Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Fri Aug 13, 2010 9:54 pm

every now and then folk ask me if I have a spare piece of trim/screws nuts etc the odd bits that you need to fix up the 480 well thats a silly question this is my over flowing "trim bin" opposite the 4 spare doors below the 2 spare headlinings and clutch cables.

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and you really dont want to look in my shed :lol: with 3 front bumpers stuck round the back , a bonnet , wing and nose cone jammed at the side of it next to the larchlap fence.

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Sun Aug 15, 2010 8:42 pm

Funny some days start off badly then just get better. In the glorious warm sunshine I rotated the tyres on kerrie's 480 only to find out that when I hand tightened one of the ladt wheel nuts it sheered in 2 , funny never had that happen thought thats my day screwed up well and truely , then using 2 small screwdrivers I managed to remove the bolt stub :hopping: .
Then changed brake shoes , did some anti rust work and worked on my tan :lol:

A good day. ;)

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Tue Aug 24, 2010 11:03 pm

The first day recently with no rain so after draining the petrol tank last night , I started on the breaker today :lol:
just a quick photo of 480 central just now....
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and the breaker
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spent sometime checking stuff out and making up a parcel of parts for posting to another enthusiast :hopping:
then went out with the dog for an hour or so. :D
Image

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:43 pm

Been a bad day today daughter had an accident in her 480 , in heavy rain aquaplaned and spun 360 degrees rear ended a stationary obstacle then bounced across to a safety barrier , front and back end stove in but the car was driveable home later on and she walked away with a BIG FRIGHT and not a single bruise. The car will have to be written off but the volvo did what is said on the tin - volvo = safety

:D

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Tue Sep 14, 2010 5:08 pm

Thats exactly what I am doing :rofl:

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Sat Sep 25, 2010 12:25 pm

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The rear end has deformed and the rear axle is sitting at an angle . Since I had a normal tyre in the spare wheel well it transmitted the shock further into the body causing it to misalign.

Poor Skippy is dead :cryhard:

But hey my daughters fine and lynx was put through a mot to see if it was worth fixing and surprise it only failed on handbrake and bulbs. So game on this weekend I will be fixing it up and see if I can get it passed on Monday. :)

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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by ChrisRidett » Mon Oct 04, 2010 8:30 am

Sorry to hear about the accident, glad to hear your D is ok.
Its always a pain when something that you've worked on gets 'done over', but in these circumstances its like.......all the work paid off.
At the end of the day, she wasn't hurt, and the car did its job in protecting its occupant.
Given the choice of my Rover 25 and Poppy to have an accident in ......it would be poppy ... esp if my boy was with me.
I'm seriously contemplating trying to convince the mrs into an 480 Auto if/when the Rover pops its clogs.
Hope the crash hasnt deterred her from driving or 480's!
Cars: Bond Bug 700ES, Reliant Scimitar GTE SE5A,Vauxhall Carlton CDX 2.6, Nissan 200 SX , MG-ZR, Rover 25 , Volvo V40 1.9TD, 480 Turbo..POPPY- to be released back into the wild, Volvo V70 D5 (ExWife nicked it, gave it back broken,I fixed it temp, flogged it to WeByAnyCr before it broke again :). Hyundai Elantra 2.0 CDX ( Strangest car ever).
Now have a full OBD software so although the 480's didnt have it - any members need a cars Engine Management Light reset post 1999 get in touch :)

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Wed Oct 13, 2010 6:43 pm

Just finished 3 days hard graft getting my own 480 through its mot. It failed the first time on front wishbone bushes - totally goosed , a seat bolt not tighted in far enough and a worn tyre.

So removed both front wishbones from the now dead skippyImage , A job and a half 3 hours to get a bolt out of the wishbone as it had corroded itself into the bushing. Took a bench vice and a 4lb heavy hammer and eons of thumpss to free it oh and gallons of wd40.
Then removing the duff ones from the 480 and replacing with the recycled ones ( these were fairly new ) can you believe it 3 consecutive days of no rain :hopping: miracles do happen. Still by the looks of it the wishbones were the original ones (15years old) this time the bolts were well greased. So today I went to one garage for cheap tyres then almost next door to get the tracking done and then straight onto the mot station and by 1.15pm had a new mot. :D Result :D

In between putting one seat into the car and then taking it out again and replacing the original one :shock: .
Now all I have to do is put the old wishbone back on to skippy Imagethen remove its engine tow back out garage roll onto ramp and then complete the final stripdown. The garage now looks like this ImageThats why I have to replace the old wishbones so effectively I did two complete changes of wishbones.

