Dendy's 480 Diary

Here you can start a thread about your 480 days. Only the starter of the thread is allowed to fill his thread, and only one thread per person. Threads are simply a personal diary.

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brinkie
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by brinkie » Mon Jan 21, 2019 2:39 pm

Ah, yes, tried the N/S as well, but our N/S is your O/S :lol:
Robert.

Present cars: 1994 Volvo 480 GT 2.0i, 1999 Volvo S70 2.5 Europa, 2010 Volvo V70 2.0F Momentum

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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by jifflemon » Mon Jan 21, 2019 3:37 pm

given the ease to remove the nose cone, it's hardly worth the scraped knuckles....

(yet I still did the O/S without removing it!) :nuts:

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brinkie
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by brinkie » Mon Jan 21, 2019 3:56 pm

That's what I figured. Only this car was in danger of losing the DRL lenses as well, had to be extremely careful taking them out, even when using a plastic tool the bits were coming off :(
Robert.

Present cars: 1994 Volvo 480 GT 2.0i, 1999 Volvo S70 2.5 Europa, 2010 Volvo V70 2.0F Momentum

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WRDendy
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by WRDendy » Tue Mar 26, 2019 6:22 pm

I always take the nosecone off, and am in agreement with Jeff regarding time taken vs. scraped knuckles. As you presumably noticed I have similar feelings about the fragility of the DRL lenses. Hopefully Joep will be able to sort me out with some replacements in the near future as the spare cluster I fitted is noticeably less faded than the other one and it looks wrong!
brinkie wrote:
Mon Jan 21, 2019 12:32 pm
Took the headlight assembly out, found the gas strut doing nothing at all.
I'm fairly certain that every gas strut out there that hasn't been replaced is doing nothing at this point, and thus causing unnecessary wear and/or damage to the motor. Definitely one of the first jobs I'd do on a newly acquired car as a matter of course.
Formerly known as 'Jaster'
Current: '94 GT & '88 ES
Former: '89 ES

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dcwalker
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by dcwalker » Tue Mar 26, 2019 6:26 pm

Jaster wrote:
Tue Mar 26, 2019 6:22 pm
I always take the nosecone off, and am in agreement with Jeff regarding time taken vs. scraped knuckles. As you presumably noticed I have similar feelings about the fragility of the DRL lenses. Hopefully Joep will be able to sort me out with some replacements in the near future as the spare cluster I fitted is noticeably less faded than the other one and it looks wrong!
Happy to bring what are now my spare set of drl units in May if you want to try for a better match in the meantime...

Where is everyone sourcing replacement had struts for the lights?

David
Current: 1994 480 GT, 1996 460 CD & 1997 440 LE with lots of optional extras & 2007 V50 SE Sport
Previous: Celebration 331 (re-homed with Richard S), Celebration 467 (returned to Martin Mc); Celebration 346 (re-homed with Alan480); Celebration 269 (scrapped abandoned project), Celebration 73 (sold on after 6 years), 1992 ES, 1988 ES - and numerous other non-480 Volvos!

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WRDendy
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by WRDendy » Tue Mar 26, 2019 6:31 pm

Thanks for the offer David - I actually have spares for both sides and really only bothered putting one on as it fell apart (or rather I broke it :nuts: ) right before the MOT and I was in a rush, and we all know that temporary solutions are often the most permanent...

I've sent Joep a message so hopefully I'll get my main set back in action in the near future. I don't want to deprive anyone of what are becoming increasingly impossible to find spares if I can possibly help it!

There was a group buy on here last year for the struts (link), I got a few and they work fine. In theory they can be re-gassed if you can find somewhere willing to give it a go (SGS Engineering has been mentioned here in the past), and finally I think Skandix may have a few left, although I imagine their supply is finite.
Formerly known as 'Jaster'
Current: '94 GT & '88 ES
Former: '89 ES

jifflemon
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by jifflemon » Tue Mar 26, 2019 8:15 pm

Can confirm SGS engineering’s offerings are all good. Did suggest they actually add them to the catalog as they only list tailgate ones.

