My first ownership of a 480! So I thought I'd share my experience.
Background:
Ive always been bit of a 80s-90s car nerd. I think it stems from loving cars well before I could drive. I remember many years ago during a rather ineffectual lesson in school writing a list of all the cars I'd like to own when I was 'older'. I think I'm secretly still working my way through this list, with some poetic licence to adapt it as I see fit. I've never been the one for owning just one car either. Any excuse to have a daily, a classic and a project and maybe another on the side meant I've always owned at least 2 cars from gaining my licence, up to the extremes of sometimes clogging up the drive with up to 5 cars. Needless to say I worked my way through many cars during my time, owning over 50 in my 18 years of driving. The cars themselves depended on what I took a fancy for at the time. Sometimes French hot hatches, sometimes German cruisers, the odd Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Nordic, and even British car too.
https://picasaweb.google.com/jimswebpic ... rsIveOwned
Now:
I own a fully restored 82 Mk1 Golf Gti tin top and a immaculate 87 Porsche 944S2, but I can't bring myself to use them as use them as daily drivers. I have a 90 mile commute each day that I am using a dull but very economical and simple (60-70mpg) remapped 1.6 206 GTI Hdi for (I can not recommend enough doing an EGR and DPF delete with these engines but thats another story), but having just sold a S1 106 Rallye there was a space on the drive and a gap in my car ideology for a cheap occasional daily reliable car. I then spotted a 480 on retro rides. I'd always thought about owning one, indeed at one point I was going to buy a car called 'poppy' advertised a while ago on here and on retro rides but it never happened, so I thought what the hell, I will buy it.
The car: http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/ ... er-bristol
So I've seen early 1.7l ES models go for much cheaper, but this one had no rust issues, a nice interior and no body damage & my feeling is I'd rather pay a little more for a forum owned / backed car than a random ebay / autotrader car. Typically I was looking after my 4 month old son solo for the 1st weekend (his name isnt Solo, I was by myself), but the seller agreed to my suggestion of him driving it to me and me paying the asking price in cash. Seller was a nice guy and genuine enough. When I actually got time to have a little explore of the car I discovered a few faults and niggles plus I made a jobs list of the bits I want to do to get it to the standard I want, despite it being a low cost occasional daily, there are certain things that would wind me up unless I sort them.
The cars future:
These are the faults that I wanted to sort:
Info Centre
Dancing Pop Up Headlights
Cabin Fan only working on high
Some instrument back lighting not working
Interference on the Stereo
Hazard light switch not working
Slight leak into boot area
Cosmetic bits I want to sort:
Refurbish rear lights
Replace very tired looking DRL lens
Crack in windscreen
Possible change wheels
Tidy front grill area
So I started getting on with some of these things today; and will update in a further post.
Jims Volvo 480
Moderators: jifflemon, coyote1980, Rachel
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jimsvolvo480
- 480 Newbie
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 5:52 pm
Jims Volvo 480
Last edited by jimsvolvo480 on Sun Apr 05, 2015 9:56 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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jimsvolvo480
- 480 Newbie
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 5:52 pm
Re: Jims Volvo 480
Fixing the Info Centre 
So I had done a little bit of research and all I could really tell was the faulty info centre could be being caused by one or a few of many underlying issues. So I just decided to cover as many areas off as I could and see if I got lucky!
Despite the rain, today would be one of very few days I will have free over the next few months, so I put on my best happy face and went for it... My approach would be this:
Disconnect Battery - Not just to power down the modules, but so I could safely work on the sparky bits.
Clean battery connectors
Clean up the earth straps / leads / connections
- Negative battery strap
- Earths to wing near battery
- Alternator earths
- Engine block earths
Use contact cleaner on any electrical plug I could find in the engine bay regardless of condition
Check earthing to fuse box (multimeter)
Check all fuses, replace any looking old, tiny squirt of contact cleaner before replacing
Remove all relays and use contact cleaner to clean spades and connectors before refitting
Remove stereo (to illuminate this an issue)
Remove instrument cluster
Clean up Info Centre rotary dial (the pcb comes out of this switch)
Unplug any system from dash loom not required (clock / alarm LED / light switches)
Washed Info Centre PCB in Isopropanol (An old tooth brush helps clean off any contaminants)
Clean ribbon lead and connections
TEST!
