Heartbroken here...... My poor 740.....

[gdphillips]

who do you no with a paint booth......

[andy_d]

if it is at all poss to shove some external heat to slowly unfreeze it , i really would
if possible remove any hoses you can easily do , thaw Those in the house and refit to the car when empty/clear,, gives teh water somewhere to goto without instantly finding the heater,,, or otherwise .

[NI_Volvo_Nut]

Excellent idea, but getting it there is the problem, 6" of snow at the end of my driveway means towing or trailer is out of the question, not to meantion the compacted snow / polished ice on the roads, removing the hoses and radiator is a good idea, I never even thought of that

Wonder how SWMBO feels about some bits of a 740 cooling system sitting in the bath.......

[940_Turbo]

If you decide to start it do remove the fan belt. The heat will thaw the block. You don't want to be turning a frozen solid impeller. It'll run happily for a couple of minutes with no coolant circulating. I've moved cars before with no water in them at all without causing damage. Which isn't quite the same thing as saying it is a good idea!

Does it have any anti freeze at all?

[NI_Volvo_Nut]

I had it filled with premixed Renault coolant, but obviously its not any good below -15ish

This is why I never even thought to check it, I assumed the premixed voolant would be good to really silly temp's considering its for french cars

There's a thaw due after boxing day, so I might wait until then and try and gte it thawed, I've someone coming today to push it up the side of the house, so it will be more sheltered, not that it helps much with the cold

[Oilydad]

A forum representative will call round in due course to beat you severely with a PRV V6 timing chain for crimes against Volvoanity

What a **** !!

Is there no way you could ask the owner of the nearest house if you could run an extension lead out to it, and then use something like a hairdrier or a paintstripper on highest setting for an hour or so to thaw it all out?

I'd happily pay someone a few quid for the electric to do that.

Best bet though would be to get it towed somewhere where you can get it undercover.

[ian2000t]

I did exactly same thing with my 740 - didn't get round to adding antifreeze before the cold spell hit - it was next on my list after I had just finished the brakes.

Anyway, I put a bar heater under the engine, and an oil radiator sat in the engine bay, with a thick carpet over the bonnet to keep the heat in. Took about 3 hours to defrost in -4C... then I drained some coolant out and put some neat antifreeze in, and then started up (run for 5 mins/off for 5 mins/repeat) to make sure everything thawed steadily, but heater matrix still frozen solid.

Then moved the oil radiator into the footwell and another 2 hours later the matrix was thawed out.


Luckily no core plugs gone, heater matrix still weeps just as much as it always has done (not got worse), and it's done 600 miles since so fingers crossed all is ok!

Good luck, and have patience!!

[Toplights]

Sorry to hear about you'r trouble,NVN,When you refill with coolant, make shure its the Volvo Stuff, last lot i bought was £14 for 4Lt of concentrated anti freeze makes double that.One of Volvos, cheaper prices, i thought.Hope it turns out good for you,sounds like it will,plenty of good tips given.

[OldBlueVolvo]

I bought 5 litres of blue-green antifreeze from the dealers for £16.29.

I hope there is no damage done.

[Mike1967]

Did I read somewhere that genuine Volvo antifreeze is seriously good ?