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brinkie
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by brinkie » Tue Mar 26, 2019 9:49 pm

Jaster wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 2:17 pm
I could hear the relay clicking rapidly as the passenger light tried vainly to lift itself out of the bonnet, so the first thing to do was to pull the relay out and re-flow the solder joints between the two boards, indicated here:

Image
If reflowing of the solder joints doesn't work, and the relays itself are bust, I have found a replacement relay to be surprisingly cheap!
https://www.conrad.com/p/fic-fra2c-2-dc ... ver-504366

In my case, the contact of the relay was gone.
Image

New relays in place.
Image

Old relay in the background, new in front:
Image
Robert.

Present cars: 1994 Volvo 480 GT 2.0i, 1999 Volvo S70 2.5 Europa, 2010 Volvo V70 2.0F Momentum

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WRDendy
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by WRDendy » Sat Jul 03, 2021 7:13 pm

Hello everyone, long time no post!

Long story short, I picked up the green car today after dropping it off for an MOT and a bit of bodywork last January. Suffice it to say that things ended up taking a little longer than expected. Here it is back in Oxford for the first time in a while:

Image

I'm absolutely thrilled to have it back, and really looking forward to making the most of it during what remains of the summer (not to mention fingers crossed a meeting or two later in the year?), and getting back to the various jobs that were outstanding on it when it went away.

Mechanically it's in great condition, however it seems to have acquired what I would describe as "a few minor electrical issues", as these cars are wont to do when left to their own devices for extended periods of time. Within a couple of hours of getting it home the interior looked like this:

Image

After a quick bit of investigation I think it's going to take slightly more than that can of contact cleaner in the footwell to get it back up and running. It's quite a lot to digest so expect a more thorough write-up over the coming days.

Anyway, hello once again to all the regulars, and greetings to the new people who have appeared since I was on here last!
Formerly known as 'Jaster'
Current: '94 GT & '88 ES
Former: '89 ES

jifflemon
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by jifflemon » Sat Jul 03, 2021 7:29 pm

If I can help in any way, just hollar!

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jamescarruthers
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by jamescarruthers » Sun Jul 04, 2021 5:22 am

Hey Will. Good to hear from you again.
1987 Volvo 480 ES, 507274, 217 - Red (Ness)
2006 Citroen C6 Exclusive 3.0 petrol/LPG
2008 Mini Cooper convertible (Mau)

Previous 480's:
J123 CFU -- ES
J449 MNL -- ES auto
D864 CPV -- ES
L691 JFC -- Turbo
F70 MNR -- ES
H858 FGV -- Turbo auto
E981 KHM -- ES (509849)

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dcwalker
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by dcwalker » Sun Jul 04, 2021 4:34 pm

Good to see you back again, Will, and that Lily's sister remains generally well! :D

I sure you'll sort out the electrical gremlins in no time...

Hope to catch up in person again soon!

David
Current: 1994 480 GT, 1996 460 CD & 1997 440 LE with lots of optional extras & 2007 V50 SE Sport
Previous: Celebration 331 (re-homed with Richard S), Celebration 467 (returned to Martin Mc); Celebration 346 (re-homed with Alan480); Celebration 269 (scrapped abandoned project), Celebration 73 (sold on after 6 years), 1992 ES, 1988 ES - and numerous other non-480 Volvos!

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MisterH
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by MisterH » Sun Jul 04, 2021 4:43 pm

Great to see you back on here Will, glad things are going alright it seems, the headrest you and James sourced for me is doing sterling service
Current Jobs to do (23/1/22):
Fix Central Locking
Fix drivers side speaker
Annoying Scratching Squeak
Water leaks
Complete Front O/S rebuild

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WRDendy
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by WRDendy » Tue Jul 13, 2021 9:37 pm

Here's a breakdown of the issues when I picked the car up:

Electrical
- Both windows not working
- Driver's mirror not moving
- Hazards not working (indicators do however)
- Central locking not working (constant clicking from passenger door)
- Spotlights on whenever the battery is connected
- Air con not working
- Interior fan intermittent
- Radio not working
- Aerial stuck
- Rear washer pump inoperative
- Rear wiper inoperative
- No speedo
- No infocentre

General
- Seats need serious attention/rejuvenation
- Driver's seat folding mechanism broken
- DRL Lenses cracked

Annoyingly none of these things were problems when I dropped it off, but that just goes to illustrate what most of us know all too well: cars tend to deteriorate rapidly if they aren't driven. Fortunately it was started and brought up to temperature quite regularly, however it did also get quite wet inside at one point and I suspect that many of the issues stem from that.

