Volvo 340 1.7GL

[derskine]

Thought I'd start a thread for this as I'm going to be getting on with some work with it pretty soon.

 

I bought it a couple of months ago with no MOT but booked an MOT so it was road legal, and drove it back 15 miles or so.

I initially wasn't too sure if it was for me but at £150 I wasn't going to turn it down - and the short drive sealed the deal, comfy, spacious and just generally a nice place to be inside. Looks great in my opinion too.

 

 

 

 

 

(Apologies if these are massive in advance)

 

I even like the colour but unfortunately I only have the facility to spray cellulose, and of course that colour isn't available in cellulose, so it won't be staying this colour.

 

As with all good things, there's a catch, here's the mot fail sheet

 

 

Hazard warning lamps inoperative (1.4.B.1b)

Offside Front Windscreen wiper does not clear the windscreen effectively (8.2.2)

Nearside Rear Direction indicator not working (1.4.A.2c)

Offside Front Direction indicator incorrect colour (1.4.A.2f)

Nearside Rear wheel arch Body has a sharp edge caused by corrosion (6.1.C.1)

Offside Rear outer sill Suspension spring mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded (2.4.A.3)

Nearside Rear inner wheel arch Suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded (2.4.A.3)

Offside Rear inner sill Suspension spring mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded (2.4.A.3)

Nearside Front inner sill Suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded (2.4.A.3)

Offside Front inner wheel arch Suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded (2.4.A.3)

Nearside Front inner wheel arch Suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded (2.4.A.3)

Offside Rear inner wheel arch Suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded (2.4.A.3)

Offside Rear Service brake grabbing severely (3.7.B.2)

Service brake is causing the steering wheel to severely pull one way (3.7.B.2)

Nearside Rear inside car at wheel arch Suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded (2.4.A.3)

Offside Rear inside car at wheel arch Suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded (2.4.A.3)

Nearside Front Coil spring not correctly located (2.4.C.2)

Offside Front Coil spring not correctly located (2.4.C.2)

Advisory Notice issued

Rear Exhaust has a minor leak of exhaust gases (7.1.2)

Play in steering rack inner joint(s)

Standard fitment seat belt missing

Passenger seat(s) missing at time of test

 

Here's some undesirably real evidence

 

 

On the plus side I believe the above image constitutes to 2 or 3 of those mot fails

Hopefully get some work done on it at the weekend, truthfully I've not actually had a look under but the floor around the sills feels pretty solid.

Engine and gearbox seem very good though.

Mechanical faults will be easy and welding shouldn't be too difficult either - just time consuming

 

tl;dr - It's fucked

[meggersdog]

 

Nearside Front Coil spring not correctly located (2.4.C.2)

Offside Front Coil spring not correctly located (2.4.C.2)

 

Anything to do with the springs being chopped ?

 

Nice comfy cars these 340's.I like them

[danthecapriman]

Nice!

I had a J reg one of these in red, I think J was the very last ones. Mine had the rubber spoiler thing on the boot lid though.

 

They are good cars, mine only ever conked out once because of a corroded dizzy cap terminal! Aside from that it was fine. Mine also started to rot on both chassis rails where they curve up over the back axle, I cought it early and cleaned it up and coated it with underseal, may be worth having a look at yours.

One car I regret selling and id definatly have another!

[derskine]

Anything to do with the springs being chopped ?

 

Nice comfy cars these 340's.I like them

 

Yes, I bought the car from a mate who decided it was out of his depth, but he bought it from some "driftkingyolololz" who lowered it on the standard shocks without securing the springs in the cups. I like it lowered so to sort that all I need to do is cable tie it to the cups, have also heard it's possible to tack weld them but I was under the impression heat made springs not springy.

 

Dan - Yes J reg were the very last ones, they're apparently much worse for rust than the earlier ones due to being forced out the door to make way for 440 production.

I will certainly have a look at that, it'll be getting a full treatment of underseal once I've sorted the welding out. Was yours a GLT having the spoiler?

[mouseflakes]

Eeeuuww! That's some list. Just chip away at it (and weld up the resulting holes  )

 

Passenger seat(s) missing at time of test

Is it like the one in James Bond's DB5?

[derskine]

Eeeuuww! That's some list. Just chip away at it (and weld up the resulting holes  )

 

 

Is it like the one in James Bond's DB5?

