Volvo 480 Club Europe

Probably a combination of a dodgy switch and dodgy wiring or relay, in such a way that the combined voltage drop in the switch and the rest of the circuit of one side caused one half of the relay not to energise. Either way, it has fixed your problem so happy times!

Yes - bizarrely a dodgy switch can cause one light not to work... Hi David, I'm very curious how a dodgy switch can cause one light not to work. If I'm looking at the wiring diagram, I can see only one wire controlling both motors. https://i.imgur.com/nEssAs0.png You can see a R-Br (red/brown) wire...

Are you sure you have connected the relay contacts the right way? Here is how: https://i.imgur.com/3Wu2it7.png And don't forget to fool the microswitch inside the bonnet lock. You should hear it click (and now I think of it, the relay is what blocks the motors from turning when the bonnet is open, t...

As far as I know, all radiator fans are alike, the design of the car's front end never changed during its entire production run. Only the thermoswitch in the radiator differs depending on model year and engine, and the radiator itself comes in two sizes (a smaller one for non-turbo without a/c, and ...

My experience is that bridging the relay contacts and then let the motor run continuously for 10-15 minutes will revive 9 out of 10 popup motors. Only if the internal nylon cog has been worn out of the motor itself is seized you're SOL.

I have received a large donation of CEMs (-00, -01 and -III so covers every model year) and instrument clusters last week, never knew I was going to need them this quick! I should build a test fixture for the -01 (roughly the cars built in 1988, 1989 and 1990) which appear to be the most troublesome...

It was fitted for German cars only, it is a thick fluid which pushes the lamps into position. As it was clearly an afterthought (or rather an "oh shit" moment because it is a unique requirement for Germany), it wasn't well thought-out and will eventually break. German forums have a solution, I think...

Looks like you're in need of a new rev counter face plate. :) Can be mailed, if you are brave enough to open up the instrument cluster and rev counter; especially the rev counter is tricky, as it is held together by the same screws that hold the face plate. Can also post a complete rev counter which...

They are partnering with PostNL in Netherlands, so that's all good news. Due to coronavirus there has been so much insurgence in parcel volume while everyone is working at home; their white van driver puts the parcel on the doorstep, rings, waits in his van until I open the door, we wave and he goes...

Also there is no way of sending parcels cheap, as DPD has not yet resumed delivery to the UK (expected to resume service end March, but these dates have been pushed back twice already) and DHL still offers next-day delivery only at inflated prices. While it still can be sent cheap through PostNL/He...

Ha, like I remember almost 32 years after
It was most definitely more comfortable than a German car without power steering.

I do have quite a bit of memorabilia, do you think we ought to put together a club shared drive where we can maybe scan the pages of all these rare books and brochures so there is a central reserve of all these resources? I'd happily contribute :D Send it along to me, I'm already scanning and colla...

So, what did other people learn in ? I bet Ben was the only one of us in a 480.... There's no "learner" system in NL, you have to go to a driving school and learn it in a learner car with an instructor who has his own set of pedals. The mundane learner cars of the day (1988-1989) were Mk2 Golf with...

The info centre shares a fuse with the cigar lighter so that explains why it remains dark.
There must be a short somewhere, have you checked if something metal has fallen into the lighter plug?

Ollo, have you spoken to Orlando already? He doesn't have a Palm Beach steering wheel or a Hausser spoiler, but does have voltage/oil pressure gauges and the oil pressure sensor you need.

I’m fairly sure that Shell V-Power now DOES have Ethanol in the fuel (in the UK anyway)— it is true that they also held off adding it for some time though so check the date and source of what you are reading online. That is different from the Netherlands, where Shell V-Power has 0% ethanol (confirm...

V-Power is ethanol-free too. There's another reason why you don't want E10 in a car not used daily: phase separation. See this web site (with embedded explanatory video) for explanation: https://petroclear.com/resources/dont-be-phased.php If you're driving the 480 not very often and keep E10 too lon...

Ah, the infamous "obsolete parts" warehouse in Maastricht, which got cleared in 2007. I have tried to verify this story with the actual Volvo people involved and they had a simple explanation. Those were parts that were very slow to sell (though there were some nice parts, like Vesa wheels) so after...

He is currently sending his instrument cluster over so I might sort out some parts, though shipping is challenging.
(DPD does not ship at all, DHL only at prices you can buy a return ticket by plane for and PostNL hands it over to Hermes...)

Ignore the Bork!Bork!Bork! and watch from 1:32 in this video: https://youtu.be/6KHd_ilAawE It's a satirical TV show from the 1990s (Van Kooten & De Bie) and it would take a long time for non-Dutch to explain what is going on. I'll suffice by telling that Van Kooten drives Volvo and De Bie drives Cit...