Roffle Volvo - ROFFLE! - What next?

[Craig the Princess]

Volvos are rubbish.

Should have bought a Laguna 2.

 

Sorry for the Volvo shenanigans, better luck tomorrow.

[Jim Bell]

The first one you sold must have told the rest. You're been black balled mate. You will never feel the love of a Volvo again, and will find only pain.

[Vin]

Fiat 126 <hmm..intriguing>...

[dollywobbler]

Oh good grief. On the way back from getting dinner, the 126 lost power and barely made it back. Nightmare!

Tomorrow, we will be up early to grab an alternator, meet Panda and introduce him to his Volvo, then try and get mine working before the long drive home. I'm absolutely exhausted but will do a proper illustrated report when I get back home.

[Lankytim]

I think I have a Volvo alternator somewhere if anybody wants it FOC, infact I have a few bits since I weighed my Dads 740 est a few months ago.

[Junkman]

At least the 126 made it. So much for Volvos.

Which is in line with my experience with Volvos. Both I ever considered buying broke down during the test drive.

 

ORL OVLOVZ IZ VRXALZ.

[dollywobbler]

Here it is! Due to how dark it was last night, this is the first time I've seen it.

 

Just about to whip the alternator off before we go hunting for a replacement.

[doobietoo]

Soooo at least we know why your wallet absconded..... it was scared...

 

Hope you have a better day today...

[dollywobbler]

Going well so far. Getting this off was almost easy. To the motor factors!

Also attached is a pic of the Fiat 126 when it was still working.

[HMC]

Is that a Welsh sticker on the boot? It's returning home!

[dollywobbler]

Pandamonium has been taken to his new steed. Needed quite an oil top up but he is on his way. We have a new alternator. Time to fit it!

[Pillock]

I've only just woken up, still a bit groggy, and thought that alternator was three foot across.

 

Perspective fail.

[Lacquer Peel]

I would have nicked pandamonium's alternator and played daft. Good on you for doing the right thing.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I've only just woken up, still a bit groggy, and thought that alternator was three foot across.

 

Perspective fail.

I thought it was a krazy photoshop!!!!

[Tetleysmooth]

Pah!!! Teething troubles. That'll turn out to be the best car you've had. It's a Volvo!!

[cms206]

My facebook offer of a quid for it still stands. I've not brought one back from Wales yet and my only 2.0 was a turbo 940.

[Pillock]

I thought it was a krazy photoshop!!!!

 

[Lukas]

He made it to Whales! 

 

To me, that was one of the most thrilling collection capers on here. Looking forward to read the complete story on your blog. 

[dollywobbler]

Aye. An update. Due to perspective, the new alternator is much smaller. My mate managed to find this one, for a nice cash price at a fairly local motor factor. We headed there, then went and scooped up Panda and mini-Panda so they could get heading East. Then it was home to fit this.

 

Access isn't too bad but getting everything lined up for the main bolt to go back in proved tricky. I also topped up the coolant and examined the non-working sidelight. Hadn't realised they were twin filament! I didn't have a replacement with me. Meh.

 

With the battery charged overnight, we connected everything back up, started the engine and tested with a multimeter. 14v! Brilliant. A celebratory cup of tea was had. I then hopped aboard for the long drive home.

 

The biggest problem this car has is knackered dampers. Once you're used to the unusual yaw that results from undulations, it's really not a bad steer at all. Corners well, goes well enough (albeit lacking the torque of the XM and Panda's turbo) and is quite deliciously smooth. It's far, far nicer than the £150 2.3GLE estate I had a few years back. The dashboard doesn't creak at all!

 

Fairly new front wiper blades were a godsend (I need a pair of headlamp wiper blades) though the rear wiper is barely touching the screen, and the blade is ancient! It does, remarkably, have air con and I think it works too! Certainly, the compressor kicks in. It's pretty comfortable too. I set my sat nav to avoid the M4 bridge toll (point of principle) and it chose a most marvellous route, taking me north to Oxford and across to Gloucester, Ledbury and Leominster. Barely any traffic - far, far nicer than the M25/M4 scenario. And I made pretty good time - less than six hours to cover 178 miles, and not one bit of motorway! In fact, dual carriageway was in very short supply. Beautiful.