 

There's a lot of filler so chipping and holing will be happening, I spoke to the guy who owned it in 2006 and he said some kids jumped on the roof and kicked the doors, so he took it to a "bodyshop" who just bodged it with loads of filler and painted it. Needless to say I'm not investigating this where I don't have to .

The driftprick has stripped the rear interior which is all in the boot, both rear wheel tubs are totally gone though so I suppose it's saved me a bit of work removing it all.

[danthecapriman]

 

 

Dan - Yes J reg were the very last ones, they're apparently much worse for rust than the earlier ones due to being forced out the door to make way for 440 production.

I will certainly have a look at that, it'll be getting a full treatment of underseal once I've sorted the welding out. Was yours a GLT having the spoiler?

 

Makes sense about the rust. I always much prefered the old 340 to the 440 (always hated fwd!)

 

Mine was just a 1.7GL (J430 HBK), it had a carb engine and a catalyser. Odly mine had a spoiler but didnt have body coloured bumpers.

It was giffer owned from new and had 54k on the clock when I got it, and it was mint! Even the underbonnet paint had been waxed and polished!

The cat snapped off on mine one morning and apparantly these arent easy to get now!? I just got a standard non cat exhaust and used that. Being a 91 meant it didnt need a cat for mot! Maybe worth doing this on yours if the old cat is still fitted.

I sold mine about 10 yrs ago and it was still only on about 70K and still really tidy, but I think it got scrappaged by the next owner! Twats!

[derskine]

Yeah I really hate the 440, the 340 is a much nicer car.

 

Mine is exactly the same spec minus the spoiler, the body coloured bumpers were added by a previous owner.

I think a large majority of them were giffer owned, this one has only done 78k.

I had to put fuel in it to get it home and the only fuel I had was a jerrycan of unleaded mixed with lead additive for my Cortina, so I fully expect the cat might be knackered due to that anyway, but as you say I plan to remove it anyway being '91.

[Split_Pin]

I love these. Looking at yours, I can't believe that the first ones were released in 1976, with no major changes to the body other than a bit of faffing around with bumper styles. The seats in these later ones are mega ergonomic and comfy feeling. The fabric feels warm even if you don't have heated pads underneath.

 

My dad had one back in the day, A442ESX supplied by Linn Volvo. Lasted someone else another 18 years after he had it!

[derskine]

Totally agree, a car with leaf springs in 1991 is a bit bizarre, the seats are also exceptionally comfy, you just sink down into them.

[Bucketeer]

^^^^ I had varying seat experiences.

 

White 1.7 - Blue, rough, itchy, tweed-ish seats that felt like they could sand off the trousers you were wearing in minutes.

Blue 2.0 - Lovely velour numbers that felt like a warm hug from the Cookie monster.

Neither had any side support though.

 

Enjoyed both cars . . . . . . . okay, only enjoyed the 2 litre.

 

Drifting hadn't been invented when I was pootling 'round in them.

[Forty-two]

Did some good mileage in my 340 but it had to go due to a persistent misfire when warm which I could not track down. In no particular order it had, carb reconditioned, new ht leads, dizzy cap and rotor arm, coil, spark plugs. I remember doing something with the fuel pump, it may have had a new one of those.

 

With only 37,000 miles under the belt and in need of a reliable car it was given to a friend for a case of beer. It's a shame I never cured the running issue as it was a great car with comfy seats.

 

On one occasion we did take it for a spot of light green laning. Beware of boulders pressing the exhaust onto the gear linkage, we got stuck and unable to reverse or go forward it I proved to be a heavy car to push!

[Captain Mainwaring]

I love these old things, I've had a couple. Seats, as has been alluded to, are stupendously comfortable and despite the lack of PAS in most of them, they aren't really that bad to drive at all. Lovely and wallowy, with a nice big bonnet in front of you. Feels like you're driving something much bigger.

 

What are the 1700s like to live with? I've only ever had 1.4s, and those are pretty well bombproof. The Variomatic I had was a bit thirsty but I largely suspect that was more to do with the fact I didn't have a fucking clue how to drive it properly.

[derskine]

The 1.7s are less reliable than the 1.4s, but obviously have a little more power, enough to overtake comfortably certainly.

The issue with the 1.7s is the carb base warps due to being thinner than it should be, causing a fairly big air leak.

I think the only way to cure it is to get it skimmed, but mine seems okay.

