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A 480 S awakened in Italy

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 12:15 pm
by Jagermeister
Hi everybody!

I was searching for a cool car from 80s for daily driving (so my GT86 can rest during the week) and I discovered a 1994 Volvo 480 S from a local classic car dealer.
The car was closed in a garage from 2002 and it only had 110k km on the clock, this is how it looked when I took it home last winter:

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Perfect body and painting (repainted before being 15 years closed in a box), good interiors with only a leather crack on the passenger seat, and a good looking engine bay.
Almost everything worked well but odometer, the radio, the driver side power window and the AC that worked only in "AC max" mode.
Mechanical side only needed an heavy maintenance: oils, filters, spark plugs and cables, timing belt, brake pads and fluid, a new battery, throttle body and idle valve cleaned and it came back in perfect shape!

Then, thanks to the great help of this forum, I started to resolve all the tiny problems:
- Rear light clusters removed and re-sealed to avoid water leaks in the trunk.
- Replaced the speedo cog wheel.
- Replaced all the dash light bulbs with leds.
- Replaced the driver's side power window unit.
- VEM electronic board repaired, so the AC it's came back (thanks mom, professional electonic solder ;)
- "New"sun visors and dashboard cover coming from a scraped car and I also took some other rare parts for a future replacement ("S" instrument cluster, VEM, clock, etc..)
- Replaced the old Pioneer cassette radio with an old looking modern unit that bring the infotainment to 21st century :D
- Finally, added a front aero splitter and replaced the ugly 14'' iron wheels with 4 renewed Canonica Mod. 008 italian alloy wheels that got a perfect design for this car.

Now I'm using this car every day and it runs like new: smooth and agile driving, great and funny handling, silent and regular engine and comfortable interiors.
Also the AC worked very well for all the summer (here in Italy temps can reach over 35°C).

I'm loving this car, how it looks and how it drives, and I'm happy to have put it back to the road after 15 yeard of sleep.

Only a bad fact: recently the speedo has started to die casually, I'm getting creazy trying to resolve the problem but I know it's quite a cursed component in this car :nuts:

Let's see how it goes on....meanwhile these are some current photos of my little Volvo, we are very happy to enjoy this group!

Cheers!

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Re: A 480 S awakened in Italy

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 12:40 pm
by jamescarruthers
Hello! That looks great, well done!

Re: A 480 S awakened in Italy

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 12:52 pm
by Rachel
Wow, lovely looking 480, I like those wheel on it too! Lovely to see a 480 back on the road after sleeping for so long! Have lots of fun!

Re: A 480 S awakened in Italy

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 12:53 pm
by brinkie
By the look of the driver's seat, this is a genuine low mileage car! Congratulations! (and the Toyota 86 is brilliant too! Bella macchina!!!)
About the instrument cluster, check out this thread: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=35684
The "S" instrument cluster is worse than the one with electronic info centre, because the fuel and temperature gauges have a connection with the rest of the electronics through the bolts that hold them. Cleaning with a glass fibre brush and soldering usually helps (and you seem to know someone who can solder properly :D ). I have repaired many of them, if you have trouble with repairs, I'm more than happy to share my knowledge.

Re: A 480 S awakened in Italy

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 12:53 pm
by Rachel
.......... and warm welcome to the forum! :D

Re: A 480 S awakened in Italy

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 1:25 pm
by Jagermeister
Thanks everyone guys, I'm so glad you like it :hopping:
brinkie wrote:
Tue Sep 25, 2018 12:53 pm
By the look of the driver's seat, this is a genuine low mileage car! Congratulations! (and the Toyota 86 is brilliant too! Bella macchina!!!)
About the instrument cluster, check out this thread: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=35684
The "S" instrument cluster is worse than the one with electronic info centre, because the fuel and temperature gauges have a connection with the rest of the electronics through the bolts that hold them. Cleaning with a glass fibre brush and soldering usually helps (and you seem to know someone who can solder properly :D ). I have repaired many of them, if you have trouble with repairs, I'm more than happy to share my knowledge.
Thanks Brinkie,
you don't know but your guides and posts have been indispensable for me to understand the nature of vary electronics faults, and with the help of the soldering ability of my mom it been all more simple.
Initially, like you say, i had problems with fuel/temp gauges, but as I realized that they were connected via those screws I thought that cleaning may be the solution! And it was :D

