Conan

Apparently all Volvos from something like 1979 is compatible with E10, the only manufacturer for that to be the case. Also considering SAAB is famous for making lot of horsepower on E85, it's probably Sweden thing like being alcoholic. Although I'm of the opinion that if the car is pushing 20+ years of age it's probably not unusual for rubber materials to deteriorate. Always a good idea to check fuel lines and other components regularly on old cars even if you always lob E5 in or whatever. Even more so if your car says it's compatible because that's not a guarantee the components will last forever.

I can say for sure that that thing is in period UK made. People imported a lot of weird shit just for the sake of having something different. I've seen quite a few of them back in the day both as private vehicle and business vehicle (mostly airport shuttle for hotels). The mods done to it are wretched though.

I haven't done much to report. Driving it sometimes, attending car shows if it's interesting one. It did recently got new clutch master cylinder piston. Hardened seals and all that. Typical old car maintenance. It also got new speedometer gear and new oil seals. This is because it starts dripping oil underneath the instrument cluster. Common old Toyota problem. So while we're at it I intend to fix the wildly inaccurate speedometer. It reads nearly 10mph under and my assumption was completely correct that it got the wrong speedo gear in it. 18 teeth compared to 20 teeth. Other, less important news. I bought period correct Automobile Association badge depicted above but didn't like putting it on permanently. It's probably going to be car show only giffer accessory. Oh and I found 1980's newspapers for sale with a few dating from within the year the car was registered. I like collecting print media so I bought them, select the best one, and start putting it on the dashboard at car shows like some git would do on daily commute back in the day. The attention that this get is pretty astonishing. People come up, read the headline, noticing it's period and showed surprised expression. I also got a map from 1977 which does the same job. I love maps as well. I also have quite a few old road maps. Young people usually reacts with bemusement. Old people usually reacts like Sam Tyler.

Further tinkering. For some reason I suspect the car was running a bit rich, so I decided to bring out a screwdriver. It's one idle mixture screw, how hard can it be? I warm up the car hot, then tighten the screw 2 complete turns. If I fuck it up I just turn it back right? My suspicion appears to be correct though. The exhaust fume immediately definitely got a bit less smelly. So I test drive it a bit and it's like a rocket compared to before. Much more responsive, pulls all the way to 5000rpm and still going. Pulls hard the way it never pulled before. I thought at this point I should've tried this ages ago. Got an appointment today so I did more test to make sure it's not, say, pinging it's head off while fully accelerating in 4th gear. I can happily report that it indeed runs good at any loads. I shall call myself a remap specialist from now on.

My family had one from new. First car I ever driven actually. Fun fact, even ones sold in Japan were made and exported from Thailand. In Japan only old farts bought them along with Toyota Belta. Elsewhere the market demographic were more varied.

Found a replacement steering wheel for £20. The rubber rim of the old one was peeling away from the metal frame and was covered up with steering wheel cover. I removed that when I bought the car and replaced with lace counterpart which works well and looks good. But original rim in good condition cannot be compared so I'm pretty happy. There are more things I could do to make the interior nicer place to be. But at this point it'll be spending 95% of the effort and budget to achieve maybe 5% improvement. That can definitely wait while I complete other things.

I think it's impossible (even to non car people) not to feel happy seeing old regular car still in regular usage. Spotting a well used Heckflosse on the road anywhere in the world would certainly make my day.

I can assure you that the works done on cpt's Acclaim was much more extensive and pain inducing than on my car. 😅 These j-tins (including the Acclaim) are so ridiculously usable despite their age so there's no reason not to use them! (Apart from rot maybe).

No it was the inverse. First model to not be badged Toyopet in Japan.

Saw a post of someone breaking a rotten one for spares. I'm always on a lookout for those. Firstly, it's important to show how decadent you are, 5 speed badge. I don't think this is actually original to this model but would anyone know otherwise? I also got a lot of hen's teeth interior bits. A-pillar trims, steering column cover, jesus handles, door lock button. I hoped for dash pad and b-pillar trim as well but they were shite so I didn't take them. I'm especially after the A-pillar trim and column cover so I'm happy. Most important bit though, one that made me jump very quickly. Used brake discs. Why would I buy manky old brake disc you might be wondering? Two reasons. 1. These are actually near new. 2. They're NLA. I made sure to actually taking mine to pick them up and not a random modern. I find it works well when it's individual breaking their own car. I paid £35.

They are both pretty new. Just shite.

There was a point I thought it was the coil. But it starts back up too easily and I feel it cuts out not sudden enough for it to be the coil. (To be fair, I've never had a coil failure so I don't really know how it'd feel). Hopefully indeed that this is correct.

Car started having running issue. It'd randomly cut out after driving for half an hour or more. Oddly (or perhaps not) only when actually going motorway speed and not in start-stop traffic which makes it even more annoying. It also always start back up pretty much immediately or only after a few mins. No fuel going in I suspect. I looked at shite fuel filter and yes when it cut out there's no fuel in there or in the float bowl. Pretty much confirmed then that fuel pump doesn't work intermittently. So I swapped another one I had laying around in. It does exactly the same thing except worse. Perhaps the fuel pump isn't the culprit? It started doing this right before long holiday as well. No shop is open this time of the year in case I needed new parts. I had to wait until the holiday's over which is today. So I drive it round and round like a mad man. Several full throttle acceleration, as much load as I can put on it. Same symptom after half an hour indeed. It was discovered that the plug for electric fuel pump and the wires running into it is getting pretty hot. That's weird. The plug also seems pretty loose but not enough to pull it completely off. Zip tie'd the plug together so the contact's not loose. Merry go round once more. Doesn't cut out. Drove it many miles in scorching weather. Still running just fine. Woo. Job jobbed. I think. I will report again if it's back being a pain in the arse.

