Newbie looking for buyers tips

Hi guys and gals,

As you can see I'm new on the site. I'm particularly interested in getting a 480, I've heard pretty good stuff about them generally and fancy something different in my fleet. What should I look out for? What model should I go for? I was thinking about the 480 Turbo, but what differences are there between the Turbo, the ES, Celebration and the GT? Which is best? {yes I know this is probably going to lead to half the members of this board never talking to each other again ;-) }

I've heard some bad things about the electrics and water leaks. I have been offered one with sticky headlamps, is this easy to sort or very expensive? What else should I keep my eyes open for?

What's the going rates for 480's?

All help gratefully received.

[Chesh740R]

Firstly

What is your Budget??

How experienced are you in DIY repairs??

These will help determine recommendations for possible models.

But basically buy the latest car you can, most of the Electrical Gremlins had been sorted by then.

The main thing thats cropping up with 480's now is Rusty Rear Wheel Arches so inspect these carefully.

I've owned 2 early 480ES and solved all the gremlins they had.

If i was going to buy one now, i'd buy a 480GT as only 250 of these were built, they had a 2.0 Naturally Aspirated Engine.

Or Possibly a Celebration 480 of these were built, and theres a numbered plaque on the dash to tell you which number it is. Again a 2.0 Naturally Aspirated Engine.

The Turbo is a 1.7 Engine and has 10bhp more than the 2.0 N/A engine, but can be chipped quite easily for more power.

All of the above 3 variations all have simular spec, i.e fully loaded.

Cheers Chesh,

I haven't really set myself a budget as yet, I'm looking at below the £500 mark though, probably closer to £250. I know that is not much to pay but it's surprising the cars that come up for sale at about this level.

I'm fairly experienced in basic car DIY, I currently own 14 cars with the newest being a J-reg and the oldest being from 1969. For anything else that I can't deal with/don't have time to do I have a very good understanding with my local garage. I am not great at car electrics though.

What's the turbo like on the 480? Reliable? Tempremental? Delicate? What in particular should I look out for? Blue smoke on ignition?

The car I'm looking at is a '92 model - had they sorted the majority of electrical grems by then or should I wait and bag a later car?

I'm currently running a 205 1.9 GTi, how's the 480 compare?

[Chesh740R]

For the Sticky headlights, a known cure for this is to replace the Day Running Light Bulbs(the lights next to the indicators) with Proper Volvo Bulbs on both sides. Using Pattern Bulbs causes the main headlight motors to not function.

As for the Turbo's, usual checks apply, check for smoking on start up from cold and also when warmed up. When warm give the throttle a boot and watch for blue smoke.

The turbo's aren't that fragile as they run at very low boost, hence the reason the turbo makes 120bhp and the Na' engines made 110bhp. Volvo made it a Light Pressure Turbo in effect, it just boosted the torque.

When i purchased my first 480ES in 1997 i avoided the turbo version as reports at the time said the turbo units were costly at Something like £800. But now there is many a good 2nd hand unit available, and actuall turbo failures over the years since then have been fairly few.

Access though is very poor with the turbo being at the back of the engine.

The 92 model should be pretty well sorted electrics wise.

The main problems the cars gained a poor reputation for was, Uneven Idle which is often just a dirty idle valve. The Info Centre in the Dash Failing to light up. On both my 480's this failed, but upon taking the unit apart, all that was wrong was that there were dry joints on the Circuit boards. 5 mins with the soldering iron resoldering the connections and all was good.

Water leaks are a known problem as well. The ES stands for En Suite in the boot, the Rear lights are known to leaking, so taking them out and using some black mastic for a decent reseal cures that problem.

As for a comparisson to the PUG GTI, the 480 is a very good handling car. The major problem was there just wasnt enough power to trouble the chassis.
Lotus were called in to design the suspension for the car, so its well sorted.

That said, the Pug had a reputation for when on the limit, you lost it, there was no progression to loosing it. The volvo gives you time to react.

As for that great cars, my last 480ES was a non runner with a snapped cambelt, which i dropped another engine into and enjoyed before selling it on.

On that note, don't forget to change the cambelt if unsure when it was last done. Its an Interfearance engine so will bend the valves if it snaps.

[andrewgh]

gennerally low insurance on all of them. watch out for electrics on many but best bet get on ebay usually some good ones get missed on ebay mate

Cheers Andrew,

I got outbid on one that I was after on ebay but the seller has contacted me as it looks as if the winning bidder might be a timewaster. I've got my fingers crossed as the car looks ok.