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Shirley Knott's Evil Web Of Shite - Volvo gets a clean sheet MOT, now on to wheel trims, thermostat and brakes revisited


Shirley Knott

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Yup, it's ability to creep is pretty impressive.

Their bumf online makes a big deal of this and shows favourable tests against competitor cavity waxes, meanwhile on the can the info extols it's ability to "Penetrate flanges" *Snarf snarf.

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

For the last couple of weeks life stuff has been getting in the way (Poor me) but alas,  we've finally had a dry afternoon and so with no other commitments I grasped the opportunity and reassembled what must once have been Britain's wettest Volvo.

Seats back out to achieve ground zero again...

 

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Mrs Eunos had taken Eunos junior out so gubbins were laid out ready in the front room...

 

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The original underlay had clearly seen better days...

 

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I was aware of this and had spent £10 on an offcut of *luxury* demestic underlay to replace it, perhaps automotive underlay would have been better suited for the job but in the spirit of WCPGW I set about cutting some templates using the old stuff...

 

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New *luxury* underlay cut to shape and in place...

 

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Then rear carpet was fitted...

 

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After this the front carpets/underlay went in, followed by the all seats and interior trims...

 

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I must say the carpets look splendid after a proper shampoo and line dry, although being Volvo they were probably quite expensive/decent quality to begin with which I'm sure helps things along somewhat.

To finish I took the car out for a run and then, as my water ingress worries are now completely resolved (touches wooden things)  fitted a set of decent Bosch wipers as an offering to the  water Gods  in the hopes that they will allow me to put this whole sorry fiasco behind me...

 

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7 hours ago, Jim Bell said:

You beat water both external and internal. This is a hooray time. 

 

Yup that's right marra, I dun gon and beat water! Only 3 of the classical elements left to conquer, fire, earth and air (Please no fire)

Meanwhile it's good to see you round these parts again chap.

Your Fuelly link tells me that your Ovlov has only seen 3 fuel-up's meaning it must be performing in properly frugal fashion? As a red-block sub 25mpg Ovlov owner that's something that makes me slightly jelly....

 

 

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Yeah, it's a big old (fuel) tank and after the service mpg is up over 40 on local driving so there's not many trips to the pumps. It's getting 600 miles on a fill up so I'm pretty happy with that. Hasn't been on a long long run yet but I would imagine 45 or 46 would be possible. 

Or 75mpg in the hands of a pro like Laquer Peel.

Glad to see your 940 is still getting love. Id have sold it the first time it leaked so well done for putting the long hours in with the old girl. 

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2 hours ago, Jim Bell said:

 

Glad to see your 940 is still getting love. Id have sold it the first time it leaked so well done for putting the long hours in with the old girl. 

 

TBF if it wasn't for he carport the whole thing would have been a fair amount more stressful... I can effectively control  things where-as cars only get wet when I choose for it to happen in scientific and highly controlled tests *I point a hose at them or leave them out in the rain on purpose then see what happens*

The carport is a relic from my MX5 days and was built with the intention that once I had it I could buy any shonky roadster I fancied without worrying about duff hoods as the 'port would protect them from water ingress. The irony is that despite owning multiple rag tops none have them have leaked even nearly as much as this 940.

 

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After being granted a couple of hours to play cars this morning I decided to get cracking and change the gearbox oil on the C1 and also the 940. Gear oil is often something that's overlooked so whenever a car's new(ish) to me it gets changed.

Gubbins assembled...

 

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The 940 got 75W80 Synthetic (Comma brand). The stuff that came out was reassuringly hacky...

 

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Whilst the C1 got straight 75W Castrol Syntrans Synthetic. Again, the oil that came out of the 'box didn't look too clever...

 

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Both cars now seem to be changing a little more smoothly although that could be a complete placebo/wishful thinking on my part. Either way I don't think any oil lasts forever despite the 'lifetime fill' claims made by manufactures, changing gives me some piece of mind.

