Der Aachener

[Steve Curtis]

Thought it was time I posted a little up date.

I have covered just over 4K in Der Aachener since its purchase at the end of October 2010.

I have set about starting to cure some of the issues I discovered on my trip to Aachen.

Having quite a bit of luck so far.

Firstly I had noticed the car seemed to be consuming a lot of oil. It was not burning it so I set about searching for leaks. Twas easy. The cam cover and filler cap where both leaking. the filler cap seal was rock solid. I replaced both and hey presto no more oil consumption, sweet!

I have posted up a couple of time about feeling lack of boost. I get this sought of flat spot above 3K. Where the turbo should really come on song it felt like I was driving a gutless naturally aspirated engine. I had suspected boost house's or waste gate but it turned out to be the relay that controls the turbo+ kit. I borrowed a relay from my fathers sport and BOOM my sport feels sporty. So new relay and that will sought that. I was so happy to get to the bottom of this (especially as I went charging past a bunch of saxo VRS's earlier) This thread was ver useful for any one in the same position.

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=101845

The final issue that arose from the Aachen trip was a sought of dragging noise when pulling away. As I have stated before it only does it under load (when theres considerable wait in the car) Still it was annoying.

Over the xmas period I have been using the car to recover some other cars with a trailer and this as you might expect was having the same affect. After doing some thread searching and a chance conversation with some one else who had, had the same experience.

It looks as though this is down to the dual mass fly wheel. It would seem a pretty common trait of the later 940's. From what I read and the subsequent conversations I've had it would seem my car is only suffering from the very early signs. So I will live with it until it gets worse.

All things considered, I'm pretty chuffed with my fettling LoL :-)

[Steve Curtis]

Hello again all.

Thought it was time for a little update on the Aachener story.

Jobs tackled this month included, Replacing the back box which has been blowing since my last trip to Aachen. A 5000 mile service (yes I have now done 5000 miles since the last weekend in October) I had to add a little water to the coolant system also.

All of this was done last weekend in order to get the car tip top for a long tow out to Holland and back.

Me and a friend had bought a VW MKII jetta coupe from Rotterdam and we needed to collect it as it was out of KPA (Dutch MOT) We left sunny Swindon at 7,30 Sunday morning to catch the 12,50 ferry. A further three hours to Rotterdam. Crashed out in a hotel for the night Where I had arranged to meet up with a friend of mine. Some of you may have seen his car. Its the Dutch 780 that gets along to most of the National shows. After a few beers. He went home and I went to Bed. Then after collecting the car we did it all again in reverse and finally got back home at 21,15 Monday night. It was around 800 miles,.

All I can say is I love my Cruise control.

The exhaurst fitting on the Saturday was made fairly easy buy my newly aquired propain torch. Its amazing what a little heat can acomplish. New back box fitted with new rubbers. So nice to have a quiet exhaurst again. Oil change was done in a jiffy and then a good visual inspection. I was so pleased with the time spent on these jobs I even washed the car. Although you wouldn't realise it from the pictures




Sadly after 9 litres of oil used (two changes and a leak, now cured) 18 litres of screen wash, 1 coolant,change+ adjustment for Sub zero Germany. The car is now up for grabs. As predicted in my first post I must get somthing else. The somthing else in question might be a surprise.

Its another 945 sport Well, infact two! I bought the black one that was on ebay last week as I much preffer the colour. I am going to have it LPG'd so I can stick with an old School volvo and apply all the tuning parts I have collected.

At the end of December I also bought Amazin's scruffy but mechanically sound Black sport that he had been using while his extremely tidy silver one was off the road. This car has been purchased by my bussiness as the company tow car and we will be upgrading the rear suspention with Bilstien heavy duty gear.

This will alow me to run the super tidy one from ebay as my personal daily.

So my Tidy Red one that you have seen here is up for grabs (minus cruise, I'm stealing that for my new one :-) . I have offered it to a Forum member who I knew was looking for one. How ever if he is not interested or does not reply soon, I will be putting it up for sale in the correct section.

It will be available from the first of Feb ish! So feel free to register your interest.

Thanks for following this thread. I will be transffering Der Aachener title to my new sport But hopefully the next post will come with black car pictures :-)