Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Sniffer test is a good check for hg problems. If it picks up hydrocarbons in your coolant you know you have issues.... Normally pretty cheap to get done and very sensitive.

My cam seals were leaking, only spotted it when we jacked the front of the car up and the oil ran off the back of the gearbox.

There were no spots on the tarmac where I normally park the car.

Personally I'd take it straight back to the mechanics and tell them to sort it out at their expense, and have it valeted inside and out.
They sound like a bunch of cowboys.

On the R32 I switched off the ESP in order to throw it around a bit to try and explain to the missus what it was for, but it always seemed to switch itself back on.

It was never a twitchy car - it weighed too much to be anything other than planted through corners.

Apparently I can switch one thing off by tapping the ESP button and switch all driver AIDS off by holding it, I've done both and noticed nothing, like you say it's too planted by weight to make a big diff

You've got to get yourself in all manner of trouble to do something really stupid with it - I could never get it to switch off permanently. As soon as was able to get the backend anywhere near to stepping out, it always seemed to cut in again and straighten things up.

Other than when I was throwing it around on a dusty car park. Which seemed to do nothing other have have the missus shout at me about the cost of Conti Supersports.

It's going back to them at the weekend, I've stopped driving it but I can't take time off work to take it there. If he can't fix it without fucking it up again I'm loading it up with oil and driving it down to Winchester to Skuzzle.

I'll be in Winchester from tomorrow/Saturday - stick the bike in the back and at least we could get a ride in.

I wonder if Skuzzle fancy taking my down pipe off and checking the state of the cat?

Have you spoken to the mechanic to see what he has to say?

Personally, I'd be pissed off at paying someone to not fix a car.

Here's what my Father has to deal with..

before

after

It looks awesome when going around the track, it's super loud! Can't wait to see it racing again next season.

Worship the tassles.

yes!

Gotta get myself to some banger races next year, always a lot of bashed up volvos out

Speaking which mine is very unhappy, and now booked in to Skuzzle Motorsport on Monday morning to see if they have time to fix it.

Ok, riddle me this, LFGSS car people.

Today I was driving down the M3 to Winchester, I had gone onto said motorway off the M25, so a long, long period of 50 limit.

Out of the 50 limit (during which I had been sure the car had stuttered a few times, but then it had been fine), and I found that the car would only drive at a partial throttle opening - put foot down hard and the car choked, juddered, starting losing speed.

Back to a partial throttle opening and it was fine again.

Felt very much like I was sucking a hose closed when I opened the throttle.

Interesting thing is that this started to happen at exactly the same place on the motorway that it did last time I did this same journey.

I made it to Winchester, pulled off the M3 onto Spitfire link, the car barely made it away from the roundabout - and I mean barely.

Any load at all and it bucked and juddered.

Got home, parked, unpacked, left car for a couple of hours.

I just drove it up to Sainsbury and back and it's fine again.

WTF?

Injectors?

Would all five start over-fuelling like crazy?

Also, fuel economy on the journey was very good- when the lambda sensor went wrong before it was appalling.

Spark Plugs? Sounds like a timing issue? Not sure config on Volvo but you may need to replace bank of plugs or coil serving them etc.

Remove fuse/relay.

Try once again with ESP on and off on a wet oily carpark.

^^ it does sound like timing, but it fixes itself once cooled down...

But 99% of suspected fuelling issues do turn out to be electrical. So I concur, It could be a weak spark getting blown out once you open the throttle. Maybe HT leads or coil[pack] getting grumpy when hot?

Ordinata- just replaced entire ignition, rotor arm, HT leads, plugs etc. only thing we didn't change was the coil.

Change the coil. Got be worth a go for a tenner.