 

I stopped for fuel after about 20 miles. The seller reckoned it had only covered about 40 miles since being filled up, but that was back in March and the fuel gauge wasn't (at the start of the journey) working. My bravery ran out and I decided to actually put some fuel in - about £28 of Shell super duper stuff. It had been pinking, so I hoped to cure it by raising the octane rating a bit.

 

Then I just got my clog down and kept going, with the Volvo eating up all of the OMG RAIN KAOS on the way. Minor issues came and went. The fuel gauge started working, as did the rev counter. Briefly. More of an issue was binding brakes - actually an advisory on the last MOT in February. As I neared Gloucester, it became rather sluggish and I think it was only vast amounts of rain that kept it from cooking the stoppers. Going down one very steep hill, I wasn't having to brake...

 

I got brutal with the middle pedal through the roundabouts of Gloucester and things did seem to improve. Not sure if that's related, but I wasn't going to complain. An hour or so later, I reached Wales!

 

Eventually, and very much in the dark, I arrived home after an incredibly blissful run.

 

I must concede to moments of despair last night, when I wondered what on earth I was doing. It was an awful lot of driving and yesterday did not go at all smoothly! However, I'm very, very grateful to Panda for setting up the stupid double Volvo mission, and to my mate Matt for running me around today, subbing me for the alternator (as I can't access my bank account at the moment) and generally being very helpful and ace.

 

More tomorrow when I hope to actually take some daylight pictures of it!

[Lukas]

Great story so far! Congratulations! 

[RichL]

Well done, glad you made it in the end...

 

There is this thing about old Volvo's, they have this spirit that just wants to live on and you end up becoming part of it

[stripped fred]

Excellent thread. Will look forward to hearing more about this!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Congratulations wobbler!!!!! That sounded like a shitload of stress to me but you have shrugged it off and emerged a clear winnAr. 11/5/10!!! (thats right, eleven out of five out of ten)

[Lukas]

A Volvo needs to become part of your signature.   I´d say between the Dyane and the XM. 

[RoadworkUK]

 11/5/10!!! (thats right, eleven out of five out of ten)

 

That's quite a good score, and richly deserved.

[dollywobbler]

Thanks folks. You know your life is in weird shape when you start planning it out based on what a bunch of randoms on the internet think is heroic. I really have enjoyed it though.

 

Aside from the alternator, I guess the brakes are going to need attention - which is a bit annoying as I was hoping to run about in the Volvo while sorting out the XM's brakes. Oh well. I may need to investigate the ignition timing too, as I'm pretty sure it's pinking under load - a shame as it has a decent amount of low-down grunt for what it is, but I was having to down change to lessen the load and keep the revs up. It did seem to improve during the trip, so perhaps stale fuel wasn't helping?

 

One sill will need a bit of tidying and quite a lot of the car has been brush painted - it even has a black tidemark. Awesome. Yet, it also has fewer than 100,000 miles on the clock (not that a 740 clock is to be trusted!) and feels quite eager. Warm idle is a little rough, and possibly a bit low. I may tweak this. I'll also have a browse through the history to see if there's any sign of a cambelt change. Is it an easy enough job? I know it's a free car, but it's pointless killing it for the sake of a bit of rubber.

[dollywobbler]

Oh and have another photo from this morning. My mate Matt's better side?

[Lacquer Peel]

Timing belt looks easy https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-o3CMwfvmw3YnNZb3ZtcmEzUlU/view?usp=sharing

[dollywobbler]

Oh and just in case were wondering, the two Volvos involved in this caper did briefly meet for a secret liaison in the dark last night...

 

As my Volvo was out of action this morning, Panda-transport was provided by this Subaru Legacy Outback 2.5 auto. SLURPY.

[dollywobbler]

YES!