All of this went pretty much as planned. I improved on the wing earthing connection though. Longer screw with washers and all earth leads and battery negative copper strap compressed in between. To my surprise most electrical connections were spotless, but rubbed and cleaned them anyway. On the Info Centre PCB one of the ribbon cable solder connections looked a little weak, but I used a hot air gun with directional nozzle just to 're-ball' these joints without issue. Surprisingly the capacitors looked fine, no leaks or bulges, but made sure I cleaned around them just incase as any electrolyte can cause serious electrical issues to any circuit.
So without plugging the stereo and other dash switches / systems not required in, I reconnected the instrument cluster and the battery. Turned the key... and.....
It worked!
Passes all of its checks / displayed in each section, units change and reset as expected. A fully working Info centre. I then reconnected the switches one at a time, turning off each time, in case it caused an issue. Luckily it stayed working throughout, so refitted everything gave it a final test and all was fine. Most likely fix then was either cleaning / heating the PCB or making a much better earth connection to the wing, because there were no other obvious issues.
So I had done a little bit of research and all I could really tell was the faulty info centre could be being caused by one or a few of many underlying issues. So I just decided to cover as many areas off as I could and see if I got lucky!
Despite the rain, today would be one of very few days I will have free over the next few months, so I put on my best happy face and went for it... My approach would be this:
Disconnect Battery - Not just to power down the modules, but so I could safely work on the sparky bits.
Clean battery connectors
Clean up the earth straps / leads / connections
- Negative battery strap
- Earths to wing near battery
- Alternator earths
- Engine block earths
Use contact cleaner on any electrical plug I could find in the engine bay regardless of condition
Check earthing to fuse box (multimeter)
Check all fuses, replace any looking old, tiny squirt of contact cleaner before replacing
Remove all relays and use contact cleaner to clean spades and connectors before refitting
Remove stereo (to illuminate this an issue)
Remove instrument cluster
Clean up Info Centre rotary dial (the pcb comes out of this switch)
Unplug any system from dash loom not required (clock / alarm LED / light switches)
Washed Info Centre PCB in Isopropanol (An old tooth brush helps clean off any contaminants)
Clean ribbon lead and connections
TEST!
All of this went pretty much as planned. I improved on the wing earthing connection though. Longer screw with washers and all earth leads and battery negative copper strap compressed in between. To my surprise most electrical connections were spotless, but rubbed and cleaned them anyway. On the Info Centre PCB one of the ribbon cable solder connections looked a little weak, but I used a hot air gun with directional nozzle just to 're-ball' these joints without issue. Surprisingly the capacitors looked fine, no leaks or bulges, but made sure I cleaned around them just incase as any electrolyte can cause serious electrical issues to any circuit.
So without plugging the stereo and other dash switches / systems not required in, I reconnected the instrument cluster and the battery. Turned the key... and.....
It worked!
Passes all of its checks / displayed in each section, units change and reset as expected. A fully working Info centre. I then reconnected the switches one at a time, turning off each time, in case it caused an issue. Luckily it stayed working throughout, so refitted everything gave it a final test and all was fine. Most likely fix then was either cleaning / heating the PCB or making a much better earth connection to the wing, because there were no other obvious issues.-
jimsvolvo480
- 480 Newbie
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 5:52 pm
Re: Jims Volvo 480
Cabin fan only working on full speed..
Well whilst I had the dash to bits fixing the info centre I paid particular attention to cleaning the switch and connections to the fan control. One of the cables had a crush mark. I cut this little crush out the wire, used a simple small 1 pin connector to link the wire back up and protected with heat shrink tubing. Fixing this one wire wouldnt account for all but one of the fan speeds working, but having repaired it and cleaned the connection (the most obvious solution) the fan now works at all speeds.
Well whilst I had the dash to bits fixing the info centre I paid particular attention to cleaning the switch and connections to the fan control. One of the cables had a crush mark. I cut this little crush out the wire, used a simple small 1 pin connector to link the wire back up and protected with heat shrink tubing. Fixing this one wire wouldnt account for all but one of the fan speeds working, but having repaired it and cleaned the connection (the most obvious solution) the fan now works at all speeds.
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jimsvolvo480
- 480 Newbie
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 5:52 pm
Re: Jims Volvo 480
Fixing the non functioning hazard / emergency switch...
This was simple. It wasn't connected properly! Still cleaned the connections up anyway.
This was simple. It wasn't connected properly! Still cleaned the connections up anyway.
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jimsvolvo480
- 480 Newbie
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 5:52 pm
Re: Jims Volvo 480
Some back instrument back lighting not working...
