My "new" car. Volvo 360 GLT
Discussion
Bought this in the weekend and what a joy it's been. Collected it in Watford and drove it all the way to Edinburgh. Apart from a bit of wind noise from the sunroof it couldn't have been a more relaxing drive. I was also pleasantly suprised to find a new set of brake pads and a haynes manual in the passenger footwell 
2 litre injection pulls really well and idles fine.
A few dodgy bits on the bodywork but otherwise pretty tidy, the sills have been attended to by the previous owner
Planning on taking a look at this on the weekend
I will try to keep this thread updated as much as i can with how the car is going but for now i have a question.
I know nothing about batteries apart from the fact that mine seems a little small compared with the battery tray and that if left overnight it struggles to start the car. No problems with dim headlights/cutting out etc so (although a novice) this suggests the alternator is ok and more a problem with the battery? It's power is 400A CCA. all the haynes manual says is that it should be a 55Ah battery. This pic shows the size of the battery and tray
2 litre injection pulls really well and idles fine.
A few dodgy bits on the bodywork but otherwise pretty tidy, the sills have been attended to by the previous owner
Planning on taking a look at this on the weekend
I will try to keep this thread updated as much as i can with how the car is going but for now i have a question.
I know nothing about batteries apart from the fact that mine seems a little small compared with the battery tray and that if left overnight it struggles to start the car. No problems with dim headlights/cutting out etc so (although a novice) this suggests the alternator is ok and more a problem with the battery? It's power is 400A CCA. all the haynes manual says is that it should be a 55Ah battery. This pic shows the size of the battery and tray
MondeoMan1981 said:
Love the threads on this, didnt realise you were in Edinburgh !
Will be keeping an eye out for this when I'm out and about
I'll have to get the old girl stickered up Will be keeping an eye out for this when I'm out and about
If you follow me onto a roundabout just hold back a bit. It's the first RWD car i've ever driven, had a few close calls in the rain so far
great ol motors , i bought an automatic 1 about 10 year ago for 300 quid wi 6mnths tax and 11mnths mot, 1 o the comfyest cars ive driven. the autos were belt driven at the rear and on the m74 one day the o/s belt flew off never to be seen again lol but the bugger kept goin, 1 wheel drive for months b4 i sold it to a mate who ran it that way for 18mnths lool ... great purchase fella nice in the black
fluffnik said:
Looks (mostly) good...
No stereo?
I left it unlocked, I live with teenagers...No stereo?
the stereo has an "anti-theft pullout system" which is basically a handle on the radio so you can pull it out and take it with you.
Unfortunately it is very much a "pro-theft" device if you don't take it with you. The radio just slides in and plugs itself in, no cable to attach
jamiebae said:
Looks interesting.....
Try replacing the earth strap, looks weedy and knackered to me.
Try replacing the earth strap, looks weedy and knackered to me.
I think my first port of call will be that and to check the cable to the starter motor for weedyness and knackeredness. Also if i can get my hands on one at college will be to try a slightly higher power battery (from cold) to see if this makes a difference before shelling out and buying one.That earth strap looks buggered! changing that should make a big difference.
Halfords do a free battery check, it might be worth trying although they'll be trying to flog you a battery it worked very well for me, cured and intermittent starter problem. Car batterys don't last forever.
Try the cheap fixes first though.
Halfords do a free battery check, it might be worth trying although they'll be trying to flog you a battery it worked very well for me, cured and intermittent starter problem. Car batterys don't last forever.
Try the cheap fixes first though.
samdale said:
fluffnik said:
Looks (mostly) good...
No stereo?
I left it unlocked, I live with teenagers...No stereo?
samdale said:
the stereo has an "anti-theft pullout system" which is basically a handle on the radio so you can pull it out and take it with you.
Unfortunately it is very much a "pro-theft" device if you don't take it with you. The radio just slides in and plugs itself in, no cable to attach
PITA to lug the whole stereo about too...Unfortunately it is very much a "pro-theft" device if you don't take it with you. The radio just slides in and plugs itself in, no cable to attach
Happy earthing!
shalmaneser said:
That earth strap looks buggered! changing that should make a big difference.
Halfords do a free battery check, it might be worth trying although they'll be trying to flog you a battery it worked very well for me, cured and intermittent starter problem. Car batterys don't last forever.
Try the cheap fixes first though.
will ring halfords at some point then, cheers.Halfords do a free battery check, it might be worth trying although they'll be trying to flog you a battery it worked very well for me, cured and intermittent starter problem. Car batterys don't last forever.
