I said i'll be back!

[AndysR]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Thanks Cam!

Andy - just had a look through the "history file" that came with the car from the previous owners time with it. Half a dozen or so receipts, mainly for MoT but the last oil/filter change that he indicated was within the past year was in fact in 2012! That's just shot up my priority list!

Found the "cat" he had fitted - standard front and rear section, no restrictive/smelly things involved! Also found the receipt for the belts (which he thought included the timing belt and the cam belt) which were done 3 years ago, as was the removal of the air-con evaporator and a report about the air mode vacuum selection box being faulty.

It seems as if that should be my first port of call re sorting the air direction etc from the heater, trying to find a replacement evaporator and getting it regassed could be one nightmare too many! For now i'll concentrate on getting the air to go where it should and sort the A/C later - maybe!

Just ordered a replacement sunroof motor which should land in a few days, meanwhile those brake pads await!

Sounds like a good idea, for the cost of it you can never do better than changing the engine oil filter and engine oil, as it was on the list anyway you won't loose anything you've not already considered by bringing it forward a touch.

Well at least with a little investigation you've been able to establish what the issue was, it's a shame you didn't buy this car last year, I scrapped a 765 in December last year and sold nothing from it due to lack of interest, I did take a fair amount of parts from it as spares for mine but other than the control unit itself the heating system went with the car complete.. If it wasn't for lack of storage I'd still have it..

Good news on the cat front that's a bit more grunt you're automatically getting and one less worry for the moment, I'm guessing when the invoice describes evaporator they mean the one in the dash, I don't know how much work is involved in accessing that but it's odd that someone has gone to the effort of stripping the dash to enable removal and then not resolve it.? At a guess an aftermarket evaporator can't be much more than £40-£50 I'd have thought. FYI before your system is regassed you'll have to have it converted to enable you to gas it for the later gas, Volvo did do a kit but I believe it's NLA, I had a quote from a company local to me and they said it could be up to £500, needless to say my 760 still has a/c that doesn't work.. Currently.. Lol

Well done on the brake front; that's one less job to worry about

[Laird Scooby]

I'll be doing an oil/filter change fairly soon and probably an ATF part-change as well. As soon as i organise some proper wheel nuts i'll have a good look at the front end including the oil etc and there's a bit of a knock coming from the N/S/F when going over bumps. Whether it's a noisy shock, worn bush or track rod end i'm not sure, the noise could be any or all of them!

As for the air-con, i think i'll be getting it working without the air-con, just so the heater works as it should - once the sunroof motor lands and i can sort that out at least i'll have a bit more ventilation on those hot days!
As you say, a shame i didn't buy it last year, your spares would have come in handy!

I'm pleased i got the brakes done too and that it was something so simple! It's nice to drive it without it sounding like a cat sliding down a chalkboard with all its claws out! Bit miffed about the leaky shock though but at least rear shocks aren't a bank-breaker.

[AndysR]

Will be worth the oil changes for sure, I did a partial gearbox oil change on mine when I bought it and it's currently with a transmissions specialist now having the in box filter renewed, along with the kickdown cable, tailshaft bearing and a full oil change. Missing it a little currently but certainly looking forward to getting back behind the wheel once it's done.

Knock could be a number of things but thankfully the replacement parts for whatever it requires won't be a bank breaker that's for sure.

Yeah the a/c would be a nice thing to have but the roof does make quite a difference to the air flow in the car, even on tilt it's great when on a run at motorway speeds, means you don't really need a window open to get a nice amount of air through the car.

Careful when you go about sourcing your new shock for the rear as the car will have had Nivomats as standard from the factory, that means you'll either need to find a new one of those, which are more costly than the standard shock, or you'll have to fit non Nivomat rear springs as the standard springs aren't up to working alongside a standard non Nivomat shock.

Brakes wise it's always good to know you've got a car with sound brakes. Most important thing to get right on a car alongside tyres of course.

[Laird Scooby]

Hmmm, Nivomats eh? Curses and naughty words! Looking at the ones currently fitted, i'd say they weren't Nivos - nowhere near chunky enough. It does indeed look like it had Nivos originally as the springs are like Biro springs on steroids, rather than the usual half a dozen coils.

For the time being, it will be a standard pair of rear shocks to replace what's on there and i'll hunt round for some normal springs. Found a couple of Nivos on ebay, over £300 each so they can stay there!
Besides, having had several cars before with Nivos (140, 740, SD1 etc) i don't think they're any better than the standard set-up if it's in good condition, even when fully laden the Nivo set-up doesn't always restore normal ride height and i've seen in some handbooks that the y won't do that, the rear will still be below normal height which to my mind defeats the object of self-levelling suspension.