I noticed one small gauge cable off the bulb lighting on the headlight rotary switch broken. Someone had also spliced into this broken cable to power up lights in the centre console. Once this cable was repaired, all the instrument lights functioned once more. Easy!
I noticed one small gauge cable off the bulb lighting on the headlight rotary switch broken. Someone had also spliced into this broken cable to power up lights in the centre console. Once this cable was repaired, all the instrument lights functioned once more. Easy!
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jimsvolvo480
- 480 Newbie
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 5:52 pm
Re: Jims Volvo 480
Headlights did a little dance when selected on / off, sometimes never settling, sometimes not working at all?
This was actually a combination of two faults, luckily it was the two areas I looked at.
Tall relay in relay box. Take it out, inspect, clean.
Some people test the lights by then shorting pins. You can actually take the outer shells off relays quite easily. With the relay in place (but cover off), you carefully can then using a cocktail stick close the relay. This checks the relay as well as power to the light motors. When the relays were physically activated the lights worked, but the relay only worked occasionally when using the headlight rotary switch. So whilst I had the relay cover off, I cleaned up using contact cleaner, this meant the relay worked much more often, however the lights motors would still not occasionally work.
Next was to check the bonnet latch switch. I cleaned the connector above the radiator then cleaned out all the old dirty contaminated bitty grease out of the bonnet catch hole. Using a heavy driver I simulated the bonnet being closed by pushing down the metal flap in the hole. The lights now worked perfectly every time, no dancing at all. I used a little bit of clean grease to re-lube the catch, but no-where near as much as there was before.
This was actually a combination of two faults, luckily it was the two areas I looked at.
Tall relay in relay box. Take it out, inspect, clean.
Some people test the lights by then shorting pins. You can actually take the outer shells off relays quite easily. With the relay in place (but cover off), you carefully can then using a cocktail stick close the relay. This checks the relay as well as power to the light motors. When the relays were physically activated the lights worked, but the relay only worked occasionally when using the headlight rotary switch. So whilst I had the relay cover off, I cleaned up using contact cleaner, this meant the relay worked much more often, however the lights motors would still not occasionally work.
Next was to check the bonnet latch switch. I cleaned the connector above the radiator then cleaned out all the old dirty contaminated bitty grease out of the bonnet catch hole. Using a heavy driver I simulated the bonnet being closed by pushing down the metal flap in the hole. The lights now worked perfectly every time, no dancing at all. I used a little bit of clean grease to re-lube the catch, but no-where near as much as there was before.
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jimsvolvo480
- 480 Newbie
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 5:52 pm
Re: Jims Volvo 480
Rear Light Plastics...
Had an hour or two free today, so went to polish up the rear light plastics as they are very crazed and dull. They were in a really bad state, but I've had success in the past reviving the plastics by sanding and machine polishing. Unfortunately I couldnt remove them as a previous owner has bonded them in place (probably because of bad seals). So I attempted what I could with them in place but I couldnt attack them as I'd like. They did improve, but with bad cracks already there, I simply couldnt safely n put the effort in I wanted.
In annoyance I just considered tinting them, but Ive never liked the finish or the looks of spray tinting, so I tried something different. I used a perforated wrap often referred to as 'Fly Eyes'. Despite the potential for ultimate chavness, I think they actually came out better than I thought and better than spray tinting would.
Picture:
A cheap simple fix that might suit if you dont have the will or time to do a full plastics renovation maybe?
I've got no idea about the longevity of the finish or product, but will comment again on my findings.
Had an hour or two free today, so went to polish up the rear light plastics as they are very crazed and dull. They were in a really bad state, but I've had success in the past reviving the plastics by sanding and machine polishing. Unfortunately I couldnt remove them as a previous owner has bonded them in place (probably because of bad seals). So I attempted what I could with them in place but I couldnt attack them as I'd like. They did improve, but with bad cracks already there, I simply couldnt safely n put the effort in I wanted.
In annoyance I just considered tinting them, but Ive never liked the finish or the looks of spray tinting, so I tried something different. I used a perforated wrap often referred to as 'Fly Eyes'. Despite the potential for ultimate chavness, I think they actually came out better than I thought and better than spray tinting would.
Picture:
A cheap simple fix that might suit if you dont have the will or time to do a full plastics renovation maybe?
I've got no idea about the longevity of the finish or product, but will comment again on my findings.