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Yeah, it's a big old (fuel) tank and after the service mpg is up over 40 on local driving so there's not many trips to the pumps. It's getting 600 miles on a fill up so I'm pretty happy with that. Hasn't been on a long long run yet but I would imagine 45 or 46 would be possible. 
Or 75mpg in the hands of a pro like Laquer Peel.
Glad to see your 940 is still getting love. Id have sold it the first time it leaked so well done for putting the long hours in with the old girl. 
That 70-odd MPG MFA readout I got in the Passat wasn't legit. Brim to brim was actually 59MPG. :(
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I've been having some bother sleeping recently and seem to be waking up as soon as it gets light, this morning that meant 4 AM. This is seriously not cool, however it has been giving me a chance to catch up with stuff and this morning I used it to my advantage to fix a droopy door on the Golf that I've been ignoring since before the begining of time!

Door droop clearly visible when looking at the shut lines...

 

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And worse still, damage being caused at the bottom end of things where the door was rubbing on the sill...

 

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Adjusting the doors on Golfs is a pretty simple process, first the bolts that connect the door to the hinges must be loosened.

Top...

 

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And Bottom...

 

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Then the use of a jack makes lifing and re-aligning the door pretty easy...

 

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Once the door position is rectified the bolts can be tightened back up, then a spline tool is required to reset the position of the striker plate to suit the door's new position...

 

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All done, door position is now much better...

 

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That should spell an end to the rubbing on the sill and the rust that has appeared as a result, best of all is that all tools were away and I was back in the house by 6 AM. Next steps will be to rub the small amount of rust back then to treat and paint it.

 

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Aye, properly dull stuff really but needs doing. Reading back through updates like this may well hold the cure for my insomnia ;)

TBH the Golf's a really good car, it's just achieved 60MPG across it's last tank and a fortnight ago covered 600 miles over the course of a week in Keswick fully loaded with no dramas. All of this from a £500 snotter that's 15 years old with over 150k on the clock can't be bad eh? 

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After months of Mrs Eunos bending my ear about the littlun's trampoline having the occasional pigeon dropping on it, (It's under a tree), today I took action.

To me the solution was simple, just move the trampoline somewhere else, but apparently that was a silly idea and actually it was the tree that needed to move. After planning through the week I managed to cadge a lend of a chainsaw and a big set of ladders and had at it....

 

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Really the Volvo should  be the car for moving vast quantities of debris, but I've spoiled that by making it too nice (And thus useless for these jobs) Feeling like a bit of a fraud I pulled it off the drive and parked it safely out of the way up the street in front of a neighbours house...

 

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TBF, it's far too lovely to subject to that kind of abuse. The Golf however....

 

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Yup, jammed to the gills. 5 (Yes 5) tip runs in the space of 3 hours were completed like this in searing 25 degree heat with no aircon. It was emotional.

After completing the tree butchering I didn't have much energy for much else, but did find time to mop my fevered brow and fit a new plate to the C1 as the old one was badly worn and really did look quite scruffy.

Much better...

 

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Hopefully this has earned me some badly needed good will as I've found myself browsing the sub £600 cars on Ebay in my area, specifically looking at estates that are ropey enough to use for guilt free tip runs. Four cars  makes no sense at all, and yet simultaneously makes perfect sense. I'm desperately trying to apply man-maths to the situation so as to explain away another potential purchase...

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

New indicators went on the 940 today

Seeing danthecapriman's updates RE replacing lights on his 740 elicited feelings of envy in me and also shame. My Ovlov looks good in pics but it has always suffered with a cracked indicator....

 

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And also dull indicators on both sides...

 

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A pair of new indicators came in at £27 from GSF using one of their codes, time for new parts...

 

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The lenses are a push fit and easy to pop in and out, literally no tools required. Out with the old...

 

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And in with the new...

 

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And old vs new...

 

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Mission accomplished...

 

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Overall a good result, clear/non damaged lenses are good craic and for less than the price of a takeway well worth doing I recon.

 

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Thanks chaps :)

I've just been reading through this thread and it struck me I've actually done a fairly decent amount of work on the 940 since I bought it last year, I've put together a bit of a ready reckoning list for my benefit rather than anyone else's really...

Volvo 940 Work In the last Year:

Extensively replaced accessible vacuum hoses with black silicone replacements

New matching tyres all round

Rear tailgate professionally repaired and painted

Replaced distributer cap/rotor with Volvo parts

Replaced plugs and leads (Bosch and NGK)

Replaced coolant temp sensor (Bosch)

Thoroughly flushed coolant and replaced

Replaced thermostat (Volvo part)

Replaced expansion tank and cap

Stripped down and cleaned breather box and associated pipework (Twice!)