Tyres are on my list of things to do as well. The ones on there are legal in terms of tread depth but beginning to crack up on the sidewalls/tread shoulders and are an assorted mix of Chinese ditch-finders. I don't mind cheap tyres, some of them can in fact be quite good (i have a set of Austone Athenas on my 827 coupé - ordered a pair to get through the MoT a couple of years back and 4 turned up, they are equal, if not better than the P6000s they replaced!) but i draw the line at Hoo-Flung-Dung Teflon coated jobbies.

Are the AW-71 boxes prone to tailshaft bearings going? I have a noise on mine that i put down to the propshaft centre bearing but could equally be the tailshaft bearing in the box.

As for the A/C, i'm pretty much resigned to not having it, just get the heater system working as well as it can and use the sunroof for extra airflow.

[AndysR]

Will certainly be an improvement to replace the shocks regardless of what shocks you fit, especially if it doesn't drive badly now.

Transmission wise yes it is a common wear point, I hadn't considered it until I started researching what could be possible causes of drowning at 55 plus.. Most people seem to notice the bushing at lower speeds but having collected mine from renewal this evening I can confirm it was the bushing, the car is that quiet I'm pretty sure I can hear the clock on the dash ticking as it changes time. Also with the complete oil change with internal filter and kickdown cable replacement the box is an entirely different thing indeed! I would highly recommend you do it if you're planning on keeping it, I was contemplating the bushing replacement myself as there's a nice how to which methodically shows how it should be done and with the right tooling, a press to remove old and fit new bushing, I think any competent home mechanics could do it, I had mine done by a specialist purely because if something was found to be incorrect or excessively worn then they'd be the better people to resolve it. It's transformed my car and I didn't even think it was that bad, definitely check it for play next time you're under the car


Just in case you were wondering this is the bush I bought..

http://www.charltonvolvocentre.co.uk...-shaft-bushing

[Laird Scooby]

I'll certainly have a look, mine isn't that bad, just slightly "thrummy" if you get my meaning?

The shocks aren't high on my list as yet, more important are correct wheel nuts, ordered a set today. Also the sunroof motor landed today, haven't fitted it as yet due to it having the wrong plug and needed to check with the seller that changing the plug wouldn't invalidate any sort of warranty it had.
The plan is to get it fitted tomorrow then lube the sunroof seal with silicone grease, change the thermostat and fit some LED headlight bulbs. Tweaked the headlight aim by eye tonight and although they're better, it's still like driving with candles!

All takes time though!

[AndysR]

Oh in that case I wouldn't expect there to be much play, mine did develop into quite a bit of play but the noise didn't seem to change much. That said it did droan a fair amount of you took it above 60-65 mph..

Sounds like you've got yourself a nice little list to work through, did you manage to get an shots of the car etc the other day?

Yeah headlights aren't the cars strong point but I'm pretty sure that's highlighted by the abundance of modern headlights now on the road with either LED or Xenon lamps which means everything else on the road has brighter headlights than we do.. As said before I'll be keeping and eye on how the LED trials go

[Laird Scooby]

I'll have a look at it when i do the exhaust gasket between the front and middle sections as it arrived today while i was sorting the sunroof. Half the trouble is lack of use and lube, a knackered switch and the headlining sagging a bit and getting caught in the mechanism!

Got quite a list, all what i call "silly stuff" - things a lot of owners either don't realise is wrong or think there's nothing wrong when there is, thermostat being a prime example.

After doign the sunroof, i found a couple of dash bulbs out so ended up replacing all of them that i could find/get to.



A couple of them were a pain to do as the wire ended bulbs were welded to the connectors - got there in the end though! Hopefully i'll get time tomorrow for a few interior and underbonnet shots!

[AndysR]

Looking good, I hate it when something that should illuminate doesn't. It took me a while but every little bulb in mine now works, including the seatbelt stalks on the front seats

Did my thermostat after a week of ownership, also changed the temperature sensor at the same time being as the coolant system was drained for the stat

Talking of lists I've noticed my downpipes are heavily corroded where they're welded to the flange than you bought a gasket for.. That's another thing for the list then.. Lol

[AndysR]

Oh btw there's two bulbs in the headlight switch, one illuminates the switch and one lights the sidelight symbol, the one that illuminates the switch isn't working on yours