Six Cylinders Motoring Notes

[beko1987]

Awww a little pet! Could work on taming it and have it as a garage buddy... They can't see in the dark, it's how I cna reliably catch Phoenix! They go blind and just see, then when he feels my hand on his chest he climbs in and snuggles up! Any light at all and he flies around and becomes a little sod

Good job on protecting the paint, was looking very haggard and tired before! 

[Six-cylinder]

3 hours ago, beko1987 said:

Awww a little pet! Could work on taming it and have it as a garage buddy... They can't see in the dark, it's how I cna reliably catch Phoenix! They go blind and just see, then when he feels my hand on his chest he climbs in and snuggles up! Any light at all and he flies around and becomes a little sod

Good job on protecting the paint, was looking very haggard and tired before! 

I think he must have been there 30 hours because it was the day before I opened the doors to take out the car to wash the car. All I could think of was what have you sh1t on!

Anyway @beko1987where were you when I needed you because it needed more work and lower section of the car has only been washed! 

 

 

[Six-cylinder]

I got a message last night from a fellow shiter, it was simply a link to a Volvo 480 for sale on FB. I knew this member loved 480s so it was not a surprise and offered a lift to view/collect it. The reply was not good timing for me. Well I like them too so said if I buy it for now, would you buy it from me when you are ready.

Today we went to Loughborough together and agreed it is a good car so now I own a 1989 Volvo 480 ES Auto. MOT 19 Sep 2024, 67,000 miles with original hand book pack including service book showing it was originally a Volvo Concessionaires car and the last service in 2016 was 4,000 miles ago including a cambelt. It came with a heap of spares that filled the slave car including refurbished front sub-frame, steering rack, Lower arms, door glass tailgate with wiper, wiper stalk, gearbox mount, spare driver’s front wing, seat and some other stuff. I have just read the folder with later services Dec 2021 and Sep 2022. Also an Auto gearbox service including seals replaced in Feb 2022. There are other repair in the last 2 years including Wishbone ball joint, rocker cover gasket, brake light switch, window regulator and rear wiper blade, central control Module.

Yes there are negatives, there is a battery drain, the info centre requires soldering to make it work, there some minor rust spots around the car and the driver’s seat is poor but it came with a replacement. Volvo 480s were always poor quality so I am sure we will find other issues. It also needs a good clean.

Interestingly I did not think that 480 Autos became available until late 1989 on G reg so this one being Concessionaires car maybe an advanced Automatic model before the general sale cars arrived.

Also this goes against the rumour that FB sellers were not good to deal with as this one held the car because I had agreed to see it, the description was spot on and the interaction was very pleasant.

Unfortunately the car is not taxed or insured so I held back from driving it away and when it is legal we will collect it.

[richardmorris]

I like these. But, and it’s a big but, they seem to be worse than Italians for electrical issues. And I like Italians.

[wuvvum]

The last one of these I sold was in the depths of winter so it was dark when the buyer turned up.  The headlights decided they were going to refuse to pop up.  They switched on, but they weren't illuminating anything other than the inside of the bumper.  I had to knock some money off and he drove home using the foglights and driving lights to see where he was going.

[richardmorris]

4 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

The last one of these I sold was in the depths of winter so it was dark when the buyer turned up.  The headlights decided they were going to refuse to pop up.  They switched on, but they weren't illuminating anything other than the inside of the bumper.  I had to knock some money off and he drove home using the foglights and driving lights to see where he was going.

Naturally any car with pop up headlights has a thousand get-out-of-jail cards.

[Zelandeth]

Random thing I remember from my first encounter with these was that it was from the peak era of fibre optics being the cool new thing that everyone was trying to find uses for - Volvo had decided that one of the things they would use them for was providing illumination of even the seatbelt buckles.  Haven't ever seen that on another car since.

[DSdriver]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

Random thing I remember from my first encounter with these was that it was from the peak era of fibre optics being the cool new thing that everyone was trying to find uses for - Volvo had decided that one of the things they would use them for was providing illumination of even the seatbelt buckles.  Haven't ever seen that on another car since.

My Citroen DS has a fibre optic cable from the back of the instrument cluster to the ignition key barrel to light it up. That was how they did it in 1973 before the accountants took control.

[New POD]

4 minutes ago, DSdriver said:

My Citroen DS has a fibre optic cable from the back of the instrument cluster to the ignition key barrel to light it up. That was how they did it in 1973 before the accountants took control.