There are probably other things I haven't found yet, but that'll do for now. In the meantime, let's speculate wildly about what might be going on here:
- Both windows not working
- Driver's mirror not moving
- Hazards not working (indicators do however)
- Central locking not working (constant clicking from passenger door)
- Spotlights on whenever the battery is connected
Almost certainly the CEM. Why exactly I don't know, but probably moisture-related.
- Air con not working
- Interior fan intermittent
Possible faults/dry joints on the VEM or bad connections on the fan switch. Lack of air con is almost certainly low pressure in the system. As far as I can tell the compressor only clutches in if the pressure is over a certain threshold, which may present and interesting catch-22 if I attempt to fill it from the low pressure side at home. Might be best left to a professional.
- Radio not working
- Aerial stuck
I pulled over at a service station on the way home to cool off (it was rather warm given the weather on the day and the lack of air con/fan/windows, oh and did I mention the sunroof is sealed shut?), and removed the radio from the dash to pass some time. Couldn't find anything obviously wrong with the adapter harness, but when I put it back it suddenly powered on. No idea why. Unfortunately the line-in has stopped working and the reception was absolutely terrible, possibly to do with the aerial, possibly bad grounding, who knows. In any case, I was at least able to listen to as much white noise as I wanted through the right hand side of the car only as the wiring loom into the passenger door was disconnected to stop the malfunctioning central locking cooking the lock motor. The aerial just needs replacing, might even have a spare somewhere.
- Rear washer pump inoperative
Pump is dead. Good excuse to remove the washer bottle and clean it whilst sorting that out.
- Rear wiper inoperative
Wiring loom broken at the top of the window. Fortunately the wires for the high-level brake light are still intact (for now).
- No speedo
- No infocentre
Could be dry joints on the board, but would be surprising since I refurbished the whole thing a few years ago (see the guide in the how-to section). Suspect something moisture-related.
- Seats need serious attention/rejuvenation
- Driver's seat folding mechanism broken
- DRL Lenses cracked
Nothing hugely suspicious here, just wear and tear. Should all be sortable with a bit of elbow grease and some spare parts. Not particularly looking forward to taking the driver's seat apart to get at the folding mechanism but needs must.

Will update as I investigate and fix things. In the meantime, please enjoy this reposted photo from a few years ago when everything worked :lol:

Image
Formerly known as 'Jaster'
Current: '94 GT & '88 ES
Former: '89 ES

jifflemon
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by jifflemon » Tue Jul 13, 2021 10:31 pm

Seat mechanism may surprise you. Take the upper half off, remove the lower hog rings and you’ve a surprising amount of access up the rear of the seat. It’s possible that the cable has just slipped off.

Sealed up sunroof?!? They’re quite easy to remove if it’s a factory one.

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brinkie
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by brinkie » Wed Jul 14, 2021 11:23 am

Jaster wrote:
Tue Jul 13, 2021 9:37 pm
- Both windows not working
I had such a case last Friday. Was a car which was sitting outside and rarely used where the driver door window stopped working. Found out that both window regulators were fine, switchgear was fine (swapped cables), turned out it had a faulty connection inside the door. Pulled the connectors apart, sprayed contact cleaner and reseated them. Then everything went fine again.
CEM only facilitates the auto-down functionality. The switches do all the work, they merely make contact and reverse polarity of the motor if the window needs to go in another direction.
- Driver's mirror not moving
- Hazards not working (indicators do however)
Check the switches. Hazards switch can be faulty. And also re-seating the plugs might fix the problem.
- Central locking not working (constant clicking from passenger door)
- Spotlights on whenever the battery is connected
CEM issues. Message me your address, I have a free CEM-III for you for postage (around £16). Part of the legacy of a deceased 480 club member.
- Air con not working
- Interior fan intermittent
VEM issues. Need to solder the joints of the relays on the circuit board. A/C probably low on pressure as condensers leak, try a pressure test at a specialist.
- No speedo
- No infocentre
Since you've done the cold solder joints, could be a connector issue. Ground for the infocentre goes all the way to the alternator (blue-brown wire) and speedo sensor cable has a connector below the air filter box. And spray contact cleaner liberally into the green and grey connectors.

