My (near) 4 year 480 ownership update + new arrival...

[WillC9303]

Bought in Croydon from the second owner back in October 2021 as my first car. Despite being pretty solid underneath, it was unfortunately in a bit of a state with a failed driver's door check strap, 20 year old tyres, no coolant, a dropped passenger door and mangled front wing and no service history bar old MOT certificates. However, the car was very solid for its age, was low mileage (had a brand new fresh engine at 70k miles fitted by Volvo) and had been garaged almost its entire life. After tracking down the original owner I learned that the car had been given the name 'Josephine'.

So much work has gone into this car that it would take me all afternoon to list, so I'll just list the changes since December:

• Sanded, resprayed & refitted the front spoiler

• Both doors fixed so now open & close without issue

• Many thanks to richard-smyth, who kindly provided me with a Philips RC348 radio as well as a 6-disc changer. Surprisingly, the hardest part was trying to find the correct cable to link the two

• New Pioneer speakers in the front (rears coming soon)

• Fit the Zebrano wood veneer insert onto the dash

• Repainted the heater knobs in ceramic white

• Sound deadened the inside of the roof

• Replacement number plates. Keeping the old ones of course, but controversial choice? (See pic)

• Managed to pick up a cheap set of plastic mats for a 440 not realising they are completely different than the 480 ones. Turned out not to be a problem though as I found they still fit without any modification

• Took the sagged headliner out to try and re-stick it. Refit and it's sagging even more now

• Fixed the dashboard mounts with JB weld and some brackets to keep the rattles at bay.

• Many thanks to Jifflemon who undid my corroded seat bolts allowing me to completely gut the interior and give a deep clean of the carpets and seats. Oh, and I shamelessly stole the idea for silver 'Volvo' valve caps after seeing how good they looked on his car

• Thanks also to Nicklee who sorted me out with a set of black leather seats. Plan to get them fixed soon.

• As I found out a few days ago never ever remove the bright orange fuse thinking it has no purpose - It actually supplies power to half the interior! Thanks again to Jeff and David for helping me with that one.

• Removed a couple of previous 'upgrades' such as the dodgy Digital clock and the cassette storage which is nice to have, but is a bit useless!

[WillC9303]

[WillC9303]

Things left to do are fairly limited - Will probably have the headliner professionally done as well as fit a new radiator. Taillights could do with a polish and I never did end up fixing those heated seats. Maybe next year then . The MOT will be due in a couple months, so will do a full service as well as any preparation to make sure it passes.

[jifflemon]

Love the number plates, although I’d have gone with double sided tape rather than fixing screws!

[MisterH]

Wow will this list of work is astonishing, definitely putting me to shame given that I still can't get mine to drive in a straight line

Contrary to the JiffleMon, I think you were right to use the fixing screws as it is a little more period correct

[jifflemon]

Contrary to the JiffleMon, I think you were right to use the fixing screws as it is a little more period correct

And have to drill into unobtainium number plate plinth?!?

[WillC9303]

And have to drill into unobtainium number plate plinth?!?

The plinth already had holes drilled into it by the original dealer. I just lined the new plate up and used the existing holes there

[MisterH]

Contrary to the JiffleMon, I think you were right to use the fixing screws as it is a little more period correct

And have to drill into unobtainium number plate plinth?!?

What else would you do with it? Frame it and hang it on the wall?

[Themasteryeti]

Can't believe you got cup holders!? Very jelly!

[WillC9303]

Can't believe you got cup holders!? Very jelly!

They’re the greatest 480 optional accessory IMO. The best part is actually the extra armrest height over standard as it’s supremely comfortable to rest your arm on over long distances.

The only thing that does annoy me about it is that almost every passenger I ferry automatically assumes they have the right to use MY armrest

The cupholders are fairly useless though as they are only really useful for coke style cans and seem relatively easy to break. I very rarely use mine.

[jifflemon]

What else would you do with it? Frame it and hang it on the wall?

Welcome to the museum of unobtainium…..

[Jay-Kay-Em]

Well done Will. Car is real credit to you and your passion.

[WillC9303]

Well, it's been a while since I last put out an update on my car. Over the course of the last 12 months a lot of things have been changed/fixed - so in no particular order, here we go!