I think you'll find that was purely value engineered to save a bulb and a bulb holder. 

[brownnova]

I love a 480, such a great design! Always fancied one. 

[beko1987]

51 minutes ago, brownnova said:

I love a 480, such a great design! Always fancied one. 

When I was at college there was a K plate one I walked past several times a day and I went through a stage of really wanting one! Did lust after a 440 too... 

Probably should have done it back then rather than buying a 206 as their probably not as cheap as they were in 2009/10 😂

[Six-cylinder]

Today was a yellow day, a drive out in the MG TF to Milton Keynes Classic breakfast gathering. A wide range of cars and dry weather made it a very pleasant trip. A good showing of Vauxhalls with 2x Cavalier MK3, 2x Calibra, Monaro and a MK1 Astra, plus an Opel Manta. The car I most wanted to drive home apart from mine was the MK1 Astra.

[AnthonyG]

On 18/10/2023 at 00:24, wuvvum said:

I once took an elderly primer grey Peugeot to a car meet in the depths of winter with little to no heating.  That was a 304 estate and the meeting was at the Ace Café - I was a bit* cold by the time I got home...

God I remember that! Must be at least 15 years now. I remember thinking at the time it was pretty hardcore of you! 

In the late noughties/early teens there was still some really ropey 70s chod still knocking about, I remember one of the founders of this forum (Electric Leyland) turning up to a Stondon car museum c.2010 in an early Maxi which had no reverse gear, thus needing pushing into parking spaces so he could escape forwards. 

[AnthonyG]

Re 480s, this was the first car I went to the dealer launch of, as a 12 year in 1986, courtesy of the Worcester Volvo dealer and my dad agreeing to take me! 

My landlord at Aberystwyth university had a N reg ‘Celebration’ model which was a run-out model I think? Looked very smart with full leather. 

I assume these shared a lot in common with the 440/460? always thought it a little strange that the coupe was launched two years before the hatch/saloon. 

[Six-cylinder]

31 minutes ago, AnthonyG said:

I assume these shared a lot in common with the 440/460? always thought it a little strange that the coupe was launched two years before the hatch/saloon. 

My guess was they were testing the platform and factory on the low volume coupe before the lower cost high volume 440.  I had my first 440 in Sep 1989 a June 1989 peppermint green 440 GLEi, dull and poor quality. Luckily I did not have it long before I got a new 440 Turbo which was a bit more enjoyable with more go and the slightly lowered suspension.

 

[Floatylight]

8 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

Today was a yellow day, a drive out in the MG TF to Milton Keynes Classic breakfast gathering. A wide range of cars and dry weather made it a very pleasant trip. A good showing of Vauxhalls with 2x Cavalier MK3, 2x Calibra, Monaro and a MK1 Astra, plus an Opel Manta. The car I most wanted to drive home apart from mine was the MK1 Astra.

The Mk1 Astra looks great, always loved the look of the Exp and the Celebrity as a kid, one was two tone black and silver the other black and gold.  Mum had a three door 1200s which I learnt to drive in and out of the garage aged about 12..  Halcyon days (until I caught the rear arch on the door frame!)

[Talbot]

Been meaning to put some pics up of the Mishibishi, and here seems like the right place to do it.  There's other stuff earlier in the thread, but after recovering it from where it had been parked for several years after clutch failure, it went off to be sorted, at the same garage as has been used before near me:

Irritatingly it snapped a front spring while being recovered.:

That would have to wait for another day, as the failed clutch was the first thing to be addressed.

Lots of subframe to be removed:

While up in the air, I was able to see the "small bit of welding" it needed.  More on this later:

Anyway.  Box off:

Clutch doesn't look too bad does it?  Unfortunately the release bearing came out looking like this and completely siezed:

Which had done something I've never seen before.  As it hadn't been turning, it had friction heated the fingers of the clutch and made them go all weak.  With this result:

Yep.  All fingers had been heat-weakened and then folded over so that the release bearing just punched through the pressure plate...  Out of focus, but you can see clearly:

Ah well, no time to wonder.  New clutch in:

Box back on:

Subframe pieces back on, and all buttoned up:

While in the air there was also a couple of other items noticed.  Radiator is "past it's best"

But it has had a front-to-rear re-pipe:

Which is nice.