Now that skippy is destined for the scrappers I took the blunt end of my ratchet spanner and tapped the innocent scab of rust at the rear and guess what happened :shock: Image

Still lynx started off life as a scrapper nows its a daily driver from...Image
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to...
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it really does pay to keep a few spares handy just in case :rofl:

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Sun Oct 31, 2010 9:16 am

well been a busy week at work but yesterday got a few hours to work on the car and the engine popped out quite easily. Will put up pics later so put old mot failure wishbones back on and bolted on a pair of duff tyres :D got wife and daughter to help and towed the hulk out onto driveway :hopping: .
Now if it keeps dry I will put it onto the ramps and complete the strip down :rofl:

On top of that I am getting teed off with the piles of spares it seems that neither I or anyone else wants I must get rid off some so Skippy will end up being a skip as well :rofl:

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Sun Nov 14, 2010 8:02 pm

Well a bit of a wasted dat eventually got the car towed out onto edge of road and ramps down iin place and would you believe everybody chose then to drive past except I was blocking the way . I am at the top of a cul de sac!. One person even drove down reversed and drove back again just in time to make me unhook tow line again!.

Got the car started on the ramp but the wheels are all splayed out so it was impossible to stop the ramps skewing round out of alignement so after the best part of an hour the car is at the top of the driveway and I wont be able to get some of the parts off a well thats life!

Still neighbour across the way had free entertainment this afternoon and the little boys across the road got all excited as they told me they were waiting for the car crash :lol:

The temperatures started to ndrop quite a bit so just had to stop working. :bla:

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Sun Nov 21, 2010 6:32 pm

Today got a straight run of a couple of hours at stripping the car so the complete dash is out , the pedal assembly and the servo unit.

On top of that I have just bought a car another 480 a good one this time so Lynx will get put up for sale soon :D and its still not raining in Glasgow yet. :rofl:

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Fri Nov 26, 2010 7:51 pm

Bloody freezing outside now . Have spent a couple of hours getting bits off car as it has to go very soon (by Monday night at latest). Havent managed to get some of the parts off yet but I am getting there. IOt is so cold and dark that it is counter productive to press on so I will be sorting out garage and tools tonight for another hour then taking the dog for a walk. Beginning to get fed up with working on cars again. But dont worry this will pass. :lol: A few photos to take and post up for rachel.

Just been looking at weather forecast , trust me to go to wales just as the snow falls ah well lucky white heather anyone?

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Fri Dec 03, 2010 9:01 pm

Well got down to Wales bought the car and drove it home , a journey and a half but thankfully no snow although for a lot of the route it was -6C got into bed at 5 40 am and got up for work at 7.30am :lol:

The weather has been so bad snow -10 temperatures that I have not been able to look at the car in daylight so far.

The car is a J reg but it has only 1 previous owner and a verified 33k miles :D with dealer service history with the body in excellent condition.

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It has been laid up in storage for 2 years and only started and turned over , run round the block driven to a local garage and moted then a couple of months later driven 400miles back up home to Glasgow.
Typical of a car sat around for a long time one of the popup motors has seized , the radio and fan blower dont work - have checked fuses so there must be an auxiliary fuse fitted somewhere.
The engine block and radiator needs drained the thermostat changed then refilled with antifreeze.
The engine ticks over at 1800 revs per minute - yes so the ignition system will need to be throughly checked out and cleaned/renewed were applicable.
The sunroof will need a little attention as well.

I have plenty of time since I will be waiting for the V5 to arrive from Swansea during the next couple of weeks and the tax has run out :(
When the car is fixed up and taxed Kerrie will inherit my celebration number 200/480 and the little grey car will be prepared for sale. Yet again I will be busy dont you just love these little cars.

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Fri Dec 10, 2010 8:55 pm

engine now idling at 800 revs/min as it should.
Popups sorted , replaced the popup relay and then removed and replaced both motors as one was seized up and the other other worked intermittently and refitted nose cone.

Next job is to drain radiator , replace thermostat and electric coolant fan then refill with 50/50 antifreeze.

