The Insane volvo story starts with... my leasecar. You might think, this sounds familiar, it is, that's how my Celica hobby started, but with a slight difference. The celica hobby started with getting the leasecar, the volvo saga started with it's departure.

As the leasecar went I needed a replacement. As the 4WD toyota celica guzzled petrol for about 15 eurocents per km this would lead to a fuelbill of at least 100 euros per week. This was a bit unacceptable (especially as I didn't want to wear the car down so fast) I started looking for a cheap alternative.
The main goal was to find a car that was cheaper to run then the petrol of my 4WD celica or just a slightly more expensive, but then it had to add some functionality.


Volvo 480
With this in mind I went to look for a propane or diesel car just due to it's cheap fuel. As the volvo cars have a good reputation as a durable car on both types of fuel I started to look for a volvo. Then I found this 480 in the carlot of a used car salesman.

After a short inspection of the car and a short testdrive (on wich the car didn't preform to well, due to a bad battery they stated) I decided I wanted the car, but not for the price they asked. The car would be sold to me for approx. € 1600,= with new mot.
As I know how the user car companies work, especially the ones with the same reputation as the one I found the car at I offered to take the car of their hands for approx. € 1250,= without the mot.
As the mot doesn't guarantee that the car is in working order (just that you don't loose parts and the lights work) I suspected I still needed to invest some money to get the car working. They accepted my bid, so the car is mine since 15 december 2001.


When the car was at home we found a few problems with the car, but had some time to fix them, as the leasecar wouldn't go before march. After a bigger inspection we found a lot of extra problems on the car, here is a list of them:

  • 'New' battery still bad
  • Rear whindscreen whasher gone
  • Electric antenna not working
  • Electric window driver side not working properly (window tilted when operating it)
  • Electric window passenger side not working at all
  • Busted airfilter housing
  • Ruptured CV boot

After replacing the parts mentioned above and fitting the electric window mechanism on the passenger side (as it was replaced with some wood to keep the window from falling into the door) we went for the mot, but on the way there I noticed the speedometer failed completely and the car was making a 'bit' more noice then it did before.
The speedometer was completely dead and we replaced it with a new one... which had simular problems. We completely resoldered the back of the meterset to fix the problems. That fixed the speedometer and for the exhaust... That was completely broken and had to be replaced with a brand new one.

Back to the mot and see how it performed. The car was good, except for one small detail, the exhaustfumes weren't up to spec, so the valves were adjusted. Just when we started to test the fumes again, the rear heater hose blew. The diagnose was a blown headgasket.


Valves Volvo 480 After getting home we removed the head and found the headgasket... in complete working order with no signs of problems. To bad we couldn't say the same for the valves themselves. Two of the exhaust valves and one valve spring were a bit less up to specs then we hoped.

This was not what we expected from the car, but hey, it was a nice exersise in doing a head rebuild. Especially as there were lots of replacement heads to find when we did something terrebly wrong.
After fixing this the car survived the mot without any problem and was usable as a daily driver. After this we didn't have much trouble, except for a burst lower radiator hose (replaced it), failing main lights (fixed both pop-up relais) and a power leak in the motormanagement computer (replaced the pin for the switched power with a diode to prevent the leak).

After all not to much troubles, but enough to keep me from working on my other cars. That's when I decided it had to go. It's a nice car but it needs to much maintenance, especially with the propane setup, to have it as a daily driver next to my other cars.
This is why it's being replaced by a volvo 740. This car also needs some work, but needs a lot less maintenance and gives me the room to transport stuff. (as there is no room left in a 480 with a prophane setup)


Totalled Volvo 480

*snif*

27 March 2003 I totalled my 480. Not that it was to bad, I survived without a scratch, but the week before it left me stranded in belgium, which cost me € 420,= and the 740 isn't finished yet.


I've added a nice app to calculate all costs made for this car. Just folow the link.
If you want to take a look at all the pictures I've got online, take a look here, just click on the image to view the fullsize image.

Last update: 28 September 2005

© 2005