So... it was shoved outside, as it couldn't really be driven any distance with the front spring rubbing the bodywork really badly.  Springs were ordered from Aus, and collected from @Six-cylinder for fitting.

[Talbot]

So.  Next thing to do is remove the borked spring and fit some replacement ones.  Struts removed one at a time, the dead spring coming off very easily:

The spring compressors were doing almost nothing here, noted by the fact that when I went to remove them, it all went sproing!

Got that strut back together, alas with no more pics.  But.. it was very clear to me that the new springs are not the same spec as the old ones, so the other side definitely needs doing before the car is driven anywhere.  Other side, being complete put up more of a fight:

But did come apart.  I tend to use 4x spring compressors now, as if one slips or moves, there are still two diametrically opposed compressors in place.  Using just two or even three is a risk too far IMO.  These compressors have done a 3.5tonne van springs before now, so I'm quite happy using them on this.

New spring and old spring for comparison:

Ah well, hopefully it won't affect the drive too much.  No pic of the new spring compressed, but they did go together OK.  Shoved it all back on the car, and remarkably it doesn't appear to have affected the ride height at all.  I assume these are shorter but also stiffer, so have a similar static loaded-length.  Given that these cars were quite popular in Aus, and their roads can range from OK to abysmal, we have to assume that these will be fine.

Time to get the car away from the garage and address the other issues.  Enter the braked A-frame again.  This thing is genuinely brilliant.. I can't list the number of cars I've moved with it now.. must be dozens.  It's now also almost 20 years old, which is a bit worrying as I can clearly remember making it.

Anyway.  Lets have a look at that rust first.  Doesn't look too bad:

Oh.

Bother.

Fine.  I should have known it would be worse than expected.  It *ALWAYS*  is.

Grinder oot:

I need to keep that threaded hole location, as I probably won't get it right again.. soo:

From below:

That's a fair hole really.  Time to get weldin'

Zinc based paint:

And bitumen topcoat:

Jobbed.

Next exciting installment:  The radiator.

[Talbot]

Can you tell which is which?

Only issue is that it's a bare radiator, so everything has to be moved over:

With that in, I can now put the grille back on with several cable ties, and make it look like a car again:

How brave am I feeling?  With a new battery on it too, time to shove it in for an MOT and see what the damage is.  Thankfully I have a fairly decent MOT centre just 1.5 miles away, so shove my bike in the remarkably spacious boot, and get it down there.

A white pile of utter shit.  And a Mitsubishi.

Predictable results:

Many of these are easy and fairly trivial.  The headlamp issue was worrying though..

Rack boot changed on the nearside.  I didn't do the offside one, as it looked at least 6.72 times harder to do.

Then, the tiniest little drop-links I've ever seen.

Did both sides, as seems silly not to:

Then changed the dead lamps as necessary, put a splurge of instagasket on the front bank cam cover, as that's where the leak was from, and that left only the headlamps to do.

Which I simply couldn't do.  They are glass lenses, which is great, but the plastic reflectors had lost most of their silvering, hence the pattern issue.  I cleaned them up as best I could and ran it back to the tester to see if they were good enough.  He showed me the beam pattern on the tester, and even I would not have passed it.. they were just a smoosh of light with no clear cut-off.  Not good.

It also needs 4 tyres, as although the MOT only identified one as a fail, they are all terrible.  Annoyingly, they're a fairly old-fashioned size:  205/65r15.  or at least they should be.  The car had a mix of 195/60r15 and 195/55/r15 tyres fitted, which are both wrong.  I had assumed that the spare (at 205/65r15) was the wrong one, but as it turned out it was the only correct one.  The spare was also flat as a pancake, and held air for about 12 seconds.  Turns out it was a corroded bead seal area, so that got removed from the rim, cleaned up and re-sealed.  It might as well work!

So that is the condition the car got A-framed up to the FoD in.

 

[outlaw118]

9 minutes ago, Talbot said:

It also needs 4 tyres, as although the MOT only identified one as a fail, they are all terrible.  Annoyingly, they're a fairly old-fashioned size:  205/65r15.  or at least they should be

I've just had a quick look at blackcircles, and they're available from £64.92 for "Pace" (Winglong Happyday Ditchfinders not available) to £160.69 for Michelin Thruster Turbo Viagras.

https://www.blackcircles.com/tyres/205-65-15?id=10007

 

[Talbot]

Indeed, but as it needs five, that would be well over £320 on tyres.  I believe @Six-cylinder managed to find some part-worns somewhere for it, as certain Espace and Berlingo/Partners used this size.  Most of the tyres available in this size are commercial though, so you have to be a bit careful.