• Fitted a brand new Nissens radiator as the car was still on its original Volvo one! No more leaks and if the info-centre is anything to go by, is running a few degrees cooler!

• Thermostat housing was very corroded and leaking quite badly. Some £50 later I now have a shiny new thermostat + reproduction aluminium housing! If anyone is in need of one, I can put you in touch with the chap who sells them

• While some like Jay will go down the route of brilliantly making their own mudflaps, I decided to go down the messy, longwinded and expensive route of tracking down an original set! Took a lot of searching but they're finally on the car and look fantastic (though getting the rust out of them wasn't fun)

• Replaced the orange rear side reflectors with a reproduction set of red ones produced by Leandro Ferreira. Always preferred red to orange and personally love the look. Bit of trivia for those who didn't already know: The U.S. prototypes had red reflectors as well as the Japanese market 480s.

• Leandro also kindly included a pair of clear wing repeaters which I fitted to a spare set. Not on the car yet though as I need to get some amber bulbs for them.

• Sourced another cassette holder from someone breaking a car. Why do you need 2 cassette holders I hear you ask? Yeah I actually don't know either...in case I end up with a second 480 in the future will be my excuse for that one!

• Thanks to Jay-Kay-Em who suggested Plumber's Mait for stopping water intrusion into the rear lights, thanks very much! Haven't had as much as a drip since.

• New taillight seals, however my lights are warped so didn't quite get a good enough fit without using the above fix.

• New DRLs from eBay. I believe I posted a mini review of them on here somewhere. Overall very good so far.

• New sparkplugs, air filter, HT lead set and Distributor. Going with Denso plugs was a controversial move, but they've been faultless so far.

• Replaced the speedo cog as my speedo needle was going nuts. Turns out the original cog was fine but replaced any way. Seemed to fix the issue for about 2 weeks and now the speedo is completely non-functional. This needs more investigation.

• One of my numberplate housings was broken and cracked. Jeff pointed me in the direction of a brand new replacement. All fitted now and working well.

• New top coolant hose fitted at the same time as the new thermostat housing

• New BOSCH battery as the old one was sluggish

• Rear calliper seized so found a refurbished one thanks to Jeff. Was an absolute ordeal trying to remove the handbrake cable but got there in the end. I hate working on brakes

• Finally sourced a complete '2.0i' badge with the all important 'i' on the end (they're prone to dropping off). Fitted with super strong 3M double sided tape.

• Touched up all the badges with a silver paint pen

• Had a go at trying to polish the taillights using Maguiar's but failed miserably. Might just have a look at getting a reproduction set soon anyway.

While on Yahoo Japan scouring the net for more Japanese market 480s (as you just, do) I came across a white one currently in a scrapyard and being sold for parts. Knowing that the Japanese ones had the EXCEPTIONALLY rare larger side repeaters, I sent them an email in Japanese. To their credit they actually responded (in Japanese) and said that part was unfortunately no longer in stock. For those who are interested in any parts of this car, many are still available, however get your translators ready…

Well that's everything so far as far as I can remember. 90% of those jobs were at least tolerable and some were actually enjoyable! Except faffing around with the rear brake calliper. That was about 3 hours of pure hell I've been dealing with some personal difficulties for a while now and working on my 480 has been a great way to cope with some of that. Hopefully brighter days are ahead - a bit of sunshine and less torrential rain would be a start
If anyone is going to FOTU this year I should be there, so would be nice to see some people and their 480s!

[jifflemon]

Excellent update! Few things.....

1). Tailights. Are they cracked at all? If not, look at getting them to a bodayshop for a coat of laquer; it'll make the world of difference!
2). Don't get amber bulbs for the repeaters - You end up with a "fried egg" look - get some silver ones (that still flash orange)
3). FOTU - looking forward to seeing you there!

[Jay-Kay-Em]

Great update and top marks for the badge efforts.

The importance of the "i" can not be understated. Reminds me of the period documentary "A to B : Tales of Modern Motoring". Well worth a watch.

Keep up the good work.

[WillC9303]

2). Don't get amber bulbs for the repeaters - You end up with a "fried egg" look - get some silver ones (that still flash orange)

Noted

3). FOTU - looking forward to seeing you there!

Likewise! You'll have to let me know what time you plan on arriving as it would be nice to get the 480s all next to each other.

