Maintenance tips
- Clunking sound from window mechanism: Do you get a clunking
sound from your 740 driver's side window mechanism when you close the
window? It occurred in mine just as the window is finishing being closed.
I removed the door panel as per the brickboard faq (thanks!) and saw
that one of the plastic sliders (shaped like a tuning fork) was broken.
Fixed that and greased everything up but the clunk remained. After much
pondering I noticed that under the metal clip on one of the sliders
that I could see easily was a red plastic washer between the clip and
the slider. The slider / clip that I had replaced had no washer. It
must have disintegrated. So I added a metal washer and Voila! Clunk
gone!
- How to reset the "check engine" warning light on a 740:
Simple. Sit in the driver's seat and look at the instrument panel. You
should see a small black rubber bung near the middle bottom of the plastic
translucent face plate. Remove the bung with your finger tips or a small
blade or whatever. Behind the bung is a black plastic push button. Use
a small Philips screwdriver or similar small rod to push the button
in. You have to push a bit hard and it will click, causing the reset.
Replace the bung. All done. Consider yourself lucky. The tool to do
the reset on newer Volvos is several hundred dollars!
- Forced Matched tire balancing: Have tire vibration problems?
Treat you and your car to a Forced Matched tire balancing. On Mar 18,
2003, someone named Mark posted an excellent discourse on tire balancing
on the RWD forum of www.brickboard.com. He recommended this type of
balancing over static and dynamic balancing. The basic argument is that
a force should be placed on the tire during the balancing process to
mimic the real life conditions. This brings out the effect of tires
being out of round. So I tried it and it worked like a charm. The car
is now rock-solid smooth well beyond highway speed limits and speeds
that I would ever normally drive. Not only does it make driving more
of a pleasure but it reduces the wear and tear on suspension parts.
For more information, check out Hunter Engineering Co’s GSP9700
website at www.gsp9700.com/pub/technical/.
Not every garage has the right equipment. Ask around to see who has
Forces Matched tire balancing equipment. The friendly folks at Discovery
Ford in Burlington, Ontario, Canada did mine.
- For reducing speaker rattle, contributed by
Wes Ferwerda <ithinkergoimac/at/gmail.com>:
- You will need: an old T-Shirt you can rip to shreds, flat and philips head screw drivers, duct tape, double-sided tape, optional torx head (found in the repair kit in the back). Remove the door panel trim by pulling out the clips in the bottom of the door (there will be 3) using the screw driver, unscrewing the lock head, unclipping the window control (simply wedge the flat head screw driver under it and wedge it up), and taking out the latch trim by removing the plastic hold piece and lifting out the trim. Don't forget to pull off the light cover for the side light, and if you still have the stock Volvo speaker covers, take those off as well. Pull the bottom of the door trim away from the door itself, just far enough to clear the holding pins and lift up on the door. The trim should pull away. Disconnect the speaker and the side light.
- Set the trim aside for the moment and loosen the door latch. Put a strip of T shirt behind the latch mechanism, between it and the metal of the door. For getting strips of T shirt, I recommend using up the hem on the bottom and the sleeves, the cutting a single gash up the middle of the body of the shirt. Start on one side of the gash, and cut into it horizontally so that your cut is about 1.5-2 inches above the bottom. Then just tear the shirt around till you reach the other side. It should tear fairly straight because of the way the cloth is made. I used less than a whole t shirt doing all four doors this way.
- Back to the trim: for the back doors, just put double sided tape along the part of the trim that will contact the door, then put shirt material over that. For the front doors, I would recommend taking off the side pockets, which you will need the torx head for, and
put T shirt material (using the double-sided tape)
on the door where the pockets would contact it. This helps to strengthen the pockets themselves. Continue as outlined for the front doors. Before replacing the trim, put at least 3 layers of duct tape where the trim would clip into the top of the door near the windows. This is the biggest source of rattle since it is the only metal-on-metal contact area. Reverse the instructions for removing the trim to put it back. It will be a tighter fit, and the clips on the bottom may have a tough time going in.
- As a side note, you may want to remove the cloth side piece near the door latch after the trim is taken off, this will make it easier to put the window controls back it. It can only be removed from the back. If you remove it from the front, you will have to take the trim off to get it back on.
- This tutorial was written with the idea that the person attempting this has a fair knowledge of how Volvo's work. The author cannot be responsible for any damaged caused by following this tutorial.
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