Volvo 480 Club Europe

quick one, is there an 'O'-ring or gasket between the housing that the radiator cooling fan plugs into or how is it sealed.

mine decided to unscrew itself about sixth turn, for no reason, radiator has been in the car for a good few years and I really don't want to pull it out onto the bench to get it resealed. it's an aftermarket radiator with a rubber cover over the extra stub, ruddy pain to get that jubilee clip off to allow the radiator to pull properly forward to see sealing arrangement. . . .

i got it a wee bit forward and got pump pliers onto the nut to tighten, but scared in case over do it.

might end up pulling it out and sealing with RTV, the switch doesn't work any way so not worried about future removal

If no one else answers your query in the meantime, I'll happily take a look whilst up at 'midlands 480 HQ' on saturday and let you know. I have two radiators laying around out of cars ATM so can easily check for you

Ade wrote:If no one else answers your query in the meantime, I'll happily take a look whilst up at 'midlands 480 HQ' on saturday and let you know. I have two radiators laying around out of cars ATM so can easily check for you

spot on, i have the old rad (as an emergency use) but no sensor fitted , i might pull forrad at week end and wind PTFE tape around it anyway

Sorry for the delayed response, I did have a look on saturday, just forgot to post up my findings for you. My fan switch was PTFE'd, although thinking about it, I fitted the rad not long after I bought the car (quite a while ago now so memory a little foggy) so I must have done this. Not sure what the original solution would have been but the PTFE never let me down so I'd just go for that if I were you.

I was reminded of another thing I did at the time as well which is definitely worth doing... the various holes in the slam panel that accommodate the rad hoses have very sharp edges and (the fan switch jogging my memory from the rad job all those years ago) a couple of my hoses had started to chafe and would have eventually gone through so I split some silicon hose along its length with a stanley blade and lined the edges of the holes with it so as to prevent hose damage. If you're taking your rad out I'd definitely consider taking a few mins to do this before you put it back together for peace of mind. Those razor sharp edges so close to pipes were enough to make me nervous anyway, especially seeing as how there were witness marks from rubbing! I'll definitely be doing this on my new black one before I put the front end back together.