It's surprising how a 480 which isn't stored dry tends to deteriorate electronically...
Robert.

Present cars: 1994 Volvo 480 GT 2.0i, 1999 Volvo S70 2.5 Europa, 2010 Volvo V70 2.0F Momentum

jifflemon
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by jifflemon » Wed Jul 14, 2021 1:26 pm

Shall be topping up the stock of contact cleaner...... :rofl:

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WRDendy
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by WRDendy » Wed Jul 28, 2021 9:07 pm

Many thanks for the encouraging words chaps - I've been making progress when time allows and I think I'm nearly there. I've got limited workshop access at the moment so most of this is happening on the front drive in the middle of Oxford - I generally try to keep car activities here to a minimum as it's much less convenient, and I once had a neighbour complain that by working on a car outside I was 'lowering the tone of the road'. Clearly they've never driven past the residence of a certain 480 enthusiast in MK :lol:

Anyway, here's the setup. I think any tone-lowering is offset by the skip, so no comments so far:

Image

The hazard lights were an easy fix. The first thing I noticed was that two of the wires were wrapped in electrical tape

Image

A pretty nasty way to 'repair' a wire but sadly not hugely out of the ordinary for bodges on old cars. I was so convinced that the problem lay concealed beneath it that I didn't spot the terminal protruding slightly from the back of the connector (go back and have another look!)

Image

Sure enough it was loose and not making a connection, the taped-up wires being entirely unrelated to the fault. I'll re-do those splices properly with heatshrink, but at least that solves the hazard problem. On the bright side, at least whoever bodged them actually soldered them. I've seen more than a few instances of wires just twisted together and then wrapped in tape, so it could always be worse.

I then moved on to the VEM. At first glance it doesn't look to bad:

Image

except for the residue around the pads for the main connector, but they all seem to have it:

Image

It never seems to be a problem (I buzzed it out with a meter to make sure), but I cleaned it off anyway:

Image

Then I went looking for dry joints. As always they're easy to miss, but they're always there. Hard to photograph on my ancient phone but you can just make one out in the middle of this picture:

Image

I went through every joint on the board, re-flowing as necessary. Normally it's just the relays, but better to do a few extra joints that didn't need it than to miss one. Removing and replacing a VEM is a bit fiddly so not something I would want to do more often than I have to.

Back out in the car I got it reinstalled after a bit of fumbling and some choice language directed at the bowden cable on the top. The buttons and lights all worked, the fan worked in all positions, and the relays sounded like they were working:

Image

...but still no cold air coming out of the vents, even on AC max. On to the engine bay!

Image

I tentatively added a small amount of gas to the low side of the system and the compressor kicked in fairly immediately, so fingers crossed the pressure was just a bit low having not been used for a while and the various gaskets in the system have survived without lubrication. Inside the car the temperature started to drop rapidly, and the system has held pressure and remained functional for the last few days. I'll monitor that situation and then top up/have the system purged and properly filled as appropriate, but at least I know the air con works.

I've borrowed a CEMIII for some testing (Many thanks Brinkie for your kind offer above - I'll be in touch to sort out a more permanent solution), and that seemed to solve the issues with the mirrors, lights, central locking and passenger window. The driver's window would go up but not down, which suggested that power was reaching the regulator fine, but only in one direction, throwing suspicion on the switch. As it happened I had the door card off anyway so I took the oppurtunity to clean all the connectors in the door whilst I was in there for good measure. Plenty of corrosion and other miscellaneous gunk to be found:

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

I'm fairly certain that they were all passing current, but nice to get them all cleaned up regardless.

As suspected the switch was indeed the problem. Here's the switch as it came out of the car, before cleaning:

Image

Here's what's inside:

Image

There are also a couple of ball bearings, not pictured. Don't worry, you'll lose them too when you open yours! :lol:
It's quite a simple setup inside, two contacts sitting on terminals that rock back and forth:

Image

Mine was a bit dirty:

Image

Not horrendously so, but I cleaned it up and put it back together (having found the ball bearings):

Image

Connected it back up to the car and now the window works in both directions. Great result.

