New pride & joy

[Luxobarge]

OK, more fiddling today, but a rather unsatisfactory day overall I'm afraid.

Firstly, the leather re-colouring work I did yesterday - the sealant has now dried, and it looks like this:



Pretty happy with the finish, but the colour is a bit lighter than the original - not the fault of furniture clinic. There's a bit of over-spray on the back rest of the seat that you can see, I have since scrubbed this back to the original finish/colour, so it doesn't notice as much. It will have to do though - job done as far as I'm concerned for now.

This is what the kit looks like, I've still got loads left, and you can buy individual components from the supplier if you run out:



Next job was to replace the gear selector illumination bulb. Initially I tried to follow Haynes, but I think they based the manual on an 850, and some things are different. I got the first bit of trim off OK, around the handbrake, but then I couldn't get any further. It does say "unless you encounter difficulty it should not be necessary to remove the centre console" so I thought well, I am in difficulty, so here goes. In fact this is definately the way to go. Open the centre armrest, prise up the little square of trim in the bottom revealing two bolts. Remove these, and the whole console comes loose - you can bring it away further by moving the gearlever away from "park". This is what you end up with:



Lifting it up and fiddling around near the gear selector you can pull the bulb holder down and get to the bulb quite easily - the bulb fits in the bottom of the white funnel-shaped thing in the picture:



This is the bulb:



It's unique to Volvo, so rather than pay for a new bulb I thought I'd solder in a generic one. However, this didn't work as I couldn't get the solder to stick, so off to the Volvo main dealer down the road. They didn't have one in stock, but could get one by 2.30 in the afternoon. So I went back at 2.30 and picked it up, £3.96 lighter. Went home, plugged it in - nothing. Looked again at the filament - it's busted! So I phoned them up and they'll have another one in tomorrow morning, but bloody frustrating eh?

Next job was to have a go at removing the headlamp wiper motors, although I haven't got the replacements yet.

Started with the "easy" one, N/S. Unplug everything, take out the 3 bolts and remove the headlamp - all pretty easy. Then remove the two bolts at the front that hold the wiper motor in, again, pretty easy. The motor just wouldn't come out though, the inner edge of it was fouling against some metal piping that is part of the radiator system, so I filed the hole in the front plastic cover out a little so that the motor could move across a bit more, and out it came - you can see the little bit of extra hole in the picture:



Then on to the O/S one. Same routine, take the headlamp out and undo the two wiper motor retaining bolts, - then it all gets difficult. This is what you are presented with:



The serrated duct is rigid plastic, and holds the main wiring harness to the ECU box. I figured out that this HAS to come away if I'm ever going to get the motor out, so I started to take things apart to move the ECU box. First I undid the metal strap that goes over the top (5mm Allen) and then moved the header tank out of the way, unplugging the reservoir level connector. Then remove the cup-shaped black plastic adaptor at the back of the ECU box that fits on to a big air pipe - it's tight, but if you pull it hard enough it comes off. Then remove the rear bolt holding down the ECU box. Here I am at that stage:



Then remove the washer fluid filler pipe at the front of the ECU box by pulling upwards on it, and remove the other ECU box mounting bolt behind it. Now the ECU box can move. I also removed the two outer bolts on the main black plastic "radiator support panel" a the front, this allows the panel to flex slightly forwards if you pull it. The panel doesn't want to move forward easily, and the ECU box doesn't want to move backwards easily, but eventually I persuaded them to move enough to get the ducting to poke through the headlamp aperture like so:



This *just* gives enough space to get the motor out, with some random wiggling and a fair bit of swearing. I found that the motor on this side had completely fallen apart - no wonder it wasn't working!

So, bulb not replaced because I was gven a faulty part, and wiper motors not replaced because I haven't got any yet. Progress of a sort I suppose, but nothing actually ticked off the list today!

gdphillips has had a look apparently and can't lay his hands on a good set of motors at the moment, and I called Lakes4Volvo, they said they'd probably got them but would need to check, promised to call me back (twice!) and didn't, so I'm a bit fed up with that. If any of you have any suggestions as to where else I can go for spare wiper motors I'd be grateful.

Hopefully I'll get the bulb tomorrow, but that will be it until I can get some more motors.

Cheers for now!

