The Safrane.Info Forum!

mmarks never mentioned any engine probs and he was around for a while. Granted it's pretty rare for volvo lumps to loose oil but it does happen. Check the points I mentioned earlier. I had one moons ago that was clearly leaking and when I investigated, it was the oil level switch - £18 inc vat and that was it - job done!



No not officially. It's not the most straight forward of jobs either but I don't do much car work and I managed it so you should be ok. Took me about 8 hours.

The pipes and stuff cost me £200 inc the PCV / breather box but you might not need to replace the pipes - I only did it because I'd had the breather valve blow and inside you could see it was caked with sludge all the way down the pipe. The PCV is located behind the engine inlet manifold so you'll need a long socket extension to get the nuts off the top of the manifold. There is one hidden under the power steering pump too which is a pain so you'll need another extension plus a universal joint to get it in there. The bottom nuts / bolts don't come all the way off - just loosen them and you can them lift the manifold off them. Before that though you need to remove the injector rail. There is a knack to doing this if you don't want it damaged. At the back of the injector rail are two screws that hold a metal plate on. Unscrew them and remove that plate (downwards if memory serves). Put the plate aside as it's fragile but it serves the purpose of holding the injectors into the fuel rail. Now you undo the fuel rail bolts on the manifold and then pull it off. It takes some effort as they're very stiff but it will come off eventually - some injectors will come out with the rail, others will stay in the manifold. Simply twist them around a bit to get them all out and stick them in the fuel rail before refitting - not the manifold. You'll also need to remove the valve from behind the air box. Be warned, they don't tend to fit in again very well so you'll want a (metal) cable tie around it to keep it tight when you reassemble.

Once the manifold is off, it's pretty straight forward to be honest. There is a pipe at the bottom of the PCV that drains oil back into the sump through the engine case. This hole in the case has a narrow pipe internally which can block very easily so a bit of attention with a coathanger to clean that out might be useful too.

Can't really remember much else about it to be honest. The volvo forums have a guide that I used which was very good and although the renault engine is different in many ways including the manifold, thankfully it still fits to the block with the same nuts and bolts in the same places. Here is a link to Jods PCV replacement on the volvo forums:
http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=46946

What I would say is that you buy the PCV from a volvo dealer instead of a renault dealer. I paid £60 for it and volvo had them for peanuts I later found out. SAFRANEV6RXE may be able to do you a better deal though but even so he's buying from Renault in france so possibly not. The pipes are Renault only if you want them, none of the other volvo pipes or bits will fit (though interestingly the timing cover despite not being used on any volvos does have a volvo part number and logo inside).



Ideally you want the left 'dead' one like that because if you ever need a tow, thats where the towing eye screws in and they're a pain in the grass to remove. When I say dead, the foglights have two sections. A large and small. The large lights up, the small one is just decor and does nothing.



Sorry I don't! The one that came from the one I broke recently had to be smashed out. Long story short, don't believe anyone who tells you the wiper arm assembly can be removed without removing the windscreen. You can remove the rivetted panel for manouvering space which in theory will allow it but I cracked the screen beleiving another safrane owner. It didn't matter as the wiper arm had seized onto the assembly and snapped anyway but I wanted it just in case. Unfortunately the scuttle suffered as a consequence because it got smashed to bits trying to rescue what I could for the wipers.



Whats up with it? If it's groaning and making a springy sound as you turn then thats the bearings in the shocks. Pretty easy to replace if you have compressors but the springs are massive compared to many cars so you have to be a bit careful with them (I had to cut through a compressed one once with a grinder - yea that was scary). Anyway let us know whats up with the steering and we'll try to talk you through it.



Interesting that you say that, we've had 3 and not one has lost a drop of oil. I've always checked the seals and sump plugs to make sure there are no leaks and they never seemed to burn it either.



