My new life with a youngtimer

[jamescarruthers]

These guys? http://www.ecu-rc.com/index.html

I'm about to contact them about an ignition computer on my Renault Master petrol van and remembered you had posted a reguest. They are in The Netherlands.

[Van]

The same but better looking http://ecu-rc.nl/?Tid=1
I just hope they do want to touch this rather old gear. I know I once tried another company and they plainly refused the Volvo 480.

[jamescarruthers]

I did notice they had a repaired 480 VEM for sale.

[ChrisDK]

Hi Guys
This is much appriciated and of growing importance to keep the 480 alive. I reckon the problem will grow over the next few years as our cars get older, and the electronics seem to be rather fragile
I will post when I have contacted the company's. Electronic repaires is getting a lost craft in our comsumer society, where we rather replace it than repair it. Sorry, that's a nother discussion

Cheers
Chris

[ChrisDK]

I have been busy the last couple of weeks and haven't had the time to pursue the CEM repair. One thing I have discovered (maybe some of you allready know this) it seems that the CEM I+II have a self diagnose function, I will investigate it further and post the result. But for now i'm riding the bus

and Ha, I was reading a thread about the heating control vacum thingy, and found mine dosn't work either, but I can't be bothered, it's stuck in a position that gives air to the front screean and the air ducts, so I'm good

[ChrisDK]

Happy new year I know it is a littel late, but still. With the curtesy of Daniel in Germany I have received a new CEM I haven't had the time to install it yet, a new semester at the univercity, bad weather and a bossy girl freind (aren't all women bossy?) have keept me from working on the car. This weekend though, I thought I had time and opportunity with the girlfreind vissiting her mother, but the weather has been really bad, rain rain rain and more rain and and stormy. I guess we got the left over from what hit Scotland a few days ago.

On the Danish 480 club website I found the following message "International meeting in 2015 in Denmark: 3rd to 5th of July" but no further information. I will let You know if and when I find more information.

Cheers

[ChrisDK]

So.. not much news to report about. I haven't been able to sort out the indicator problems. At the moment, the indicators stop working when I apply the brake and therefore the car hasn't done many miles the last couple of month. BUT to morrow it is going to the auto electric guy to get fixed.

I sence spring is in the air and the car needs to be exercised. In anticipation of a return to road worthiness I created a new CD for driving. This time though, it's of a more modern type of music including
B52's, Joan Jet, Men without hats, Tone Loc, Lipps Inc, RUN DMC/Aerosmith, Human League, Rick James, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Queen, Scotch, Soft Cell, Videokids, Wild Cherry and Visage
Can't wait

[ChrisDK]

So, I'm still alive. Have been bussy these last couple of months, participating in a research project and writing master thesis AND I have become superstitious I have noticed that every time a praise the she devil it only takes a couple of days before something breaks. I got the indicator issues solved and they have been working flawlessly since. I have been using the 480 as a daily commuter to my borrowed office (where I write the thesis, not finished with that yet) she dosn't like the morning rushhour trafic

But other than that, everything has worked fine. within the last week a new interesting issue has occured, last monday I had to go up north to do a presentation in connection with the research project, woke up monday morning with the flu, but still I had to go, so I was a little late and had to do 150 all the way there, by the way, she felt happy doing 150 on the way back I noticed that every time I had to stop for a red light the engine would cut out. Of course I experimentet to see if it was only when the clutch was engaged, or the brake or both, but it seems random. It is not like it has problems idleling, but it suddently cuts out. Really strange and slightly annoying considering that I mostly do city commuting. Maybe it is more pronounced when the engine is warm, will have to research in to that in the next couple of days. Oh and the rear clusters really really need a polish, they are totaly grey.

[ChrisDK]

Long time since last update

Not much has happend these past few month. I have been really really really busy writing my thesis, so the she devil has been left to her own devises, not much love and attention. All in all she has performed well as a daily commuter. I have done a fair amount af city commuting and longer round trips to the rehabilitationcenter that is the epicenter of our research. In the final write up process, she was left unused for a couple of weeks.

