RustyNuts

I can see thats the legendary 25 - predecessor to the safrane and i can see where the safrane has got it's dash styling from! But you defnitely have the most awesomely retro dashboard cluster - i absolutely love it!

It only took 12 years! They're not the most popular of cars but the Ph2 Safrane with the volvo powerplants was always a winner with me. That is, until i removed the engine, put it back, couldn't get it to run, then got it going, then the cooling went, the head gasket followed. I really do have the worst luck with car engines / gearboxes and this one was certainly no exception despite being a Volvo. I'm not a mechanic so i've had to do a lot by trial / error. It's literally the most screwed up then fixed car on the planet. There's nothing on this car i've not buggered up somehow and then had to work out how to fix it and in the process it's cost me more than i'd care to admit. It's been the biggest pain in the arse a car could ever be but for some screwed up mental block of a reason, i couldn't part with it. On a positive note, i've learnt a lot from it that i need to learn when to quit. So the best course of action was to buy another (£600 jobbie - cars were cheap back then) which got scrapped after 8 months, then a 3rd which also got scrapped a couple of years later. I kept both engines (plus loads of other shit which recently got trashed too due to a house move) but I still had the 1st safrane. 7 years ago i put the 3rd's engine into it and that went the same way.. ran instantly but no cooling system despite coolant bleeding out of all the bleed holes. By this point i'd given away the 2nd engine so couldn't try that. Eventually I ended up swapping the head gasket out which was covered in mayo.. It was a pig of a job with it taking 5 weeks for the volvo dealers to even work out which gasket to order. The engine has far less space on the timing side than the volvo 850 so it was really tight in there and two of the bolts took a lot of head scratching. I got it done but despite the new head gasket, the cooling malfunction continued. Last year i had some luck when a couple of local lads came out and plugged in their snap-on kit for less than a penny. It locked up until i started the engine. One of them said he'd never seen that happen before and was stunned. Eventually it pointed to the coolant temp sensor which i knew was wrong as i'd replaced it twice! So they concluded that it had an electrical woe and i set about investigating the impossible again. I'm too embarrassed to tell you what it was but i shall say that it was something simple that i'd completely overlooked for over a decade. Sorted that, cooling fans worked again. All good right?.. well in all the passing years a few other gremlins had set in but i managed my way around those and 2 months after we'd moved again, i was able to collect it and take it for it's first MOT in over a decade. More pics - taken today! Just in the nick of time too. 2 days after the MOT my van went off the road again and so the car that the missus had disliked for years because "it's a fucking dead lump of metal" is now alive and slowly winning her back over now that it's doing school runs so she can still use her car for work. At 2.5L it's thirsty at 17mpg around town - that's 3.7miles per litre. 33mpg on a motorway is pretty much the maximum. Insurance is a pain too but i won't go there. So now i've got it fixed up and back on the road i shall have to SORN it again shortly and keep it as a spare motor.

With Volvo lumps they don't mention this, nor do you do any timed crap malarky either. Just torque up and go. But what i'm worried about is having now released all the bolts, will that one that was turned 130 now be wasted?

You've misunderstood. It's 20Nm, then 60Nm and then 130°. Not 20Nm and 60°.

Problem i have is budget. The head gasket and bolts cost me £138, then there is coolant and oil... If i re-use the same parts and they're already damaged, i'll end up with another HG failure and even more coolant / oil / skimming / parts to have to do - and it'll be another spat with Halfords.

That's not a bad idea.

First of all thanks to those who replied in my thread about head bolt lubricating in the ask a shiter forum - i appreciated your help. Despite having a bad experience with a halfords torque wrench in the past, i had to get another in a hurry so ended up with another one.. and a replacement one for the original - now two of the fuckers lol. Anyway I also bought a laser torque angle gauge from them recently. So today there i am fretting about torqing up 12 bolts to 20Nm and then 60. I kid you not the heart was pounding with stress at one point. I'm glad to say that went perfectly well... however the fucking angle gauge was a right sod. One bolt to 130 degrees... and then the fucking thing FELL APART IN MY HAND! Yeah you got it right, it really literally did - despite a snap ring, the fucking thing literally fell apart in my hand as i'm removing it from my breaker bar to reset and re position it. Proof: So with just one bolt done up, i've ended up leaving it in that state for 20-30 minutes while i argue with halfords that i need to finish this asap and plead with them to replace it by taxi. You might lol at that last bit but i had no way of getting to them in a timely manner while avoiding the head becoming distorted. So by the time a couple of lengthy phone calls have happened and some quarrelling, I've then had to undo the entire lot. Where do i stand now? The bolts are stretch bolts / TTY and now they've been torqued, one has been angled and under that the head gasket has been compressed. Presumably i'm now going to have to scrap £138 of parts and start over? - and skim the head again probably too? Tomorrow is going to be a horrible day arguing with them about this. Please advise... Thanks.

