Volvo 480 Club Europe

Can anyone else help this forum member with the problem described below...

I'm afraid my turbo is again with some kind of problem.
I turn to you in this hour looking for precious advice.
I have noticed a puddle on the garage floor and after inspection it turned out to be coolant.
After giving a look in the engine bay I narrowed the leak from the auxiliary water pump area. I haven't been able to determine if the hoses are the leaking, from what I can tell the pump itself seems to be the source of the leak and coolant runs along the hoses. The steering bellow and the sub-chassis are getting wet and it doesn't look to me the hoses could do that since they are bit off to the side.
Do you know if the auxiliary water pump can be disassembled and fixed? A sealant ring of sometype, maybe?
Or when this happens usually the pump has to be replaced because it has cracked and is beyond repair?

If I attempt repair or at least removal of the auxiliary pump for inspection, should I work from the engine bay or remove the front wheel and access from the arch opening?

Pump removal will cause coolant to drain from engine or radiator, or both? Hose clamps can be improvised?

Sorry for all these questions, but I am a bit at a loss here, since MOT is 2 months away.

Many years ago I repaired the electrical part of the pump and from what I remember disassembling was an easy job. The sealant I reused. But I bet ihe problem is the hoses and/or their connections. Concerning the MOT, I hardly believe the pump is essential. You can temporarely do away with it and join the hoses.

I stripped mine down as wasn't working and thought at first was seized but the wiring was somewhat iffy ' engine bay access was quite easy with airbox removed and 10mm socket for pump

Robou wrote:Many years ago I repaired the electrical part of the pump and from what I remember disassembling was an easy job. The sealant I reused. But I bet ihe problem is the hoses and/or their connections. Concerning the MOT, I hardly believe the pump is essential. You can temporarely do away with it and join the hoses.

Which is what a previous owner of mine seems to have done

On my auxiliary pump the pump comes in 3 parts 2 plastic parts and the motor itself . The three parts are held together by 2 sets of screws so I reckon that there must be an O ring or rubber seal in one of them. It should be easy to take apart and reassemble.

No meu bomba auxiliar a bomba vem em 3 partes 2 partes de plástico e no próprio motor. As três partes são mantidas juntas por 2 conjuntos de parafusos por isso acho que deve haver um anel O ou vedação de borracha em um deles . Deve ser fácil de desmontar e remontar .

glasgowjim wrote:On my auxiliary pump the pump comes in 3 parts 2 plastic parts and the motor itself . The three parts are held together by 2 sets of screws so I reckon that there must be an O ring or rubber seal in one of them. It should be easy to take apart and reassemble.

No meu bomba auxiliar a bomba vem em 3 partes 2 partes de plástico e no próprio motor. As três partes são mantidas juntas por 2 conjuntos de parafusos por isso acho que deve haver um anel O ou vedação de borracha em um deles . Deve ser fácil de desmontar e remontar .

So, I'm the forum member with the problem Jim kindly described for me!

Thanks everyone, and particularly Jim, of course.
(Language is no barrier, I understand English fairly well. )
Jim, like I said earlier, I brought the turbo in today and started looking at it.
I took some pictures (sorry, not great) but I think it's perceptible where the leak is coming.

I am fairly thin so I managed to slip underneath the car without having to raise it and took the bottom and side covers off:




This is what I found:


[urlL=http://s1063.photobucket.com/user/JRT48 ... e.jpg.html][/url]

The original pump is very hard to find new, and if you find one, you will pay over 300 €.

But it is not a real difficult part to adapt, since it is basically a parking heater pump. I read last week that someone transplanted a pump from a C70 to the 480. It was on the Facebook group, which I find increasingly hard to follow because of the spam.

brinkie wrote:The original pump is very hard to find new, and if you find one, you will pay over 300 €.

But it is not a real difficult part to adapt, since it is basically a parking heater pump. I read last week that someone transplanted a pump from a C70 to the 480. It was on the Facebook group, which I find increasingly hard to follow because of the spam.

That's not good news, I'm afraid.

But continuing with some more pictures:





The leak seems to be coming from the pump and runs along the hoses. The hoses themselves seemed sound to me as I squeezed them but saw no water coming out.

After realising that some sadistic built the car I had to remove some parts that were in the way to reach the hoses and the mounting support:

Since coolant change was due I decided to drain the old coolant, avoiding the need to clip the pump hoses, which are now at least 25 years old...



Because I used a collector bowl with markings on it I could see that it poured about 5,5 litres of old coolant.
Haynes manual reports ~ 7 litres capacity, were are the other 1,5 litres? In the cylinder block?
How do I drain the cylinder block? I couldn't find the drain plug Hyanes manual states there is...?

well, a few hours later I finally managed to get the pump out!

Now I have to make heads and tails like Jim said and see what I will find inside.

glasgowjim wrote:On my auxiliary pump the pump comes in 3 parts 2 plastic parts and the motor itself . The three parts are held together by 2 sets of screws so I reckon that there must be an O ring or rubber seal in one of them. It should be easy to take apart and reassemble.

Yes, same here.



I think O ring is flat crushed so it no longer seals properly, which is consistent whith the visible leak from plastic part:

Barely clears the edge of seating face of the part:

However, I see some wetness inside the second plastic part:



There must be a bearing inside, could it also be a cause for leaking...?

The "propeller" doesn't come off, does it?



Better not try it, more likely to break if forced.

Well, for the time being I will have to look for a replacement for the O ring and see what happens.

480s partner wrote:Since coolant change was due I decided to drain the old coolant, avoiding the need to clip the pump hoses, which are now at least 25 years old...



Because I used a collector bowl with markings on it I could see that it poured about 5,5 litres of old coolant.
Haynes manual reports ~ 7 litres capacity, were are the other 1,5 litres? In the cylinder block?
How do I drain the cylinder block? I couldn't find the drain plug Hyanes manual states there is...?

Suddenly I am getting a bit worried about this because the old antifreeze was greenish and the new I bought from volvo is blueish, although the salesperson told me it was ok to mix them (which I am not entirely sure it is true and since there could be 1,5 Ltr of old coolant still in engine...).

Old antifreeze:



New antifreeze:

Joao

I suspect you will find the old antifreeze in the heater matrix if anywhere. Best and easiest if a bit messy is to flush the whole system through with a hose and cold water then refill with fresh anti freeze.

regards jim

Ok, new ring is in place and cleaned surfaces mate perfectly.

Gave a good cleaning outside to pump and to rubber parts, it's looking very nice now:

Hope I am not asking a dumb question, but can I activate-test the pump as of now, like this (outside car, no coolant)?

I have a power supply unit of DC 12V (or 13,8V) up to 5 amps/ 7amps peak available, would it just be a matter of making the connections and see if I get response?

glasgowjim wrote:Joao

I suspect you will find the old antifreeze in the heater matrix if anywhere. Best and easiest if a bit messy is to flush the whole system through with a hose and cold water then refill with fresh anti freeze.

regards jim

Jim, I have never gone that far in the procedure.
Where should I connect the gardening hose?
And shouldn't I disconnect some system hose of the engine? (Or from the radiator?)

Haynes manual keeps reffering to an elusive cylinder block drain plug "located below the inlet manifold near the oil pressure switch"...?