These older cars pre 93 do look so different from the later models in a number of respects.
Damn just as you think you are beginning to get a grip on how these wonderful cars work something "new" comes along. :lol:

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Wed Dec 22, 2010 11:52 pm

Well the V5 arrived yesterday and my holidays start tomorrow at lunchtime so I will be busy in sub zero temperatures -10 this morning at 8am :D rising to -5 at 1pm :lol: . There is so much salt and grit on road that I wont run the new car and its so cold that it would be foolish to drain radiator and replace thermostat. I have just bought a new cutting disc for the small angle grinder so will be removing the central section of exhaust complete with cat and lambda sensor , the rubber exhaust mounts the windows and power steering pump. If possible the windscreen but that could be a major problem in the cold (-6/7 degrees as the mastic is rock hard :lol: the fuel pump and fuel pipes. Would have been nice to get the steering rack off but I dont think that is going to happen. Then sort out the new car with 2 tone cream leather interior... and all sorts of other stuff and then prep the grey 480 for sale. Thats the plan anyway. ;)

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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:50 am

Well the scrapers came last friday and lifted the car. Some parts were to badly damaged to remove and the exhaust had to get scrapped as well. Still it let me get on with things yesterday and today. so on Saturday as weather was so mild +8 degrees I sprayed a wing , changed over a complete set of seats . Fitted a new thermostat , refilled and tested system to find the engine still over heating and the electric fan not cutting in. So checked all the hose clips after removing nosecone and radiator cowling cleaning up front of car rustproofing and then repainting. Then ran out of daylight so gutted garage .
Today checked through shed found some stuff I was looking at and a pile of hoses.
Today I checked the fan and found out that the radiator temp sensor is goosed. Alas so to is the radiator as it began to steam :lol: and a number of hoses clips have died ! So got out my spare radiators to discover I did not have a pre 93 NA radiator :wall: . Found 2 turbo intercoolers, 2 aircon radiators and an aircon system radiator .

So the over heat must be due to the water pump being goosed as the auxiliary water pump is fully functional. Tomorrow must sort out a clutch problem , change a headlight bulb and then check out and change water pump and sensor. Gradually making progress but it was -2 today rising upto 0C . Still felt as if I am making progress :bla: a good day :D

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Wed Jan 05, 2011 12:31 am

In between and during rain showers fixed the clutch problem just adjustment needed . The handbrake was easy if not quick had disconnected the handbrake cables at the lever end then the snow came down and I forgot all about it so re attached cables opiled them both and adjusted the rear brakes . Job done and the car is minted including adding some sealant and tightening a few screws. Oh and sorted a bulb problem one of the wires had snapped so looked out a replacement and connected it in. :D

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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Fri Mar 25, 2011 9:06 pm

Progress report on BIFFO the blue 1.7 480 :D

Coolant problem:
Replaced radiator and made up hoses to fit.
fitted new bottom hose.
fitted new thermostat
replaced engine cooling fan and fan switch mounted in radiator.
replaced heater matrix
replaced heater matrix hose (one with bleed valve).
changed the water pump as well.

Coolant system now fixed.

The main problem was the car developed a high idle at 1400 rpm so I took the throttle body off and cleaned it reasssembled and surprise the idle had now increased to 2000rpm !!!!

took several weekends to get this sorted out ....
changed idle control valve
lambda sensor
changed throttle body for a 2 ltr one ( to fit required one engine lift lug removed.)
made up some small hoses
replaced ECU
replaced cold start sensor.
changed throttle position sensor.

discovered that the instructions given for testing bits and pieces refer to the turbo and are not generic in nature.
On top of that took out the seats which were crappy velour and put in the cream leather ones. Then took the leather off of drivers seat and rear passenger seat and recovered other better condition seats.

On the electrical front I had to replace the fan motor
fitted I/SO connector on radio but still a problem to sort out with the wiring.

Rear clusters sealed
NS rear window removed , refitted and sealed.
Replaced a broken connecting rod on sunroof.
changed over and resprayed to Paris blue a set of wing mirrors and fitted.

New clear front clusters are ready to be fitted when I have sorted everything up.

Oh popups fixed , and motors replaced.
Thinking I was finished oh no the seat catch broke so thats this weekends task + replace broken p bulbs in heater and ignition key ring.:lol:

the car is now almost fully functional :hopping:

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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Sat Mar 26, 2011 12:42 am

On top of getting Biffo sorted I resprayed a white front wing and removed the damaged wing from Lynx and fitted the "new " one :lol:

Car (Lynx) now advertised for sale. :D

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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Tue Mar 29, 2011 10:42 pm

This weekend I changed the starter motor and also the drivers seat catch which broke on Friday :D

car now fully servicable

:wave: :wave: :wave: :wave: :wave: :wave:

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