[Station]

Would love one of these, not because they're RWDOMG though.

[laser wheels]

This has me Jonesing for one of these now, but a quick look at ebay and Autotrader shows none for sale, anywhere, at all! They can't be that rare now, can they ..?

[Talbotman]

"]Nice!

I had a J reg one of these in red, I think J was the very last ones. Mine had the rubber spoiler thing on the boot lid though.

 

I think if yours had a rear spoiler and was a non glt it probably was a Recline special edition....available either in Red or pewter silver...if my memory serves me well!!

[derskine]

This has me Jonesing for one of these now, but a quick look at ebay and Autotrader shows none for sale, anywhere, at all! They can't be that rare now, can they ..?

 

They are quite rare now, build quality in terms of rustproofing was nowhere near the standard of the Swedish built volvos.

I don't remember the last time I seen a 340/360 on the road up here.

[plasticvandan]

my dad had a 360glt for a good few years,think it had 260,000 on the clock when it finally went to the auction,only saw it once after that though!

[derskine]

Volvo engined 360s were a cut above... properly reliable and quick in comparison

[Jim Bell]

You used to be able to pick them up for £50. They were very unpopular. Since the drift scene bloomed, more and more of them have gotten stripped, caned, abandoned, stacked. They are rare now. I've had a vario, 2 1.4s, a gle and a glt and in all that time I only saw one other on the road (that didn't belong to someone I knew through forums).

They're good cars. But they rot, and they're thirsty for what they do. If you can deal with those two issues, they last forever.

[derskine]

I think a lot of people find them an ugly old man's car, but I quite like how it looks, there's loads of strange things about it that I love.

I'm planning to severely rust proof it, hopefully so it lasts a long time without needing more welding when I've finished - but even if it does it's not really an issue to patch things up.

It will be my daily driver so hopefully I can nurse reasonable fuel consumption out of it, I would be happy with 35mpg.

[Jim Bell]

It will be my daily driver so hopefully I can nurse reasonable fuel consumption out of it, I would be happy with 35mpg.

I would salute you if you got 35. I could never get over 31. And I tried hard.

[derskine]

We'll see what happens but it's certainly a more suitable daily than my polo, safer and comfier.

 

Edit - Just to add to that, I've heard its possible to get slightly better fuel economy if you manage to drive without opening the second butterfly.

[Captain Mainwaring]

You used to be able to pick them up for £50. They were very unpopular. Since the drift scene bloomed, more and more of them have gotten stripped, caned, abandoned, stacked. 

 

This. 300s seem to turn up in batches every now and again on fleabay, and invariably one or more of them's had the ZOMGTRAMPDRIFTAAA treatment. It's particularly grating when you see a minter that's been owned by the same elderly owner for god knows how many years only to fall into the hands of the drift crowd.

 

Ah well, such is life.

[AnthonyG]

I always thought these lasted a lot better than the 400s, which were pretty awful for rust. Used to be loads about in rural Wales until about 2006-7, then they just disappeared. I guess the 1400s probably escaped the attention of the drift crowd though.

[Stanky]

Brutha_Stanky used to have 2, a C-Reg 1.4 and an F-Reg 1.7 both in manuel flavour. I don't recall the MPG but they were pretty good steers and were extremely comfortable on a long journey.

 

He procured an 'econometer' which was mounted in a block of wood on the dash and was controlled by vacuum from the engine. I recall Brutha_Stanky tried to drive around keeping it in the 'green' zone to improve* economy. This entailed pulling away in thrid and then shifting into fifth as soon as the speedo needle moved. It was the subject of much debate as to whether it worked or not (it did move, to be fair) and if driving in as high a gear as possible without the engine actually stalling was indeed good for fuel economy.

 

I dont remember if the answer to any of these questions was conclusively proven, but the point is that you can get a gizmo which has no less than three colours and which will tell you beyond any doubt* that some part of your engine runs at below atmospheric pressure.

 

You can't say fairer than that.

[derskine]

I've seen a guide on how to make one of those things before, though like most mpg gauges on carbed cars, they're most likely massively inaccurate.

[Eric]

This is what we do on the other side of the channel....

[himoverthere]

My brother had one in elastic-band-o-matic flavour. It went wrong so often and so expensively that he couldn't afford another car for ages. He blew the head gasket in the end. Twice. On opposite legs of the same journey.