Volvo newbie - UK 740 GL

[Andy Dingley]

Picked up my first Volvo last night - a UK '89 740 GL

I'm a furniture maker, so after my Citroen XM blew its gearbox a few
months back, I was looking for a big estate. This one belonged to a
friend's parents who've had it since a year old. It has 220K, but was
well maintained, garaged and is in pretty good condition.

It also has the rear-facing child seats in the rear and a factory
towbar. I'll probably use the towbar.

Known faults:

- Tailgate lock - doesn't always unlock electrically, and the key
barrel certainly doesn't.

- Mileometer is stuck. I suspect this is the motor drive gears
stripped, as described at:
http://www.homestead.com/volvo2/88speedo.html

- Headlamps are just glow-worms. I think this might be an alignment
problems.

- Suspected oil leak around the rear axle somewhere.


Anything else I should watch out for ?


Thanks for any advice

 

[Mark Seeley]

Picked up my first Volvo last night - a UK '89 740 GL

I'm a furniture maker, so after my Citroen XM blew its gearbox a few
months back, I was looking for a big estate. This one belonged to a
friend's parents who've had it since a year old. It has 220K, but was
well maintained, garaged and is in pretty good condition.

It also has the rear-facing child seats in the rear and a factory
towbar. I'll probably use the towbar.

Known faults:

- Tailgate lock - doesn't always unlock electrically, and the key
barrel certainly doesn't.

- Mileometer is stuck. I suspect this is the motor drive gears
stripped, as described at:
http://www.homestead.com/volvo2/88speedo.html

- Headlamps are just glow-worms. I think this might be an alignment
problems.

- Suspected oil leak around the rear axle somewhere.


Anything else I should watch out for ?

Hi Andy,
You've got yourself a nice car - I've just reluctantly sold mine (1990
740GLE) 230,000 miles with very little ever having gone wrong. Good
maintenance is always worthwhile - if you're careful it'll easily keep going
for another few years.

Regarding the tailgate lock - they tend to seize up... I sprayed mine with
WD40 (spray straight into the keyhole...) and then started to work the lock
a bit. Might be worth leaving a while to penetrate before trying with the
key though. It's been fine ever since.

Mileometer - again a common problem. When you reset the trip, make sure the
car isn't moving. Try resetting it next time you drive before moving off,
and see if it starts up again.

Probably worth getting the headlights checked - you may be dazzling someone
else... you can check them yourself - can't remember the details, but you'll
have to find a wall you can point at, at a particular distance... google may
help (or better still someone else will probably remember!)

Enjoy the car!

Mark