Great update and top marks for the badge efforts.

The importance of the "i" can not be understated. Reminds me of the period documentary "A to B : Tales of Modern Motoring". Well worth a watch.

Keep up the good work.

Thank you!

I've heard all about the massive importance of having the right badges back in the day (i, 16 valve, twin-cam etc). Though, I think by my time most of that was standard on all cars and therefore no longer that special. I used to like spotting old Mercs with the words 'KOMPRESSOR' on the boot lid. Had no idea what it meant at the time but it sounded fancy!

[fazdin]

Where did u buy your Thermostat Housing from Please help

[WillC9303]

Where did u buy your Thermostat Housing from Please help

Florian Sandner on Facebook!

[WillC9303]

Update! 11/07/25

It's been nearly a year since my last personal thread update, so here's what's happened (well, as much as I can remember, anyway!)

• New heater knobs (thanks Jifflemon)

• Ripped out sagging headliner, spray painted the headliner board with black paint and it looks better than it has done in a long while

• More sound deadening

• Binned the green 'EV' plates and stuck the originals back on. Not sure what I was thinking there but they looked awful

• Sourced a few OEM rare accessories such as the 15'' Ronal diamond cut alloys (to be refurbished), reproduction pollen filter (WR Composites), EQ-611 Volvo equalizer (not yet fitted) and the legendarily flimsy plastic boot liner tray!

• Fitted LED DRL bulbs

It's really just been two years of trouble free motoring, really. Aside from basic preventative maintenance, servicing and rust prevention, the only thing that occurred in that time was the failure of my driver's side window regulator, which I promptly replaced. I still have yet to fit a new clutch as well as try out the Citroen C5 engine mount 'fix' for myself. If all goes to plan, that will all be done by the end of the summer.

I finally retired the 480 as my daily driver in November with my second ever car, my 2000 Audi A4 B5 1.8 which has been an absolute trooper. I'd be lying if I said the ownership experience so far has been trouble-free (its still a 25 year old Audi) but it's never let me down and repair and maintenance costs haven't been silly money either, which is nice.

I say 'retired as a daily driver' as I'll still be taking the Volvo to shows, meets as well as nice summer days. It's days as a winter runabout are (thankfully) over.




Sometimes the cheapest fix can be one you are most proud of. £10 rattle can spray and about 2 hours of larking about re-fitting the headliner trim



Posted from Germany! Set of rare, slightly corroded Ronal alloys as seen in the accessories list for the Volvo 480. Will get these refurbed before I put tyres on them.



The new 'warm' LEDs

In other news, a recent new arrival and my latest purchase - My new to me 2000 Audi A6 C5 2.5 TDI Avant Quattro Sport!

I had been longing for an estate car for a while now after finding the practicality limitations of a saloon with no folding back seats and decided to go car hunting! Exciting, I thought. I'd always quite liked the idea of a super quick Saab 9-5 Aero estate, but after driving a couple of them I found the interior quality and materials to be very disappointing, and aside from straight line acceleration, the drive was underwhelmingly numb. (Apologies to the 9-5 lovers on here!) I then went to see a W210 E-Class estate with a tasty 4.3 V8, but quickly walked away after discovering the bodywork was effectively made from cheese and that I could poke my finger through the strut tower. It was a lovely drive, though.

Then I saw this for sale online. It had been in dry storage in a private collection for the past 11 years and has had a huge amount of work done to it to get it back on the road, including a full major service, new shocks, suspension links, brakes all round, new front wings, refurbed wheels from an Audi TT as well as lots of other small bit and pieces. I've always loved the look of the C5 A6 generation and I'm glad I've managed to get a nice one as they're getting quite scarce now.

The paint is in exceptional condition and so is the bodywork and interior. I'm over the moon with it, especially as I didn't have to pay much for it at all due to the lack of desirability these cars still sadly have on the used market.

That being said, on the drive home from picking it up the thermostat decided to stick open. Turns out to replace it you need to remove the front of the car and take off the timing belt and pulleys. The price to do it all? £530

[edie_fox]

Oooooh, I like those wheels. They'll look great on a TT I bet.

I'm normally a 'keep it OG!' person but ....shiny things.

Looks like it's keeping well.