Finally I had a look at the dash. Certainly some evidence of moisture on the infocentre connections on the back:

Image

Again, not sure if that would be enough to cause problems but certainly worth a clean-up. The same thing applied to the rest of the board:

Image

Not sure how much longer the pads for the infocentre halogen are going to last. Might be a repair job next time it comes out:

Image

Long story short I couldn't really find anything wrong with the board, but nor could I get the speedo or the infocentre to work on the bench. Probing around in the car confirmed that power and ground were present in all the right places. Didn't bother going to the trouble of hooking a sig gen up to the speed sensor cable or anything though as I've been there and done that on this car so was reasonably sure that wasn't the problem.

Eventually I ended up chopping and changing parts from a couple of different dashes until I had a combination of parts that worked on the bench:

Image

That spare main board had some nasty joints on it, I'm amazed it was doing anything at all really:

Image

Got there in the end though. That second dash should be going back into another car so that will also have to be fixed, but that's another job for another day (right after I clean the desk :lol:)...

Image

So that's all the major problems fixed, meaning I now have a car that is functional for intents and purposes. Still missing a few nice-to-haves like rear demist and wiper (wiring loom) and a fully-retracting aerial, but that gets me back on the road in time for the upcoming meet, which I'm really hoping to make it to.

One question - does anyone else have bolts like this on their seat rails?

Image

I'd like to get mine out so I can undertake a much-needed deep clean of both the seats and the carpets, but I've only ever encountered torx bolts on the rails. Not sure how to get this one out other than getting a cheap socket and grinding it down to fit.

Finally, a cautionary tale!
Let's say you are working on the electrical systems on your 480. You've just fixed the aircon, and, since it's a nice day, you decide to take it for a quick drive to enjoy it. You have, however, removed the dashboard because it's also having problems. As you cruise down the road you notice the voltmeter slowly drifting downward. You ignore this because the battery is probably not in the best of health, and in any case the brand new alternator will provide enough power to keep things running on this brief trip up the road. You raise the headlights, just because you can, and all of a sudden the car dies, leaving you to coast to the side of the road, ending up looking like this:

Image

Obviously you have a meter in the glovebox because it's a Volvo 480, and it confirms your suspicions:

Image

What grievous error did the driver commit in this case? Well, without the dash fitted there's no path through the alternator warning bulb, and by extension no output from the alternator. Needless to say it took my sometime to remember this, and, having got the car back home with a spare battery, I spent a solid 24 hours thinking that the brand new alternator was somehow cooked :nuts:. At some point I'll look into the wiring diagrams in more detail as I'd like to to know what would happen if the dash is installed (as it would normally be) but the alternator bulb blows. Surely they must have thought of that??
Formerly known as 'Jaster'
Current: '94 GT & '88 ES
Former: '89 ES

jifflemon
480 Is my middle name
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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by jifflemon » Fri Jul 30, 2021 10:59 am

Jaster wrote:
Wed Jul 28, 2021 9:07 pm
I once had a neighbour complain that by working on a car outside I was 'lowering the tone of the road'. Clearly they've never driven past the residence of a certain 480 enthusiast in MK :lol:
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Jaster wrote:
Wed Jul 28, 2021 9:07 pm
One question - does anyone else have bolts like this on their seat rails?

Image


That looks very wrong.... I've got some proper seat rail bolts here, as well as some potential "double access" (torx and socket) bolts if you want to try? I've also got the famous hot spanner to aide with removal.
Jaster wrote:
Wed Jul 28, 2021 9:07 pm
I'd like to to know what would happen if the dash is installed (as it would normally be) but the alternator bulb blows. Surely they must have thought of that??
What happens is:
Battery runs everything until it's flattened (as you've discovered).
Owner then gets billed for a new battery and alternator.
When the battery fails again, they get charged again.
Then mechanics suck through their teeth declaring "these 400's were always bad with the electrics" :angry:

Occasionally you can get the alternator to self excite (using residual stored magnetism) by revving the be-jesus out of the engine. If it's been stood for a while though, you've no chance.

Its also a little bit like when the bulb failure warning light fails..... what tells you you've a brake light out? :lol:

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Re: Dendy's 480 Diary

Post by yorkievolvo » Sat Jul 31, 2021 4:55 pm

jifflemon says:
Its also a little bit like when the bulb failure warning light fails..... what tells you you've a brake light out? :lol:
I say: the nice policeman who's just noting your details in his book: lol.

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