Try the cheap fixes first though.
had a proper look at the earth strap and it's at a bad angle in the pic and actually isn't in too bad nick. similar story with the starter motor cable though I guess i can't tell if it's corroded. Will try and find a decent battery at college tomorrow to start it from cold as well as asking halfords to see if this one's any good still.
also want to have a look under the car at some point as the exhaust seems to rattle around a bit.
other things i would like to take a look at at some point are:
near side leaf spring rear mounting in the boot (metal plate which seems to be bolted to the leaf spring bracket) is quite badly corroded.
sunroof as said earlier
electrics; heated seats, front leccy windows
Oh and i seem to have just broken the drivers side lock
Just been for a hoon pootle along the coast road, lovely bit of road. Still purring away nicely (though again reluctant to start after being sat since last night)
funniest sight ever? a TDV8 rangey, a 360GLT both trundling away from the lights and 3 scallywags in an old civic trying to keep up (having a huge exhaust and having their hoods up obviously helped them a little, it's the new "put the back seats down" dont ya know
funniest sight ever? a TDV8 rangey, a 360GLT both trundling away from the lights and 3 scallywags in an old civic trying to keep up (having a huge exhaust and having their hoods up obviously helped them a little, it's the new "put the back seats down" dont ya know
shalmaneser said:
Halfords do a free battery check
went down there today.he attached his little meter to the battery, input the spec of the battery and hit go. On the screen it came up "battery unservicable" or in his exact words "yep thats knackered" fortunately he was very good with not trying to flog me a battery and just pointed out the ones he would recommend.
I also gave the battery connectors a bit of a clean and noticed (you can just about see it in the last pic of my OP) that the positive connector has split (look just below the square bolt head on the connector) so will see about replacing that.
Next job on the list is the rattling exhaust. Thumbing through the patchy service history I noticed that there was an MOT advisory that read "exhaust not adequately mounted, rear box" after a quick look under the car I've found that "not adequately mounted" translates to "cable-tied to a hook". This means that the silencer swings side to side slightly on bumpy roads and knocks against the near side leaf spring.
Wayyyyyy back in 1990 i had one of these, except i slotted in the 2.3turbo out of a 760 turbo, trust me, no bmw driver likes getting smoked off the lights by a 3 series volvo!!
2 main problems though 1) the brakes, although i think "brakes" may be a bit of an optimistic term, 1 stop fine, 2nd stop and your front wheels are on fire (A helpfullpolice man one gently pointed at my front wheels after a cross country, er, dash, and said "did you know your car is on fire", to which i calmly replied "oh yes,sir, it usually is......")
and 2) no lSD, so i the dry it tended to just vapourise the inside wheel
and actually 2.1) there is only an anti-tramp bar on one side of the rear beam, so it tended to twist up a bit..........
I had many a fun hr, moving out to the outside lane of an Mway, in front of something flash doing about 100 leptons, then just as they were about nail the brakes and to mouth "bl**dy volvo drivers!" just nail it in 4th and whistle off into the distance... most excellent fun! ;-)
2 main problems though 1) the brakes, although i think "brakes" may be a bit of an optimistic term, 1 stop fine, 2nd stop and your front wheels are on fire (A helpfullpolice man one gently pointed at my front wheels after a cross country, er, dash, and said "did you know your car is on fire", to which i calmly replied "oh yes,sir, it usually is......")
and 2) no lSD, so i the dry it tended to just vapourise the inside wheel
and actually 2.1) there is only an anti-tramp bar on one side of the rear beam, so it tended to twist up a bit..........
I had many a fun hr, moving out to the outside lane of an Mway, in front of something flash doing about 100 leptons, then just as they were about nail the brakes and to mouth "bl**dy volvo drivers!" just nail it in 4th and whistle off into the distance... most excellent fun! ;-)
Dr Imran T said:
A rather oddball purchase but a very interesting one I must add what made you decide on buying a 360 GLT?
Went for a few drinks with a fellow PHer and got talking about how im missing driving while living in scotland but had been thinking of just buying any random, cheap car just for the fun of driving. I don't really need a car while im up here so was thinking of something small and fun. Seicento sporting, 1.25 fiesta etc. He suggested looking at a few old volvos so that night I got looking in the PH classifieds. Found the 360, saw that it was 2 litre RWD with volvo reliability. Got an insurance quote and was pleasantly suprised that the quote was in the region of 2/3rds that of any car i'd looked at so far including a seicento! That pretty much sealed the deal along with it having a long MOT. This meant that i could have 1 years RWD fun all in for around a grand. what made you decide on buying a 360 GLT? Also the idea of doing a bit of work to it myself appealed as the nights here are very boring. Also being a student but getting a bit bored of night clubs, hangovers and expensive drinks I figured £50 was better spent on 2 weeks fuel for hooning around the Scottish countryside on evenings and weekends than on 1 very messy friday night in town
samdale said:
1 very messy friday night in town
Edinlushing this evening? Edited by fluffnik on Thursday 16th September 17:21
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