Danish embassy 940

[Forrest]

For cleaning your "new" plush floormats you might want to consider something like the concoction I used on my V90 interior carpets. See:

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=317944

I didn't take a "before" picture but the one attached to this post gives an idea how dirty the luggage area was to start with. The "after" pictures are in the linked thread.

I used the same mixture on the plush floormats but instead of rinsing with the carpet cleaner I used the pressure washer then hung them out to dry naturally.

[RollingThunder]

Excellent, thanks Forrest, appreciate that

I was going to use a brush on a cordless drill to scrub the carpet cleaner fluid into the pile, then jet wash them to get the filth out. Luckily only one small oily spot that I've noticed, the rest is just years of neglected mud and dirt accumulating in the carpet A shame as the mats look to be in decent condition apart from the dirt...

[Forrest]

A cordless drill might be a little bit fierce and could end up pulling fibres out. I bought a cheap pot brush in the supermarket and did all the scrubbing by hand. It wasn't too bad a job even doing the whole interior carpet. The concoction does the hard work.

[Moomoo]

Originally Posted by Forrest

A cordless drill might be a little bit fierce and could end up pulling fibres out. I bought a cheap pot brush in the supermarket and did all the scrubbing by hand. It wasn't too bad a job even doing the whole interior carpet. The concoction does the hard work.

Agreed, brushing vigorously in one direction may be harmful. Circular motion with a stiffish brush would be better!👍

[RollingThunder]

I've put the carpet mats into the car as-is for now. With the hose pipe ban in force, I can't jet wash them, so the clean will have to wait.



The rear mats weren't too bad, but upon fitting the fronts its evident that they aren't 940 auto mats - I'm guessing they're 960 mats as the autobox is wider on those and the mats aren't big enough in my 940 auto They'll do for now, but I'll replace them with the correct mats in due course.

One of my surprise upgrades arrived yesterday. This is an item I have never seen for real, and I haven't seen many pictures of it either... A rear screen sunshade I think this must be the last NOS one in Europe - I actually bought it off a guy in Sweden. Unboxed and without the instructions unfortunately, but it was still bagged and seemed to be genuinely NOS !





It fits beautifully of course. Its just 'placed' on the parcel shelf at the moment as I need to see how to fit it properly - it seems to be bolted through the fabric of the parcel shelf, but not the metal which is a bit strange. Further investigation required...

I also bought some reflective tape to go into the bumper recesses - something that I had on my first 940 which I really loved. Sadly, it arrived in a less than serviceable state -



I'm currently 'discussing' its suitability with the retailer as he is insisting this is perfectly ok... grrrrrrr

Sadly thats all I have to report at the moment - although I've been on holiday, I've been unwell for a while with rampant 'runs' (a side effect of my medication) and when I have been ok, I've been ferrying Miss Daisy around all over the place in preparation for a wedding this weekend - she is a cake decorator by trade and so made and decorated the multi tier cake for her best friend, and the actual 'do' is tomorrow. So no chance of any work over the weekend either! Oh well, at least there'll be cake

The DAB radio still hasn't arrived - not sure where the hold up is, but hopefully it won't be much longer.

[360beast]

Nice upgrades with the mats and the sunshade! I wish I had one for my 940!

I'm not a fan of the reflective tape in the bumpers, I think they look so much cleaner without them and it seems to age the cars in a bad way, each to their own but definitely not for me.

[RollingThunder]

Haven't posted any updates for a while, as quite simply there hasn't been any work done! I've taken myself off the offending meds, and its taken 2 weeks for it to leave my system, but I'm feeling much better now

So I managed to sort a few things last Friday (I took the day off)...