[Six-cylinder]

1 minute ago, Talbot said:

Indeed, but as it needs five, that would be well over £320 on tyres.  I believe @Six-cylinder managed to find some part-worns somewhere for it, as certain Espace and Berlingo/Partners used this size.  Most of the tyres available in this size are commercial though, so you have to be a bit careful.

Yes thank you so much for the large amount of work you have done to the Sigma.

Yes I have tyres for it and the new headlights. The delay has been me needing to work and now it is marooned in the grass at FoD after all the rain. 

[Talbot]

Having used my Braked A-Frame for so many years, I've never seen what it looks like in action, as I'm in the towing car.  I can feel it working, but not see it.  So, by the power of having two phones:

Possibly one of the most boring videos on here, but it shows how the car steers, and more importantly, brakes.  I'm amazed by how progressive the braking is when needed.  It needs a better return spring, but that seems to be the only thing "wrong" with it.

Another, just of the turning in to the FoD, which highlights how much the towed car "cuts in" on corners, as it's the same as towing a long trailer with the trailer wheels at the same position as the rear axle of the towed car.  A car transporter trailer is more maneuverable.   But also has to be towed both ways on a journey, whereas this just packages up into the boot of the car, meaning you can drive "normally" on at least part of the journey.  Plus you don't have to tow 600+KG of transporter trailer, meaning in theory I can tow a heavier car this way.

I did take an even longer video... but even I can't watch 30 minutes of a car driving itself along the road.

[Six-cylinder]

25 minutes ago, Talbot said:

Having used my Braked A-Frame for so many years, I've never seen what it looks like in action, as I'm in the towing car.  I can feel it working, but not see it.  So, by the power of having two phones:

Possibly one of the most boring videos on here, but it shows how the car steers, and more importantly, brakes.  I'm amazed by how progressive the braking is when needed.  It needs a better return spring, but that seems to be the only thing "wrong" with it.

Another, just of the turning in to the FoD, which highlights how much the towed car "cuts in" on corners, as it's the same as towing a long trailer with the trailer wheels at the same position as the rear axle of the towed car.  A car transporter trailer is more maneuverable.   But also has to be towed both ways on a journey, whereas this just packages up into the boot of the car, meaning you can drive "normally" on at least part of the journey.  Plus you don't have to tow 600+KG of transporter trailer, meaning in theory I can tow a heavier car this way.

I did take an even longer video... but even I can't watch 30 minutes of a car driving itself along the road.

It just makes me want to get behind the wheel even more!

[Talbot]

Sounds like I need to come up and do the tyres/headlamps and get it in for another MOT....

[Six-cylinder]

5 minutes ago, Talbot said:

Sounds like I need to come up and do the tyres/headlamps and get it in for another MOT....

It would be nice to finish it off now we are so close, I will pop into the field tomorrow and see how wet it still is.

[grogee]

It may be buried further down the thread, but how does that braked A-frame thingummy work then mister? 

It looks like a shiter's wet dream - the ability to transport mot-less hulks about the country single-handed. 

[Talbot]

It's not in this thread.  In fact, although I've referenced it in various places, I don't think I've gone into detal as to how it works other than in person with people, mainly at the FoD.  I shan't clog up this thread with it, but will put some information up about it at some point.

The very quick version:  It's an A-frame, but with an over-run mechanism at the tow-hitch, a long bowden cable into the interior and a brake-pedal-pusher that straps to the driver's seat.  When the towed car pushes on the towing car, it activates it's own brakes.  Exactly like any other over-run brakes, but all fitted with ratchet straps, bungee cords and cable ties.

[Six-cylinder]

I collected our Volvo V70 T5 Auto today with a Fresh MOT, with nothing to do for a change.

[beko1987]

A good friend of mine had a T plate S40 saloon t5 several years ago and it was rapid! We were younger and sillier but never unsafe, made several point to point times in that car that can't and possibly shouldn't be beaten. Was always funny to bait hot hatches too as he kept it unwashed and tatty. 

Remember it being very comfy too as we proceeded at speed to wherever 

@gnomeotbut he doesn't log in very often...