Hi!

[AJD]

I've been registered on the board for a little while but thought I'd introduce myself properly!

I've a 360 GLE which belonged to belong to a late relative but has now been passed to my girlfriend and I.
It's gold, with electric windows (drivers doesn't work-makes paying tolls fun), heated front seats (neither work) and power steering. It only has 48k on the clock so still quite a bit of life in it yet!

It is standard other than a tow bar and electric fuel pump. The pump had to be fitted the car had been stood for a while and wouldn’t start. Apparently the lobe on the cam shaft had worn rendering the mechanical one inoperable without stripping the engine down. The only downside is the annoying tapping sound the new pump makes, not sure if it should really make that noise but I didn't have chance to take it back to the garage.

My list of tasks includes:
Have accident damage repaired (see my other thread)
Treat the rust on the body work
Investigate the tapping fuel pump and strong petrol smell after brimming the tank
Replace alternator and power steering belts and give a general service
Repair driver’s side electric window
Try to repair the heated seats and lumbar adjusters
Repair / replace the cable which controls the ventilation, it will only select demist atm.
Investigate an intermittent fault which causes the car to lose power and then ‘kangaroo’ when power is reapplied

So far it's been a very comfortable step up from my Rover metro and it makes the motorway journey between home and university so much nicer, the metro used to be seriously blown about everytime a car overtook!

Alex

[volvosneverdie]

Welcome to the Forum Alex (officially)
Hope you get it running straight and true soon dude.
Super low mileage there! I bet it looks really well too. Hasnt even really started its shift properly yet.
You have to be carefull of those kerbs man. they dont half sneak up on you quick.

pics up when you get time too. Its not a real 300 until we've seen it!

[MCHUDD]

Hi mate and welcome.
Their are quite a few people on here with volvo 300 diplomas.you will not be stuck for advice.
Cheers Mark.

[trabitom99]

Hello, welcome to the forum!

Repair driver’s side electric window
Test to see if it's the switch first, by swapping the connectors over. Worked for me! Otherwise it could be the motor itself, it they've been exposed to too much water they can rust from inside. I believe people have fixed this by "flushing" them with WD40.
See this thread: http://www.volvo300mania.com/forum-uk/v ... 17&p=25181

Heated seats and lumbar adjustment
a pain to fix. It might be an idea to look out for a new set of seats, good ones are being thrown out all the time, there're even some in the offers section now ...

strong petrol smell after brimming the tank
Could be one of a few things, the original jubilee clips holding the filler pipe to the tank having rusted away (there's a thread about that here), porous filler pipes, or even a rusty fuel tank... But check the jubilee clips first.

[whiskeyonesix]

Welcome aboard!

I've got a 360 GLT and I get the petrol smell as well. It seems a fairly common fault with these sadly. The logic of Occams Razor tends to apply to these cars, its often the simple answer that's the correct one.....

[AJD]

Thanks for the welcome guys

It's absolutely filthy atm, it's difficult to wash at uni so it hasn't seen a sponge since Christmas! I'll pop a picture up when I get chance to clean it though.

trabitom99 - Thank you for the pointers, I shall I have a read through and see what I can do. The seat fabric is in very good condition so I might try to repair them or transfer the covers across before replacing the entire seats.

Quite a bit to do, but it should be great when it's all up together!

Alex

[kaos]

with re gards to the jerk ,

whip the air filter off, and tighten the 3 screws that stand visible on the top of the actual carb, being weary not to drop the buts for the filter down the carb! and make sure those screws are tight, even a blow of super glue will help. thats normaly the problem. or at least was on mine

and lasty, Welcome to the holy volvo 300 club!

[AJD]

Thanks for the tip

In the end we took the car back to the garage who installed the electric fuel pump as it was really loud. I described the cutting out under hard acceleration / on the motorway and they believed the pump was at fault, causing fuel starvation.
New pump fitted and it seems to have cleared the problem right it up, full throttle / high revs are no longer a problem - can finally drive up slopes without breaking a sweat

Oh and the passenger side headlamp wiper has also sprung back into life!

Alex

[volvosneverdie]

Oh and the passenger side headlamp wiper has also sprung back into life!

Alex

Bonus!

[AJD]

Bonus!

I was definitely not complaining!

Unfortunately the cutting out problem came back, not as bad as before but I dont really want a car I cant depend on, and I was not happy with the way it pulled to the left so it has gone to another garage to be checked over.