Stripped down and cleaned the throttle body and all associated connections (Now spotless)

Replaced idle control valve

Extensively stripped interior multiple times to find and cure leaks (GAH!)

Replaced/restored bodged/silicone shut sunroof

Changed fuel pressure regulator

Replaced the crankshaft sensor (Volvo part)

Checked most wiring/cleaned connections

Changed air filter and oil/oil filter/oil

Changed gearbox oil

Ran several batches of Forte injector cleaner through the system

Reset ECU a couple of times

Changed the MAF with a good/cleaned spare

Adapted a Mk1 Golf heater valve to fit and made cabling to suit

Changed doorcards to non-wrinkly replacements

Changed seats to half leather

Changed timing belt and tensioner (Gates)

Replaced both aux belts (Gates)

Thoroughly rust proofed the car using Bilthamber products (Cavity wax in box sections and sills + underside protection)

Replaced both front indicators

Replaced the head unit multiple times in a doomed quest to find one with a working tape deck

Reading through that little lot makes me feel slightly dizzy, I've probably forgotten some stuff too. Crazy to think that only just over a year back I bought the Volvo as a new Autoshite member, the story being that in true AS style I'd started a thread asking for recommendations/advice about buying and old Merc estate, the hive mind of Autoshite convinced me that a Volvo was what I needed as they're less bother, and by the end of the thread I'd bought one!

You've got to laugh....

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2 hours ago, Jim Bell said:

 

everyone that talked you out of a Merc estate should probably apologize. 

 

Nah, I'm sure there are un-problematic Ovlovs, mine had just been stood round for ages. Three M's... Machinery must move! That's why I've had so many problems I recon.

If all had gone smoothly I'd only have wasted time having to hang around with family/friends anyway, either that or work on the house.

 

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This morning the 940 recieved a minor service (Basically an oil change and check over)

Trusty Pela did most of the work...

 

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Then up in the air to access the most awkwardly placed oil filter in the history of filtration...

 

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I always wonder what the suction oil change misses across different models of car, I've never tested this on the 940 so thought I'd crack the sump plug to find out. New copper washer at the ready...

 

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It turns out the Pela doesn't miss much at all, at most 100ml of oil is left over once the sump plug's removed...

 

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Then on to a general check over of levels/bushes/boots, a check over of the brakes and some touching up with some more Dynax UB here and there...

 

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That'll do until next year hopefully!

 

 

 

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I had this morning off work so decided to make myself useful and replace the front plate on the trusty Golf. The poor old Volkswagen fulfils year round daily duties, is 100% used as a hack and as a result doesn't get much attention so it seemed only fair to give it some love.

The old plate wasn't too bad, it had just developed some skid marks where the old self tappers had rusted...

 

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Drills oot...

 

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Slightly tidier....

 

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Attention then turned to the 940,  I decided I'd best tackle the chassis earth on the 940 as preventative maintenance given it didn't look particularly healthy...

 

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Dremel came oot and soon had things looking much better...

 

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After this things escalated quickly and out of sheer boredom I decided I'd clean up all and any other earths I could find. This one on the block looked grim...

 

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Again, the Dremel made short work of it....

 

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This was then followed with the one I'd spotted on this black box, if I'm honest I'm not totally sure what the box actually does but the connection got taken apart and cleaned up regardless...

 

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Finally the earth for the injectors was given the treatment too...

 

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And the results? Well the car seems to start more keenly, the radio reception seems better although this is probably all pure placebo. The conclusion is either cleaning earths is good craic and worthwhile, or alternatively I just need to get out more. Perhaps both...

All the bits I've interfered with have now had a good slub of petroleum jelly to put a stop to any future corrosion and the toolkit has been placed back in the shed to await the next thrilling adventure in automotive husbandry.

 

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I've often wondered the same about the white 740... It's in *concours condition  isn't it?

That house looks pretty run down and from what I can see he uses the white car basically as a shed/storage container. When we moved in a few years back he had another red 740 that was on the road, although he now seems to drive a phase 2 V70 as a working car. 

I've never spoken to him but TBH I think the chap's a bit eccentric (Aren't we all?). One thing's for sure, he clearly likes his Volvos.

 

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