I rechecked the cambelt, as if you recall I wasn't happy that it was running straight. After removing the cover it was evident that everything was fine, and running the engine with that top cover removed showed the belt to be running nice and centrally, so a false alarm there fortunately

I then fitted the new Bosch 100A alternator, replacing the 65A one of unknown history which was very noisy and not charging correctly. The physical swapover went smoothly - very easily in fact. However the final wiring connection, the ground, differed to the connection point on the outgoing alternator. So I did some research and asked a few questions on here, which confirmed that my assumption was correct, and I made the connection to a stud on the rear of the alternator. The car fired straight up, and the multimeter showed a much healthier 13.5ish voltage being put out. Whooppee

I started to look at the crumbling vacuum hoses, and happened to touch the ground cable coming off the back of the alternator - and it was quite warm Not hot, but much warmer than I've ever noticed a cable before. Another quick discussion with a few learned folk on here, and we came to the conclusion that this cable is simply aged and has too high a resistance, causing it to heat up. It was rigid when I removed it, which is usually a sign of a bad cable lol. So thats another job to be done - make up a new heavy duty ground cable for the alternator. I have plenty of suitable cable, but need to order the connectors, so that job is on hold for now.

So onto those crumbling hoses. I replaced a few of the hoses at the top of the engine, along with one longer hose that runs to the turbo control valve. Sadly that finished my stock of vacuum hose, so I then turned to the carbon canister hoses, one of which was obviously broken -



You can see how perished the hoses are -



Luckily I had some correctly sized fuel hose on hand, which is probably the best hose to use for this application. Looks much better now -



You can also see the new alternator in the pic above, along with the troublesome blue ground lead. I'm still amazed at how thin that cable is... yet it is the correct original cable, common to all alternators regardless of output.

These pics were taken before I secured everything with new clips



So things are moving on, albeit slowly. Once the ground cable has been replaced I'll be able to run the car up to temperature and change the oil, oil filter, along with most of the cooling system - hoses, thermostat, reservoir (with level guard) etc. The radiator looks fine, so I'm leaving that for now.

A few final updates on items purchased... the DAB radio never made it to me. It sat at a sorting centre near me awaiting the payment of customs duty for a few weeks, and was then returned. I never received the payment request and never knew it had arrived! I assumed the lengthy delay was due to the numerous strikes (Royal Mail and at Felixstowe docks) in force at the time. So its back to the Blaupunkt now. The seller of the Keinzle radio was very reasonable but understandably didn't want to resend the radio.

The reflective tape is a saga in its own right! As you've seen ^^^^ it arrived creased and damaged, and I asked for a replacement. The seller (on ebay) insisted it would be ok, which I disputed and we 'discussed' things many times, resulting in me putting a dispute into ebay. A few days later I received a refund from ebay - for twice the order amount ??? I haven't contacted the seller about that yet, as I was expecting ebay to correct it and automatically withdraw the incorrect payment... but they haven't done so. Then last night I heard from the supplier again, and I quote... "As promised we'll send a replacement out to you shortly"... What? They never promised any such thing lol. So I don't know what the heck is going on now, but if the replacement arrives in good condition I'll send them the full amount (ie double) back. How can buying a length of tape be so difficult?!

[Laird Scooby]

You might find the terminals you need here or even a pre-made cable to do the job :

https://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/category/24

Their P&P can be a bit £Ouch though so might pay to also have a look on ebay or order other bits as well.

[RollingThunder]

Thanks Dave.

I was chatting to one of my Landrover friends last night and he thinks he has a bag of various battery terminals and connectors, so he is going to see what he has for me. I know I have a bag of them somewhere as well, but they've evaded me so far. They were stored 'somewhere safe'

I've used AutoElectricalSupplies before, alongwith AutoSparks and VehicleWiringProducts. They are all pretty similar quality and pricing wise, so I've tended to compare basket prices to see who gets the order.

RS Components also have a good range of course, and are fairly local, but the staff there (and seemingly at most of their branches?) are less than polite/helpful so I don't use them any more.

[Laird Scooby]

I have loads of stuff stored "somewhere safe" and can never find it either!

Usually i then buy the item i need and find said safely stored bits the day after using the one i bought.

AES, VWP and (i've not used AutoSparks yet) all seem to sell much the same stuff and as you say, the total basket price is usually the decider, that said one or t'other stocks things the other doesn't so to that end sometimes my hand has been forced.

As for RS, i've dealt with them since the mid 80s both as a high volume trade customer and as a private/sole trader customer. I totally agree about the counter staff attitude to the lone person but they become extra polite when dealing with companies. One of the reasons i tend to avoid them as i hate double standards.