April 25, 2018. It's a 1986 car which has never been registered, had 59 kms on the c...

If the hazards are working and the indicators are not, the problem is either in the column stalk, the hazard switch or the wiring between them, not in the CEM! The CEM has a completely separate circuit for the flashers, what usually fails is the flasher click throught the built-in speaker.

About the car with only 77 kms on it, that car is officially registered as "destroyed" by Volvo and has no VIN nor registration papers, nor it has received any of the updates in the electrical system, i.e. it will probably have lots of faults and niggles which were common with the first cars produce...

I think the toughest crowd are not the folks here, because they already have a 480 :wink: The toughest crowd are the potential buyers. And they are not going to pay that much, unless the car is 100% perfect, then it might spark interest from Volvo collectors. Imperfections are already stated: wrong ...

1986/1987 cars have VERY flaky electrics, they were the Volvo mechanic's nightmare. I once worked on a 1987 car, which had all sorts of strange failures (engine did start, but no brake lights, dashboard dead, etc.), turned out to be a bad socket of the "15" relay supplying power to the rail that is ...

If the engine doesn't end up finding a home, we are in need of a 2ltr sump - our GT's has an old weld with rust around it, OK for now but at some point it needs changing. Please bear in mind if you have to scrap the block. The sumps are a standard Renault part, 77 00 857 504 or 77 01 648 829 is the...

Even a sorry looking board may work fine and a board that looks like it's been produced yesterday may be faulty. You should check and re-solder the joints of the connectors (blue/yellow, yellow/red or green/grey depending on model year), because that is the #1 cause of failing speedometers. A "secon...

You could pull the SRS warning light bulb (or install an instrument cluster without SRS) and install a non-SRS steering wheel

It's both the location and the reputation of the 480 that makes this car unsaleable, even if you slice the price in half, even if there is no coronavirus. There's an immaculate Volvo 480 GT Turbo for sale in The Netherlands, same mileage, always stored dry, well maintained. It has been posted for sa...