Over the weekend I had a quick look at the fuel pipes coming off of the tank sender after I saw a post on here mentioning perished fuel hoses, sure enough there were some damp looking cloth-covered sections back there. I might have made the situation worse though as about a mile before we got to the garage the car kept cutting out. My dad and I spent about 30 minutes of letting the pump prime, start engine, drive 20 metres, cut out, repeat. Got the attention of an officer at the local Airbase when I coasted to a halt right outside the main gate!

We made it there in the end and they've now got the tracking set up properly, apparently the place I took it to before not only ripped us off they also did a crap job! Hopefully by the end of today they'll have sussed the cutting out too.

[volvosneverdie]

dude. think you might just be my long lost twin brother.
Mines been cutting out with the same symptoms as yours. I checked the fabric hoses in the boot inspection porthole and under the lid (as suggested by filthy) and everything looked dry and clean. I topped the tank up with super on top of the plain unleaded that was already in there, and its run fine since.
Dont know if theres a connection there or not, but itd be quite a coincidence.

Also, when i put 15in wheels on, that seems to have cured my tracking problem. Let go of the wheel now, and the car rolls dead straight.

Is my car fixing itself?

Or is filthyjohn ninja-ing up under the cover of darkness and doing steath repairs?
Im watching you boy. (twitches net curtain)

[filthyjohn]

Or is filthyjohn ninja-ing up under the cover of darkness and doing steath repairs?

You never saw me and me tracking kit, you can't prove squat.

[pettaw]

Also, when i put 15in wheels on, that seems to have cured my tracking problem. Let go of the wheel now, and the car rolls dead straight.

Is my car fixing itself?

No, probably not unless you've had the tracking checked over and sorted before you changed the tyres over. What happens is if the tracking is only slightly out, you get uneven tyre wear, and that's what causes the pulling. Once the tyre has scrubbed on one side enough to cause a pull you can't correct it until you change the tyres. If you've changed the tyre without getting the tracking checked over, then get it checked ASAP as otherwise you'll get the same problem developing as before.

[volvosneverdie]

Also, when i put 15in wheels on, that seems to have cured my tracking problem. Let go of the wheel now, and the car rolls dead straight.

Is my car fixing itself?

No, probably not unless you've had the tracking checked over and sorted before you changed the tyres over. What happens is if the tracking is only slightly out, you get uneven tyre wear, and that's what causes the pulling. Once the tyre has scrubbed on one side enough to cause a pull you can't correct it until you change the tyres. If you've changed the tyre without getting the tracking checked over, then get it checked ASAP as otherwise you'll get the same problem developing as before.

Ah, i see.
That explains it then.
Thanks Pettaw.

[AJD]

It's been ages since I last updated this thread, uni sucking up all my time etc!

The garage I took it to back in April managed to get the tracking sorted out, it seems a lot better than it did before. I think when I have some fresh rubber put on that will improve things too. They also replaced one of the cloth fuel hoses on top of the sender and that was enough to get the car running again. Unfortunately the cutting out was still an issue, in fact worse than ever - it took us 5 hours to get from Swindon to Swansea with breakdowns etc. I couldn't do more than 55-60 on the flat with no more than about 1/4 throttle, which made every hill on the M4 a painful climb.

The garage who redid the tracking said they felt the fuel pump was just too small for the car and they also thought that the whole justification for the electric pump (worn cam lobe) sounded a bit suspect too. A few weeks later I took it to a garage here in Swansea and they also said that the pump was too small and the only option would be to fit a better pump at the back of the car. That was going to cost around £100 for the pump and then the labour etc on top.
After that I picked up a mechanical pump on ebay (£7) and ordered some gaskets from FRF motors in Swansea (who btw have a great parts department who respond to emails and are happy to send things out by mail).

I changed the pump over the weekend and it seems to have fixed the problem!
The return line now has a healthy supply of fuel in it even when the engine is revved hard, in comparison the electric pump often seemed to be sending back bubbles of air. Needless to say the original garage will not be getting any more trade from me and I'll be warning others about their suspect work.

Only trouble is now I need to get hold of another spacer that goes between the block and the pump as the original one is falling to pieces and volvo cant get hold of one easily (see my wanted thread).

I have also picked up some 6mm fuel hose so when I get time I'm going to replace the remaining cloth covered sections.

Alex