Roffle Rainagain's S80, now FOR SALE, now only £749! Roffle?

[forddeliveryboy]

Re not changing the ATF, I think people have had problems when it's all been changed at once and sludge has been stirred up, or the box was worn and the old fluid was hiding this. So little by little, I drained the sump on fathaFDB's V70, emptying out about 2 litres, then replacing. And repeat until I'd put 12 litres of new oil into it over a few days when I was doing some work to it, I think the capacity is about 9.

 

Make sure it's the fluid as specified in the handbook, they changed it from Dexron III to the expensive stuff around 1999.

[RichL]

Buy a new top mount from Volvo - you can't just change the bush. Might improve it.

 

Good to see a 184 series seeing some care and attention, they are great old buses.

[rainagain]

So being a nice sunny day today I thought they would be nothing better to do then spend it with my head in the passenger footwell of the Volvo sorting the fan controller. First thing that greeted me was green water on the passenger mat, which smells suspicious like coolant. I did notice the coolant was watery when I checked whilst I was buying it by the seller said it was because he had just changed the thermostat. When I started removing the carpets I noticed they were soaking.

 

[rainagain]

So I carried on and removed the glove box and finally the fan. I noticed there was what looks like corrosion damage to the motor and motor controller

[rainagain]

So I fitted the nice new controller I got from ebay, which was made in California of all places.

[rainagain]

Ok and now I really need help!

 

I fitted the new controller and connected the motor up in the passenger footwell, so it could spin without hitting anything, I put the ignition on so I could check it works. My climate control panel is now dead!

 

So I refitted the old controller and tried again, same result.

 

I did all this with the ignition off but the battery connected. 

 

Does anyone know if the motor has to be installed in the housing for it to work? Have I caused some fault that needs Dice to reset? Why does this car not like me?

 

Please help!

[Richard]

Do you want me to bring my VIDA-DICE kit along?

[rainagain]

Hi Richard, that would be awesome, no need to come to me I can head to you. Would you please pm me your address?

[Richard]

 

VIDA just told us that there was no signal from the CCM, which we already knew, although it did clear the SRS fault that had also managed to get triggered during the process.

 

After following wires and looking for something that might have been dislodged we decided to try disconnecting the battery and reconnecting it. It only bloody worked! The old module was still fitted at this point so we disconnected the battery again and fitted the new module.

[rainagain]

All sorted now thanks to Richard, Dice and turning it off and on again

[rainagain]

The joys of the S80 continue, I’ve been away with work so I haven’t driven the Volvo since driving it home after Richard helped me sort the interior fan, last night I wrapped kitchen roll round the connections to the heater matrix (a common fault according to the Volvo forums) to try and see how coolant ended up in the passenger foot well. I used it for the first time this morning to go to work, I checked both pipes when I arrived and guess what there were both bone dry despite having the heater on???

 

The other thing I can’t work out is how coolant gets from the heater matrix in the middle of dash to the passenger foot well, I can only assume it pressurises and a small jet comes out. Whilst Richard and I were working on it, the engine got hot enough to put the radiator fan on but nothing leaked out. 

[rainagain]

I need new tyres, I noticed that rather than the proper 225/50 R17 tyres, the previous owner has fitted 225/45 R17. if I fit the proper size to the back axle will the abs get upset? I would rather fit the right tyres but cant afford four tyres at once.

[rainagain]

Another sunny Saturday, another day messing around with this car. Richard had tipped me off to a S80 being at upullit, I thought I would head down and grab some interior parts that were damaged in mine. Upullit had two S80s both had light coloured interiors so weren’t any use. I was hoping to get the passenger mirror off the silver S80 Richard had found but someone beat me to it. Trying to make the best of a wasted trip I tried to find a towing eye, I checked every Volvo on the site and everyone was missing. I then checked some Fords, same thing all gone. In the end I paid £5 for a Volvo wheel brace, a cross wheel brace and a small cubby hole for the boot. On the plus side I found a nearly full bottle of Turtle wax dash shine, a USB adapter for the cigarette lighter and a small micro screwdriver set.

 

 

 

I got back to my Dad’s and set about fitting the new mount, old v new

[rainagain]

Shiny!

[rainagain]

All done, the original mount was dated 2001, so must have been original. The new mount is the updated square one.

[rainagain]

Oh and I also found this:

More coolant on the mat

[rainagain]

I think the coolant only leaks when the car is really hot and then turned off, which is when the system is at its highest pressure. During normal running it doesn’t leak. At least now I feel like I’m closer to finding the leak, today when I get home from work and I’m going to stick my head in the passenger foot well and see if I can spot where the leak is. I’m 80% sure it’s got to be the rubber O rings on the side of the heater matrix.

[rainagain]

Regarding fitting the new engine mount to try and cure the vibration whilst over 65mph or accelerating, this morning was the first time on the motorway with the new mount and sadly it’s the same. L

 

 

 

Therefore I can only assume it has to be a driveshaft, the next question is which one, is there any checks I do on the to try and work out which one is faulty? While driving to Inverness recently there are few sections of 70mph roads with quite sharp (for a 70mph road) curves on them I noticed that when starting to turn the vibration became worse and then eased as the corner tightened. This happened roughly the same whether turning left or right

[Jifflemon]

There's no vibration below those speeds?

 

Are you sure its not wheel balance problems?

[rainagain]

Don't think it could be wheels as the vibration comes and goes with engine loading, e.g. Set cruise to 70mph and go up and down some hills. Up hill = vibration, down hill = no vibration. I've done some more googling looks like it could be an inner CV joint.

[rainagain]

Yesterday I took the Volvo to the excellent Fernie Autocare (01383 223455) in the M90 Commerce park near the Scottish bus museum, to get new tyres fitted. I’m trying Goodride SA-37 Sport tyres from https://www.tyreleader.co.uk they’re the first Chinese tyres to get a decent review:

 

 

 

https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.autobild.de/artikel/billigreifen-im-test-5822008.html&prev=search

 

 

 

Craig raised it up on the ramp so I could give the underside a good look over.

[rainagain]

It looks pretty good considering it’s 15 years old, only problems found were a torn bush in the front OS wishbone and a worn drag link at the back.

[rainagain]

Still need to sort my oil leak

[rainagain]

Old tyres look worse than I thought they were once they’re off the rims!

[rainagain]

Tracking checked, came out ok, it looks like it was wrong and someone had it sorted but not before it had taken the outside edge off of each tyre

 

 

 

The most amazing thing though after driving to work this morning is I noticed my vibration has now gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

It must have been caused by the tyres, why it only happened during acceleration I still don’t know, but the main thing is it’s gone. This has been really good news for me as I was getting progressively more pissed off at the car as the vibration was making driving it an ordeal rather than relaxing

[mrbenn]

Amazing the difference some new tyres can make.

 

The underside of that looks brand new!!

[SiC]

The underside of that looks brand new!!

It's all that engine oil that is leaking out acting as a rust prevention measure.

[rainagain]

It's doing a good job!

[rainagain]

After selling the Punto I was missing being able to listen to music on a usb stick. i bought a little unit from ebay for ~£50, it has a usb socket, aux in, sd card slot and bluetooth it connects into the factory radio cd changer socket. I took the glove box off to fit it and decided to also fully investigate the 'interesting' wiring i first noticed whilst sorting the blower motor. Did anyone order spaghetti?

[rainagain]

I traced some of it to this