Reguarding the speedo, I red all on the forum and think I've done quite all it's possible: resoldered the pins on pcb, cleaned all contacts, deleted the sensor connector under the battery, measured the resistance of the sensor (2 ohms, so its ok)...
Later today I'll reassemble all together and I'll see.
If I'll not resolve can I disturb you in PM? :D

Re: A 480 S awakened in Italy

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 2:43 pm
by WRDendy
Welcome! That's a beautiful car, and it's in great condition as others have said. Interesting that the original owner went for an 'S' and then added aircon, a front splitter and a nice interior!

I'd like to know more about the radio you went for, I'm always keen to keep things looking period-appropriate wherever possible. Currently hankering after a Becker Traffic Pro myself...

Re: A 480 S awakened in Italy

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 3:25 pm
by Jagermeister
Jaster wrote:
Tue Sep 25, 2018 2:43 pm
Welcome! That's a beautiful car, and it's in great condition as others have said. Interesting that the original owner went for an 'S' and then added aircon, a front splitter and a nice interior!

I'd like to know more about the radio you went for, I'm always keen to keep things looking period-appropriate wherever possible. Currently hankering after a Becker Traffic Pro myself...
Thanks :D
That's what I thought when i saw interiors: why an S with added the 2 most expansive options?? :lol: (I fitted the splitter myself)

When I was searching for a retro looking headunit I also had seen that Becker, but it was too expansive for me, so I found this, it's a Pyle PLR26MPU, only 50€ on Amazon and works great!

Re: A 480 S awakened in Italy

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 5:25 pm
by WRDendy
Looks good, impressive that it pushes 60W per channel (or at least claims to) for that money. Shame that the illumination is blue though, I'd be tempted to pull it apart and put red and green LEDs in to match the rest of the interior!

Re: A 480 S awakened in Italy

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2018 1:52 pm
by Jagermeister
I don't know if the claimed power is real, but sound quality and volume are good considering my car has only 2 speakers in the front without tweeters and 2 in the trunk.
Blue illumination is not bad if you have replaced dash bulbs with leds, only thing I could say is that maybe its quite too intensive by night, but not annoying while driving.
Maybe if you are able to change colour, you are able to dimm the intensity :wink:

Re: A 480 S awakened in Italy

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2018 10:41 pm
by jifflemon
VERY jealous of working Aircon - Is it an R12 Gas or R134a?

Re: A 480 S awakened in Italy

Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2018 1:04 pm
by brinkie
Jagermeister wrote:
Tue Sep 25, 2018 1:25 pm
you don't know but your guides and posts have been indispensable for me to understand the nature of vary electronics faults, and with the help of the soldering ability of my mom it been all more simple.
Initially, like you say, i had problems with fuel/temp gauges, but as I realized that they were connected via those screws I thought that cleaning may be the solution! And it was :D

Reguarding the speedo, I red all on the forum and think I've done quite all it's possible: resoldered the pins on pcb, cleaned all contacts, deleted the sensor connector under the battery, measured the resistance of the sensor (2 ohms, so its ok)...
Later today I'll reassemble all together and I'll see.
If I'll not resolve can I disturb you in PM? :D
You have no idea how delighted I am that I have succesfully shared my knowledge to someone else on the forum! :D
The electronics in the 480 can be a real pain, but once you know what you're doing, it can be fixed with little trouble and almost zero cost.

I don't think there is anything you could do I wouldn't have done already, but in case you're stuck, do send me PM and I will give you my phone number for WhatsApp.

Re: A 480 S awakened in Italy

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2018 9:37 am
by Jagermeister
jifflemon wrote:
Wed Sep 26, 2018 10:41 pm
VERY jealous of working Aircon - Is it an R12 Gas or R134a?
I think it could be the old R12 since I didn't replace it and it still cooling well.
I hope it will last because the conversion is quite expensive :?