Will she make it to the north of Italy?

t_w · Post by **t_w** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:04 pm

Will she make it to Italy

?

She has to tow a little trailer (max. 500 kg.) and the top speed won't be above 100 km/h (due to the little trailer)..

Well, after a lot of work, I think the car should make it, itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a 1000 km drive to get there (of course it would be nice if I could return also

Ã¢â‚¬Â¦)

Not only did I fit a towbar (as can be seen in the Ã¢â‚¬ËœhowtoÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ section) but I also:
- Changed the cambelt (including the tensioners)
- New cranckshaft seal (clutch side)
- New drive shaft seals (left and right, incl. the oil of the gearbox)
- New spark plugs
- New oil filter (incl. the oilÃ¢â‚¬Â¦)
- New gasket under the valve housing
- Cleaned the brakes
- New battery
- And some other things (interior/exterior)

What do you think, will I get there or not?
(build in 1990 and now has a milage of 120.000 miles (193.000 km)

Roo · Post by **Roo** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:16 pm

I've every faith having just completed a long journey myself.

In fact, why not take the scenic route!

martinholmesuk · Post by **martinholmesuk** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:27 pm

Looks good with the trailer on the back, if I had small children I'd take them tenting for a week to France which would be great fun

Rachel · Post by **Rachel** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:02 pm

I dunno.....you need to have more faith! These polls of will she make it or not just sound like you all have no faith in your 480's!...... She'll make it just fine. Have a good trip

Really nice pic btw!

Rachel · Post by **Rachel** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:05 pm

martinholmesuk wrote:Looks good with the trailer on the back, if I had small children I'd take them tenting for a week to France which would be great fun

You see Mart...before you know it you'll be getting a tow bar and hitching a caravan to your 480. It's the beginning of the end

t_w · Post by **t_w** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:35 pm

Hmm, I see you're all quite confident!

And about the combination towbar / 480:

Well, it's probably something that the Germans (I live approximately 15 km from the German border) call: 'BlÃƒÂ¶den HollÃƒÂ¤nder'

A towbar is an accepted phenomena around here...
And my girlfriends parents own the little trailer, sow why not

?

We're leaving on sunday... When I'm back I'll post how the car performed

martinholmesuk · Post by **martinholmesuk** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:58 pm

I see myself being a good dad, caravan or not.

maybe i'll get another mon-crap-o

catgroom · Post by **catgroom** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:07 pm

Sounds like this machine will make it mate!

Well maintained by what you have said,looks fantastic bodywise too!

Happy adventuring!

MGB_GT · Post by **MGB_GT** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 8:28 pm

Why all of a sudden are people panicing? It's a Volvo, the chances of a breakdown are frankly slim if it's been maintained well.

t_w · Post by **t_w** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:00 am

Well, before I bought the Volvo, I had a VW Golf II with all the extra options (as in: none

) So, with nothing on the car, it will never break! I had it for about 3 years and never had any problems or what so ever... Before that I drove a VW polo (build in 1985, 1000 cc engine), which was the same, no problems at all... At that time I was a student, so had no money to spend.

Now, with the Volvo, and all the stories I've read on the internet fora, I don't know what to expect!
So that's why I'm wondering

MGB_GT · Post by **MGB_GT** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 4:56 pm

Well certainly things break on 480's, but it's rare that those things would be something that stops the car from being driven. You can drive a 480 with a knackered gearbox/clutch for months. The engines will keep going well beyond the overheating point for longer than you'd probably wish to risk going. Compare those to say a Ford, and you'd be stuck at the side of the road and buying a new car. I've had two breakdowns in Volvos myself. One was my 440 which was leaking coolant. Cut the end of the rubber tube and reattached it and filled with water and I was on my way. The other way when the 480 needed a new altenator belt, but I had left this knowing one of the belts under the bonnet needed attention for two year prior to it failing!

t_w · Post by **t_w** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:27 am

Well, a total of 2700 km driven, no problems at all!
What a ride! I drove 960 km in 12 hours (with a little trailer attached)...
It's really nice to overtake a truck, just put it in to the 4th gear, floor the gas and just 'fly away

', even with the trailer attached!

No problems with the temperature, or oil consumption or what so ever

Only one thing, the warning light of the passengers safetybelt sometimes lid up, but I can't say that was a 'big problem

...

So, the 480 has convinced me, it's a reliable car!

aibast · Post by **aibast** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:55 am

I torture my 480 every day and it works great . So it should go smooth as silk. And if its a turbo, then trailer shouldn't give a problem @ all.

2127 · Post by **2127** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 10:35 am

I towed a 2 year old Peugeot 307 Break once, straight through the center of Antwerp at around 4pm on a week day. The Pug is quite a heavy car and the traffic was very busy so it was a bit of a handful... but it performed flawlessly! Not really a comparison for a 2700 km road trip with a trailer, I know, but my '89 Turbo was a well performing work horse, day in, day out. It didn't look the part with its torn leather seats, various rust spots and faded paint, but it worked just fine.

muddyfox470 · Post by **muddyfox470** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 6:39 am

Of course you should.

I returned back from my 4000+ mile journey (6000+ km) around Europe (still need to work out how far we went in total) with a mate (including north Italy) with no major problems, none mechanical.

I will have to update my post and log of events in my diary section to say how it went and what happened...

Good luck with your trip

Ian

admittedly it wasnt towing a trailer, but it was fully laden (with czech beer) and had to endure temps greater than 40 degrees!

ozturbo · Post by **ozturbo** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 7:50 am

We, (my wife, two kids and I ), drove our Italian 480 Turbo 37,500 km around Italy and other parts of Europe, including climbing to the top of the Austrian Alps, the Dolomites twice, France twice, Spain and Switzerland. Some of that was in the first half of 2002 and the rest in 2005 when we went back for 12 months and our friend, to whom we sold the car previously, gave it back to us for free. During that time it didn't stick us up even once. We had a new muffler fitted, a new auxiliary water pump, disc pads and tyres and that's all. Our Australian one has had to be towed three times with fuel injection electrical connection issues, broken clutch cable and leaking bottom radiator hose. Apart from that it gets my wife around every day just fine.