You good sir shall go down in history as a legend. Before i tackled the transit drops, i decided to do a test on some spots that the neighbour left (rather large) which also contained 2 of the transits drops too.. Got some cheap green ASDA version.. covered it like a nutter and scrubbed it in like you said. Tried to hose it off a while later, no effect however the next day it went and pissed down with rain. That one patch vanished - so i repeated with the other 3 including the two transit spots.. scrubbed the stuff in, left it several days until it's finally pissed down again today.. IT'S ALL GONE!!! I just been out there and looked (now the car park ground is dry) and theres nothing to be seen! Sir, you are my hero!

Thanks for the suggestions lads. Fucking van has seriously pissed me off as it's still fucking leaking..

Yup, so muggins got a tranny a while back.. all was good but the bugger started dripping a while back. Finally got the time to do a filter and oil change today (naturally the wind decided to show up for the first time in weeks) but i'm not sure that's gonna solve it as i've a feeling with my luck that it's the sump seal or something plugged into it.. Anyway as you'd expect it's been marking it's territory - the usual "I'm a pain in the arse old oily motor and i proudly belong to your neighbour" type of territorial marking.. So now the oil and filter are done i need to clean up after the old dog which learnt a new trick. It's bad, he really did piss everywhere and then today too when (on the only bloody day i had to get it done) the wind kept blowing under the van at the oil trickling out and that was with a big plastic box under it (and by big i mean big - only i can try my best and still get shafted by Murphy*) so now there's little splatter marks to deal with too. This after I had to jump start her old car to get to ECP for another sump plug (knackered seal) and then take another trip for the 36mm oil filter socket. It's been a hell of a day - with me simple things always turn into a disasterous time consuming pain in the grass. *Have previously used a cement mixing tray under big plastic box and STILL struggled to maintain oil free spills.. I don't want to be an annoyance to the neighbours, they're good people and despite being from the gutter while they're all minted and polishing silver spoons, i'd at least like to pretend i have some sort of standards of decency lol. I don't want to let them down and leave the place looking a state, any ideas please folks?

I've had a few renaults with Aisin Warner boxes, although those ones didn't claim to be sealed they also suffer with the dreaded thud in reverse. I think one had started slipping a bit too if memory serves.. Anyway a fresh fluid change usually sorts out the thud and from memory my slippage went away too. Don't bother dipsticking it, just get two 5L bottles of water from the supermarket. Empty them, empty the gearbox of fluid into one, fill the other with new fluid to the same level (then add 1-3mm for the odd bits you might of lost - if you want) and then pour the new stuff in. You only need to dipstick it if you've emptied it and not been able to fill identically side by side using the method above.

The ex let me have her micra for scrap value. I've done whats needed to it and got a new MOT on it. Advertised for £850 on facebook marketplace knowing full well i'll get beaten down on the price and figured if i can get £650 i'd be happy. So far just 3 enquiries, one said he'd take it and never showed. Then i realised.. with the lack of newly qualified drivers these days there's probably a surplus. My old (and completely shot) Honda CRV shifted in 18 hours - for double what i thought i'd get but that was in October last year.

You win Rustys prize for being legend of the week.. lol Picked up a -ac belt today, fitted and car is now tickety boo. cheers for that suggestion

Hi guys I did try the astra forums with this but not much joy there yet.. it's old enough to be in the bangernomics range so thought i'd try here.. The astra is sounding like a cross between an angle grinder and the bell on a push bike. Seems to be the clutch on the compressor for the air con - if i touch it with my finger i can sort of silence the sucker but the moment i let go it continues. It's a 1.8 16v auto elite - 2004. No idea of the horses - can't seem to find that anywhere in the docs.. odd. Anyway i've tried searching for a replacement clutch.. all i keep finding is full on compressors - waaaaay out of my budget. I got a few Q's is possible.. Can the clutch on this compressor be replaced / bodged / tightened / whatever? - I can't work out if its broken or loose.. Looks a bit tight for space in there, how hard / easy is the job? Is it mission critical? - IE is the thing going to drop to bits and make the engine implode or is it just a noise that can be driven with? Video of it below.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ernQTcFDmMY

Hi all.. Er indoors had an MOT failure yesterday... most of it is electricals (misaligned headlights, air bag warning light etc etc) but it also has a knackered coil spring which i'm half way through replacing - flaming storm isn't helping as i've had to pack up due to rain.. Anyway i've been struggling with the drop link. The threaded part that goes into the shock absorber has a hex hole in it. Not normally a problem - i've done loads of these previously however the micra has decided to be a pain in the arse type of car and the hex has rounded out. I've tried bigger piece allen key pieces in there and the same thing is happening. I can remove the drop link with an angle grinder, that's not so much of a problem but a replacement is £20 and it's £20 i'd prefer her not to need to spend. I don't have an impact gun or blow torch so that's out and the car isn't really roadworthy to take to a garage. I did get the nut to turn before it seized (yes i used WD40 before starting on it) and there's probably about 1/2 mm between the back of the nut and the shock absorber bracket. Now i can't tighten it back up either. Before i make plans to end the life of that drop link with the angle grinder and a cutting disc, is there anything i can do to undo the thing? Thanks