I'm glad you find my ramblings to actually be useful. 😄 Lubricants for classic cars is a topic I find both fascinating and annoying. It's interesting how and why each type of fluids is use or made obsolete. It's annoying that a lot of times those special fluids aren't available in your market because it is too small. High ZDDP oil is an example, along with aforementioned Classic ATF. GL4 gear oil is also surprisingly hard to find despite it being required for synchro not to break in many cases. Yet these are easy ones and there is so much more obscure shit the further you go back. At the same time I put E10 pez in all my car and not give a single fuck.

I find nearly all one make specialist to be either (or both) absolutely shit or (or and) booked so full the car might rot away to nothing before anything getting done.

I personally would not go for DEXRON-III. And I would be a bit wary of the Mobil ATF 220 which is more for DEXRON-II, compatible with DEXRON but a generation apart from Type A Suffix A so can't be sure it's actually tested as fully compatible. Then again Manual Transmission is not as picky as Automatic and it'll probably work okay for a long while. Type A Suffix A haven't been available for many years anyway and people have to go for substitute anyhow. I have to say I'm one of those people who're picky about GL4/GL5 gear oil, although most cars on the road are on GL5 anyway. Your mileage might vary. From the list it seems Mobil ATF 200 is the "correct" fluid, but may be difficult to find these day.

A 1963 Merc would be using MB 236.2 which correspond to Type A Suffix A. A waaaaaay obsolete oil because they used to have whale oil in them as corrosion prohibitor. You'll probably have to get something labelled Classic ATF. And while a few brands specify that these ATF for Classics are compatible with DEXRON-II, of which I would and had lobbed DEXRON-III in as substitute no problem. When it's Type A Suffix A which is pre-DEXRON I'd be more wary. Anyhow, they are very much available although perhaps not in every shop like it's 1970. I believe even Mercedes-Benz are still selling MB 236.2. Just go with something that actually says it's compatible with that. A few are listed here. https://operatingfluids.mercedes-benz.com/sheet/236.2/en

Might be different in the Philippines, but the Sentra name started in Thailand due to B11 Sunny production continued after the B12 (as pictured) introduction. B13 above is also Sentra. After the B11 production ended in 1995 the name Sunny went back on the B14.

Nothing much. I've been just driving it places. It's an car.

Air filter on this car is filthy. Couldn't find one online anywhere so brick and mortar shop I went to. They didn't have one for this exact car either. The good thing about going to a shop like this is they're willing to find something similar on shelf. So they went in the back for a few mins and came back with a slightly larger diameter filter that I can return if it doesn't fit. It fits perfectly. That's not even the most amazing thing. It's an air filter that'll fit a Lonsdale.

It's been a pretty hectic few days mostly taking care of little jobs. This is how I got the car back, btw. I removed the side protection strips and badging to put on myself in fear of 1. not being put back on correctly 2. unobtainium items going missing. But I did told them to drill and put fender mirrors on which they promptly did. There was quite a few issues to sort out. Got the car back, the front left indicator wasn't indicating, the side right indicator wasn't either. Loose wiring for both. Soldering session sorted that out. Replaced the antenna as well. But considering the speaker doesn't speak I didn't wire it in. Don't want to dismantle half the dashboard to do so. I then went and got this thing an MOT, of which the car passed. But then I noticed the brake light wasn't illuminating either but the taillight was. That was just a fuse which I had a spare. This car use those classic glass fuse. The day after that I put the new, correct type steelies on. Most wouldn't even be able to tell the difference. I then had the air-con regas. 7 months stationary means this is necessary. It wasn't blowing as cold. Also, the boot lock was broken. The barrel arm came loose from the latch. Reattached and it's working fine now. I then put the interior trim back together. Today the front shocks got replaced. It's a strut insert type which is interesting. Along with the top hat of course. The front shocks have been borked since day one so it feels really great especially that I've already replaced the rear. They seems to be original, it's a serviceable type which I reckon have been obsolete for over 30 years. These day the strut insert replacement seems to be the norm and nobody rebuild the originals anymore. I reckon it's a pretty clever design that became a thing only because shocks technology improved. Tomorrow I'll be doing the gearbox mount. There's a bit of a noise coming when decelerating which wasn't there before so that'll be the start. I'll also send the new front headlamp surrounds to be chrome painted so I can finally replace the broken one. Oh and I changed the oil and filter as well. 5W-40 Synthetic. The oil change was pretty interesting as well because I got this little drain valve thingamajig which is mainly invented to prevent stripped thread. I love them so much I put it on all my cars now.

27 August 2022 - 11 March 2023 It's done. It's finally fucking done. And in pictures it looks kind of exactly the same. 🤣

My Volvo 850 got automatically height adjustable front seat belt. It's done extremely simply that it's a wonder why no other manufacturer adopt this system more. (Maybe some did that I don't know?) They made the reel itself wider than the belt, so when it winds back up (after getting unwind to put on), it goes back in at exactly the height it needs to be. No need to faff about with pushing buttons to move it up and down. What I find amazing is I've owned the car for more than 2 years and never notice that the belt is always in the right place, which is exactly the goal of Volvo engineers that designed this system. It's not meant to be noticed. I only learnt of this while reading a book on the model's development and the mind's definitely blown. I do like cars with this sort of attention to details. Especially when it's functional.

This thread reveals the downside of working from home. 😂 I know many people in the same industry do drive some pretty interesting car but it's not the same innit. Then again back when I still had to go to the office my car almost always was the oldest, most unusual thing in the carpark anyway, so I couldn't even get the satisfaction of discovering weird tats around the place.

Even easier to make. 🤣