[Luxobarge]

Today's tinkering: A better day.....

Firstly, went back to Volvo and got another gear selector illumination bulb - this one worked, so popped that back in its holder and inserted into the white gear selector illumination funnel thing, and dropped the centre console back down. It all went back together with little drama, and the light works!



Then I went to check the rear cigar lighter, and sure enough the illumination bulb on that was blown too. The wood-effect panel unclips pretty easily, and I managed to remove the cigar lighter and the bulb without breaking anything:



Back off to Volvo for yet another bulb (£1.76), fitted that, had to adjust a contact to get it properly working and back together again. The top clips on the cigar lighter/ashtray assembly were a bit broken, so I made a little aluminium bracket and a discreet self-tapper, and it's all solid now - another rattle eliminated?.



Headlamp wiper motors are still outstanding, but I did get hold of Bernard at Lakes4Volvo today, and he promised to put some in the post by the end of the day, so I've just got to wait for them to arrive. This is about the only job outstanding, (hooray!) so I was at a bit of a loose end.

I love wandering around the car and finding little bits to do - I found that one of the mounting bolts for the N/S fog lamp was missing, so I replaced that, I replaced a couple of number plate bulbs and cleaned the lenses, did a little bit of "leather treatment" on the driver's door arm rest, and some general titivating here & there but I've pretty much run out of things to do until those headlamp wiper motors arrive!

Happy days - nearly there!

[JimDay]

So what you gonna do when all the fettlings done LB your gonna be bored or is it time to tart up the engine bay LOL

[Luxobarge]

Originally Posted by JimDay

time to tart up the engine bay LOL

Yes I'm going to do that, but I want to wait for warmer weather so I can use a bit of water in there and have a hope of it drying out.

I'll never get it as good as yours though....

[JimDay]

I'm sure you wil LB it will soon be nice and clean I use Autoglym Engine & machine cleaner followed off by Autoglym Instant Tyre Dressing

http://www.autoglym.com/enGB/product...6VQ=FG&Range=1

http://www.autoglym.com/enGB/product...6VQ=FM&Range=1
If you read the small print on the bottle it says you can use it under the bonnet just done mine yesterday

[The Hooded Claw]

http://www.autoglym.com/enGB/product...6VQ=FM&Range=1
If you read the small print on the bottle it says you can use it under the bonnet just done mine yesterday

If I understand that ^^^^ correctly Are you saying Jim that we can/could use "Tyre Dressing" under the hood / in the engine bay ?????

[Luxobarge]

Originally Posted by The Hooded Claw

If I understand that ^^^^ correctly Are you saying Jim that we can/could use "Tyre Dressing" under the hood / in the engine bay ?????

Yes, you can.

I have actually (secretly) cleaned up the engine bay a bit, and used an aerosol of "back to black" available pretty much anywhere - my wife picked up a few cans in Asda. This has the desired effect too.

I haven't taken any pics yet, because it's all in bits due the the aforementioned absence of headlamp wiper motors, but I will do ASAP.

Still won't be as pukka as Jim's though......

[The Hooded Claw]

NOW THAT IS GOOD NEWS ....When I bought my C70 it had 3 bottles of the stuff in the spare wheel well ....


No Prizes fer guessin what I'll be up to tomorrow !!!

YEEEEEEE HAAARRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

[JimDay]

Yeah don't know about the stuff Luxo mentioned but the Autoglym stuff when you spray it on it looks like milky water but dries out shiney or if you don't want shinef wipe of excess with a non fluffy cloth (old "T" shirt) gives it a slightly duller finish I use to do the old Sierra Estate with this on the day before every show to give it time to dry off then the tyres were done on arrival & wiped with an old T shirt ( It's all in the presentation )

[JimDay]

Luxo said " Still won't be as pukka as Jim's though...... "


It just takes a bit of time & a lot of effort mate when I first got my Old Sierra Estate it was in a right old mess under the bonnet & outside but with a lot of elbow grease & sore fingers & hands it all came good in the end I must have done something right as it was best estate in show 2 years running & 2nd on the third year

Something else for your list unless you already done it is remove the plastic scuttle panel & clean out all the leaves & rubbish that builds up in there & can potentially block the drain holes up at either end & while your in there check/change the pollen filter if you have one