Hello from the UK!

Laird_Scooby · Post by **Laird_Scooby** » 18 Jun 2012, 06:20

Hi All,

just a short one to say hello/hi really.

Just bought my third Volvo 740 GLE auto estate, primarily so i can transport my dog to the nearby fields for "walkies" as due to a work injury some years back i'm now disabled and not able to walk him locally anymore.
Alongside the 740,

i have a Rover Sterling auto saloon, which is my main transport usually :

Coincidentally, it is my third 800 as well - there's a pattern emerging here!

Got a few minor niggles with the 740, i found this site while researching them and it seems one cure will fix all the niggles if i'm lucky! Then it will be off to the MoT station for (hopefully!) a pass!

Post by **mikealder** » 18 Jun 2012, 06:38

Hi Dave from another Brit, what issues are you having with the 740, it's a few years since I had one of those but they are a damn good motor - Mike

Laird_Scooby · Post by **Laird_Scooby** » 18 Jun 2012, 07:05

Hi Mike,

the major niggles are ABS light is on, trip/odo meters don't work (but speedo does), fuel gauge has a mind of it's own (with no relation to the tank contents it seems), rev counter is jumpy, charge warning light doesn't always come on when key turned to position II (engine off) and if it doesn't it needs revving to about 4000rpm to get the alternator to start charging (through residual magnetism in the rotor) - that's one area of niggles.

The other is none of the washer pumps work, front, rear screen washers and headlight washers all not working but all wipers function as they should so the fuse is ok as far as i can tell from the (very poor) diagram in the Haynes book.

Other than that and an exhaust leak, couple of bulbs and a headlining, it's pretty much up together. Oh yeah, the O/S/F indicator/sidelight lens got lost on the journey home from picking it up so the pre-booked MoT had to be aborted!

As you rightly say, they are a damn good motor and as i said, it's my third of the same. When i discovered about 3 months back that there were no surgical options to correct the problem i gained due to the work injury, i made a short list of several estates, ranging from an Astra 1.4 through things like a BMW 320i to a Jeep Cherokee and the car that won was the Volvo on insurance, general running costs and reliability, amongst other things. The BMW, Jeep and Volvo were all fairly similar on insurance but the Astra was truly "Astra-nomical" - it came in about 3 - 3.5 times as much as the others!

Going back to the problems, my first line of attack was to "tighten" the connectors that plug into the back of the instrument panel. Sods Law dictated that when i went out to start the car and move it prior to doing that, it all worked as it should (not sure about the ABS light and odo/trip as it was only a few yards) so not sure if that cured it or not. Next step is i'm going to strip the cluster and service the solder joints and check the mechanism on the odo/trip meters as i've read somewhere they can jam. After that i'm stuck!

Post by **mikealder** » 18 Jun 2012, 07:27

The odo meters could be a stripped drive cog not too unusual.

Fuel tank is probably the sender unit float that isn't floating anymore, again quite a common occurance, mine went the same way, I even got a replacement secondhand sender unit incl float in the garage if you want it as I never got around to fitting it. Be prepared to change all the connecting rubber pipes though as they tend to perish with age and tear when you pull them off.

You should be able to hear the windscreen wash pump running when you pull the wiper stalk back with ignition on and engine off, no noise would suggest pump but I would start by disconnecting the pump and checking for the correct volatge at the connections before changing the pump, double check the earth connections to the washer pump motors.

ABS could be a PITA to sort out, the car will fail it's MOT if presented with that lit up all the time, if resecuring the connections to the dash doesn't sort it out I would be tempted to put a seven second delay relay on the wire to bulb so that the car turns the ABS light on when you first turn the key and seven seconds later the relay energises to extinguish the light, this is covering up the fact the ABS isn't working but should get it through the MOT - Mike

Laird_Scooby · Post by **Laird_Scooby** » 18 Jun 2012, 07:45

mikealder wrote:The odo meters could be a stripped drive cog not too unusual.

Fuel tank is probably the sender unit float that isn't floating anymore, again quite a common occurance, mine went the same way, I even got a replacement secondhand sender unit incl float in the garage if you want it as I never got around to fitting it. Be prepared to change all the connecting rubber pipes though as they tend to perish with age and tear when you pull them off.

You should be able to hear the windscreen wash pump running when you pull the wiper stalk back with ignition on and engine off, no noise would suggest pump but I would start by disconnecting the pump and checking for the correct volatge at the connections before changing the pump, double check the earth connections to the washer pump motors.

ABS could be a PITA to sort out, the car will fail it's MOT if presented with that lit up all the time, if resecuring the connections to the dash doesn't sort it out I would be tempted to put a seven second delay relay on the wire to bulb so that the car turns the ABS light on when you first turn the key and seven seconds later the relay energises to extinguish the light, this is covering up the fact the ABS isn't working but should get it through the MOT - Mike

None of the pumps make any noise at all and i did a "cheats earth" by running a wire to battery earth and (hate using them but they're handy for temporary stuff) Scotchlok'd the other end into the earth on the washer pumps as the diagram indicates they have a common earth. Being an estate i'm guessing i'm looking for 3 washer pumps but can only see 2 - does the front screen wash pump provide fluid to the headlamp washers do you know?

As for the fuel gauge, it sometimes reads just under half full then fluctuates between empty and that and from my observations so far, is concurrent with the other symptoms such as the flickering tacho etc. I now have the cluster in bits in front of me, none of the info i've found so far on the web seems to apply to this one though, was 1989 an "oddball" year for various things or is it more likely i'm looking in the wrong place at the wrong information?

Lastly, the ABS light only seems to come on when the charge warning light problem is present too so i'm hoping it's linked - when the charge warning light is illuminated, the ABS light should be on, courtesy of how the control unit functions - this much i know and is pretty much common to all ABS equipped cars as part of the self test mode. Knowing how the alternator works suggests if the charge light isn't connecting (due at this moment in time, presumably to the cluster problem i'm hoping to find) then firstly battery voltage will be low and secondly it could well be that the ABS is in self-test as it would be with the ignition on and engine stopped.

Perhaps i'm clutching at straws, i hope not (there i go again, another straw!) but in my experience, problems like this tend to have one root cause, it's just a question of finding it!

Thanks for the offer of the sender unit, i'll bear that in mind! Do you know off the top of your head if it's for a 60L tank? There is a link on the back of the fuel gauge and a sort of icon thing suggesting for a 60L tank the link should be intact and for an 82L tank it should be cut. Mine is intact and according to the previous owner (of 12 years!) the cluster hasn't been changed so i think it would be reasonable to assume i have the 60L tank in mine (thankfully - i've worked on a 760 GLE with the 82L "tank", basically two separate tanks and senders, strangely stupid design from Volvo!). Something in the back of my mind tells me that the main tanks senders were identical between the 2 arrangements, it was the addition of the second sender (and the cutting of the link on the gauge) that would give the extra resolution on the gauge. That said i could very well be wrong, it's about 16 years since i did that job!

Laird_Scooby · Post by **Laird_Scooby** » 22 Jun 2012, 07:20

keth wrote:Hi guys,
I am new hear and interested in making friends giving and getting advise and all, am I in the right place to ask about things like Debt review and staff? thank you guys.

Debt Review????? Not being funny but this is a site about Volvos! As in cars, not Debt as in money!

If you're after financial help i think you'd best search for Debt Management/Financial Counselling in your area.

If you're after talking about Volvos, welcome!