So finaly! yesterday I had a few spare hours and devoted the time to the car. A polish of the rear clusters was needed, and helped a bit, they still need to be sanded down and spayed, which I cannot do outside in the car park. A quick intermistic wash were performed using a garden spray bottle, it really helped on the looks

The weather has generally been bad over the summer, with lots of rain. this weekend we had more or less rain from friday morning till sunday afternoon, it was really raining, I think we got 55mm just on saturday which is equivilant to three weeks of rain in august. The car proved NOT to be waterthight surprice surpirce, the boot were like a aquarium. The littel room in the boot where the tools go, were brimful with water, I don't think I have ever seen that much water in the boot before. Anyway it was drained and dried.

This morning I were commuting again, and I don't think all the rain has done anything good to the car's electronics. The speedometer were only periodically working, the engine has started running real rough again, like almost cutting out, and the engine cuts out at every red light, a littelbit annoying when commuting in the city. At the same time I have noticed that the fuel comsumption has skyrocket or at least it feels that way. I was monotoring it on the way home today, at idle speed the consumption is 13,3l/100 km, at a steady 30 miles pr hour in 4th gear, it is 10L/100 km, isn't that too much? (something is rotten in the state of Denmark) I'm wondering what the problem might be, faulty egnition or HT leads? idlecontrol valve?

Although I have often bitched about the car (my mechanic calls it the ghost, and it is not meant in a nice way) I have kind of grown attached to it, and it makes me wonder about the future. The car has about 7 month of MOT left, but the rusty rear archess, the need for rear clusters, paint, and a new windscreen to get it throuhg MOT makes it a economically unrealistic project. So I'm wondering what to do, the decision also depends on my future work situation, salary, communing distance etc. But driving the car makes me wonder how a Turbo drives?, or a 2.0 drives? It is nearly impossible to get a better car, at a fair price in Denmark so I will have to import one, which makes it NOT cheap, but still cheaper. They do have some nice 480 in the Netherlands Well more about that another time (I have also concidered a 924) lots to think about

Cheers
Chris

[ChrisDK]

Greetings my fellow 480 maniacs

An old saying goes, that no news is good news. The white she devil has been living a quiet life these past months. I'm cought up in job hunting which dosn't leave much time for playing around. Today for the first time in three weeks I took her out on the occasional "top op air in the tires", "check of the vater level in the boot" and a good "engine warm-up". Today's trip went without any problems, even the boot was relatively dry which was a bit of a surprice concidering the amount of rain we have had the last two weeks.

One thing was missing though, my favorite rock driving cd the story is that a month or two ago I visited a freind down south. He had, by presure from the family been forced to sell his beloved 1985' Opel Ascona and buy a Opel Meriva diesel MPV (sorry I don't meen to offend Opel Meriva owners) after a night of Robert Johnson tribute concert and several pints I felt so sorry for him that I gave him my favorite cd, so that he atleast had some decent music to listen to while driving his MPV. Sometimes you have to give one for the team ha ha ha. He's German and also in to MZ motorcycles and we are planning a trip in the spring, I just need a MZ or Jawa two stroke, It needs to be two stroke, but they can often be picked up for a few pennies, I'm already looking forward to spring

Nice weekend to all 480'es

[ChrisDK]

It's time for a small christmas update.

This has becomed a familiar sight every winter


I had the same problem last year. After three days of charging the car was running again. I had to take the car for a long test drive that day, which was nice but not without problems. Somehow the lid to the petrol tank was not released by the lever inside the car although it felt like there was tension on the cable, after some fittling around I managed to open the lid. another problem that accured that day were that the open door warning light suddently came on, but i guess it was down to heavy rain. the 480 is kind of allergic to rain mine is atleast. Now it's time for the christmas holliday hopefully I will find time to take the car out a bit more, it deserves to be driven often.

Merry Christmas to everyone

[ChrisDK]

Don't You just hate it when reality bites You in the arse?? I know I do.

Since my last update a few month ago the car has been driving perfect, no issues what so ever. I have been tight up in a stressfull job hunt and haven't had the time to post updates, well there hasn't been any exiting issues to post anyway.
But after six month of job hunting I was finaly offered a position far far far away from where I live and of course I took it, you all know how the job situation is at the moment, which means that I have to commute 136 miles pr day. Although the Volvo is driving beautifully there are some issues (expencive) that needs to be tackled before next MOT which is in may, and the old girl isn't up for commuting that many miles every day. The need of buying a commuter car and owning the Volvo dosn't correspond with my present economical situation, and therefore the only option was to sell the Volvo
It was traded in for..... an Opel diesel and the trade in price was a laugh I'm really sad to see it go, but I have keept it for as long as possible. The car dealer said that they would try to sell it on, but if it didn't sell it would be scrapped, which it totaly not deserve. I would have liked it to go to another enthusiast. Although it has been troublesome, it has also given me many good driving experiences and I will properly regret selling it.

