480 - to buy or not to buy??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jerry Atrik
  • Start date Start date
J

Jerry Atrik

Been offered a 480, 12 years old, 1721cc, about 125,000 miles and 3 owners
with MOT until June 2005 for £300, or even £200. Local lad got it and
trailored it to his house to work on. He paid £100 for it and has patched up
seals on rear lights and welded a new tray in the boot area where rust from
water ingress caused problems to the luggage strap rings. Only outstanding
problem is the computer display thingy which has an intermittent fault and
sometimes goes off. Problem apparently is the wiring loom to it as it can be
cracked somewhere and cause the int fault. He is a car/Volvo nut and has 3
Volvos plus a race car - mini - but having done the work on it he has tried
to ride in it and found that he is tooo big to sit comfortable in it. Having
chatted to him I can believe it.

Should I go for it or not folks? I do have a 440 that is having MOT on
Tuesday and will prob pass.
 
In
Jerry Atrik said:
Been offered a 480, 12 years old, 1721cc, about 125,000 miles and 3
owners with MOT until June 2005 for £300, or even £200. Local lad got
it and trailored it to his house to work on. He paid £100 for it and
has patched up seals on rear lights and welded a new tray in the boot
area where rust from water ingress caused problems to the luggage
strap rings. Only outstanding problem is the computer display thingy
which has an intermittent fault and sometimes goes off. Problem
apparently is the wiring loom to it as it can be cracked somewhere
and cause the int fault. He is a car/Volvo nut and has 3 Volvos plus
a race car - mini - but having done the work on it he has tried to
ride in it and found that he is tooo big to sit comfortable in it.
Having chatted to him I can believe it.
Should I go for it or not folks? I do have a 440 that is having MOT on
Tuesday and will prob pass.
Click to expand...

Don't go there. The Volvo 480 is the car that very nearly annihilated Volvos
reputation for reliability. They really are crap.


--
Pete M

Mercedes 260E
Ford Capri (ressurection starts soon)
COSOC #5
Scouse Git extraordinaire. Liverpool, Great Britain
 
If you scrap it next June, for that price who cares as long as it is fully
roadworthy now, especially if there's plenty of meat on the tyres, shocks
and steering etc are OK and the engine oil/inside of filler cap etc is clean
(and of course the coolant). You are not risking much here. You can always
wizz it in for an early MOT and/or a mechanical check if you are not
confident. For that price, again, what do you need the com[uter display for,
as long as none of the legal bits are affected of course.
 
Jerry Atrik said:
Been offered a 480, 12 years old, 1721cc, about 125,000 miles and 3 owners
with MOT until June 2005 for £300, or even £200. Local lad got it and
trailored it to his house to work on. He paid £100 for it and has patched up
seals on rear lights and welded a new tray in the boot area where rust from
water ingress caused problems to the luggage strap rings. Only outstanding
problem is the computer display thingy which has an intermittent fault and
sometimes goes off. Problem apparently is the wiring loom to it as it can be
cracked somewhere and cause the int fault.
Click to expand...

No. Faults with the speedo / instruments / computer display are nearly
always 99.5% of the time the dash unit itself.

Tim..
 
Been to see it. It was a mini project car. Rear lights sorted.
Problems = Speedo was working, but not rev counter.
display on rhs of speedo was unlit - he says it needs a new bulb fitting but
no readout of fuel etc could be seen
mini rust of the rear wheel arches as per normal on 440 Volvos it seems
electrics like lights, indicators, windows, sunroof all work
engine seems fine, oil dirty: last changed 6 months ago, engine bay oily on
left side, no apparent leak source visible
drives o.k. brakes a little soggy but fine. gears o.k. clutch o.k.
Not sure when cambelt last changes either altho it is in the pile of
paperwork somewhere, so need to check that.
Neighbour says don't touch it with a barge pole as it's a £200 car that's
not really worth that with the rev counter/speedo problem.

So I'll probably leave it unless it really is a bargain as I don't NEED it
but it does seem a nice car......
 
Get the owner to see it through the MOT - the only big prob. I remember is
the cost of sorting out the rear wash/wipe - I don't believe it - but it can
cost up to £500
 
Jerry Atrik said:
Been offered a 480, 12 years old, 1721cc, about 125,000 miles and 3 owners
with MOT until June 2005 for £300, or even £200. Local lad got it and
trailored it to his house to work on. He paid £100 for it and has patched
up seals on rear lights and welded a new tray in the boot area where rust
from water ingress caused problems to the luggage strap rings. Only
outstanding problem is the computer display thingy which has an
intermittent fault and sometimes goes off. Problem apparently is the
wiring loom to it as it can be cracked somewhere and cause the int fault.
He is a car/Volvo nut and has 3 Volvos plus a race car - mini - but having
done the work on it he has tried to ride in it and found that he is tooo
big to sit comfortable in it. Having chatted to him I can believe it.

Should I go for it or not folks? I do have a 440 that is having MOT on
Tuesday and will prob pass.
Click to expand...


The computer problem is normally caused by dry-joints on the rear of the
speedo cluster. It's fairly straightforward to get to, and shouldn't take
more than half an hour to get the whole cluster out the car. I believe
there's a guide on the 480 Club Europe's website,
(www.volvo-480-europe.org). Once the speedo's out, the solder joints on the
back of the connectors are the most likely culpriots.
 
Pete said:
In


Don't go there. The Volvo 480 is the car that very nearly annihilated Volvos
reputation for reliability. They really are crap.
Click to expand...

I second this. Get a 12 year old(1993) Volvo 240 instead.
 
I second this. Get a 12 year old(1993) Volvo 240 instead.
Click to expand...

That's easier said than done. In my experience, 240s are very hard to
find in the UK. 400 series Volvos are easier to find. And don't forget
- the 240 would be subject to the same MOT inspection that the 400 series
Volvo would have to pass.

As an example, looking at motors.ebay.co.uk, there are a whole bunch of
400 series cars for sale, and only three 240s -- and one of those three
had an expired MOT.
 
Get the owner to see it through the MOT - the only big prob. I remember is
the cost of sorting out the rear wash/wipe - I don't believe it - but it can
cost up to £500
Click to expand...

Rear wash-wipe isn't part of the MOT IIRC.
 
Jerry Atrik said:
Been to see it. It was a mini project car. Rear lights sorted.
Problems = Speedo was working, but not rev counter.
display on rhs of speedo was unlit - he says it needs a new bulb fitting
but no readout of fuel etc could be seen
Click to expand...

This is another common problem with 480's. There is a halogen bulb which is
used to display the LED on the infocenter. If you look really close, you can
see that the infocenter is (probably!) working, it's just not illuminated.
These cost about £10 from Volvo to replace (although I'm sure if you know
what the bulb is, you could buy it a lot cheaper elsewhere), and you could
do it at the same time you've got the binnacle out, looking for dry joints
to fix the rev-counter problem - see my other post about that!

Ben.
 
wot now? 440 has passed mot muster with info notes about brake pipes
corroding, sleeves on base of rear shocks corroded (but they said that last
year!), rubber bumper thingies on base of rear shocks falling apart and a
patched up exhaust. Logic tells me to stick with the old 440 and keep her
going... might phone the ins company to find out what the 480 would cost as
an extra car though ;-)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top