It has been four good years of ownership and I can't thank this forum enough for Your support and help with spareparts and advise. THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!!!!!!


I do have a few spares laying around which I will sort and post here on the forum.
Cheeers
Chris

[brinkie]

Tough decision, but 136 miles (220 km) commute every day is a lot indeed. Well at least you have a job. I know how far things can be separated in your country, spent quite a few holidays there.
Too bad that, given the rare occasion of a 480 in Denmark, the car will be up for scrap. It seems to me the Danes don't like cars, it is like everybody drives Toyota when I was travelling through Denmark. I rarely see a classic car or even a youngtimer with DK plates.
Though I hope you didn't buy a late 1990s era Opel diesel, as with those engines you have to fill her up with oil every week and check diesel level every now and then... If you need to upgrade from Opel and want to travel in style, buy a Saab

[Van]

Chris, at least you finally had the car to run trouble-free so you will part with some satisfaction. Good luck with your job and who knows what the future will bring in cars!

[jamesy12345]

Well done Chris for keeping it going so long

Reality doesn't match with my plans either

[ChrisDK]

Cheers guys
You all know Adam from mythbusters?? My faworite quote is "I reject your reality and substitute my own" It kind of works, for a while .

The thing with Danes and cars is much to do with our laws. We seem to prefer new small cars. On a note, Denmark is one of the few countries where the Vw Lupo 3L were popular and keept on selling long after other european countries stoped selling them. The reason beeing the high import tax on cars (180%) about 15 years ago politicians desided that we had to many old cars in traffic (the main reason beeing that only few people could afford buying new ones) and a scrap bonus of up to 600 £ were offered by the government and naturally a lot of people scrapped really good cars, just because they were old. That combined with the start of the real estate bubble boosted sales of new cars, and Danes have had a liking for Toyotas it's synomous with reliability and they are affordable. Therefore You seldom see youngtimers and classic cars, there are very few cars from the 70's and 80's left on the road and the 480 was really expencive, with a price tag of more than 30.000 £ in 1989.

Yes it was finally trouble-free, and the last year and a half were smooth riding and You never know.... once a 480 owner

[brinkie]

VW Lupo 3L is being banned here in The Netherlands because it has no diesel particle filter. It is illegal to drive a pre-2001 diesel vehicle in Utrecht (where I work) and in Rotterdam. In Rotterdam you are also banned from driving if you have a petrol car before July 1992. There is a documented story of someone who sold his Volvo for scrap, and later found out he could be exempted from this ban because his car had catalyst converter and Lambda sond. All these dates are chosen arbitrarily by clueless decision makers. The most pollution in Rotterdam comes from seafaring vessels, the amount of pollution from a few cars older than 25 years is negligible. Diesel cars pollute no matter what year, but somehow manufacturers found a way to circumvent the tests
We should abolish politicians

[Van]

It's a fact the Dutch are nuts. You have to see the Netherlands as one big mental institution.

[brinkie]

It's a fact the Dutch are nuts. You have to see the Netherlands as one big mental institution.

Cheers!

[ChrisDK]

HA In Denmark politicians tend to have double Standards, You know we are very evironmental orientatet with all of our windmills and solar panels etc. etc. all new government buildings must be zero energi buildings. BUT in regards to cars, there are no limitations. If you have an old diesel car (without diesel particle filter) Your are not banned from city centers You are just charged an extra 100£ road tax, that solves the pollution problem
For a couple of years electric cars have been sold without import tax and road tax, but the newest initiative from the government is adding import tax to electric cars, why? because they have been popular due to the low driving costs. Ex. last year a Tesla S would set you back 75.000 £ (although very expencive it's the most popular electric car) this year is costs 100.000 £ and the price will continue to rise over the next three years until is costs 150.000 £ totaly crasy and I reckon that wihin a couple of years electric cars will be charged with road tax as well.

It seems that Denmark and the netherlands are not that different