Not a clue I'm afraid. I've only ever replaced the exhaust once and bought the middle and back boxes together. Fitted them, car sprung another problem and was never put through an MOT as I knew it would fail and I couldn't repair the driveshaft gaiter myself so I dismantled the car instead. I still have both boxes brand new in the shed with 0 miles on them with an hours worth of idling The car I dismantled recently also had a fairly decent set of boxes too so those got kept.. my missus's face:



No just a single pipe. It's fed over the rear passenger side wheel which flings water up onto it. Naturally as time goes by this is the weakest point and rusts away nicely. I remember repairing one at this point with a tin can, firegum and some metal cable ties

So another week with the Saffy and the more i drive it the better i like it, heated seats are great on these cooler mornings... Took it to my local garage today to swap the front tyres, the left hand one was almost down to the wire at the outside edge due i think to it being run under-inflated judging by the state of the sidewall. I had a set of good tyres in the garage so popped a couple on the front. The size is 205/50/15 so along with better feel they have taken a little of the bounce of the system so much better. The slightly smaller diameter alters the speedo reading by about 7% so shows about 5mph more so when i am doing an indicated 60 i am really only doing 55 not a bad thing really... There is a little play in the L/H steering inner tie rod but not enough to cause the tyre wear. Next is to get the tracking checked but that will have to wait until next year.
While it was on the lift i took a quick look underneath and was pleasantly surprised how clean and rust free everything was... and no sign of spilt oil so i am pretty sure now it was just low and not leaking... phew... Hope to give it a proper seats out valet and paint repair and detail over xmas to get it looking like the Luxobarge it really is...

Excellent work good to hear its behaving itself and you are starting to get a few jobs done on it.

Went away for the weekend and left the Blue meanie as she is now called on a slight downhill slope.... normally i park facing uphill, came to start her this morning and no go ... she turned over ok and would catch but not run... so i gave up. Got back this afternoon and eventually got her to run but badly took her round the block and parked her facing upwards... Had tea and went back out and bingo started first time... Still have 70 miles to empty and its not a big hill but the only thing i can think it is, is low fuel and facing downhill. Anyone else had this???

Yes but usually when the tank is virtually on empty - when the fuel needle is on or below the red line. Where is yours? - At 70 miles to empty it should be two or 3 marks above red?

Having said that, the fuel filter is known on these to cause starting problems when they're getting on a bit. They're also a pita to get changed (IMO) due to the stupid bracket and hoses.

We will see in a mo when i go out to start it.... it is quite a steep slope and the fuel gauge is on one bar average fuel is showing nearly 30 mpg which is more than i was expecting...so there are probably only a couple of gallons left... thats 9 litres in new money...

Behaved herself today so will need to keep the fuel topped up :)

These engines don't normally give much greif Doobie unless they've got a failing service part (rotor arm, dizzy cap, breather, plugs, leads) or there is something else like a head gasket thats duff. HG's do fail on these cars but it is very rare. I've only ever heard of one if i'm honest so it must have been thrashed to within an inch of its life. I dismantled a safrane / volvo engine a while back as it had sat on a pallet for years and was going horrible. To my surprise, the gasket was in very good condition and i personally thrashed that engine a lot! The other time they can be problematic is if you've had them out of the car like i did. Thats just asking for trouble as i found out. It does run but its caused other headaches in the process.

The fuel tanks on these are very big so if you only have a couple of gallons and you're on a steep slope, you're not going to get much being sucked up through the clunk at all. Ours is on a very mild slope and it refused to start the other day on the red line (the needle can go approx 2 degrees below the red line before you're really in trouble). 2 petrol cans later it started again.

You should be ok!

So just a little update, been running well averaging 30mpg over mainly shorter runs so not bad at all and a 250 mile run with no real problems and 36mpg . Starting problem seems to happen when its warming up ie start it run for a minute or so and stop again so i think there is a dodgy temp sensor somewhere its only happens about once a fortnight though. I have learnt that if i leave it for 30 secs it will after a couple of none starts go again. The drivers armrest has come off again, well actually, i caught it with the seatbelt so that will need fixing again and lesson learnt ... put on seatbelt then close door...... Finally the ABS light and warning comes on but only at over 60mph and always on the overrun turn the ignition off and on again and it clears... guess its one of the wheel sensors unless anyone knows better....apart from that i am still enjoying wafting about most of the time but also using the kickdown now and again just for the fun of watching the other traffic go backwards.

Howdi!

The starting issue.. when you start it, do you hit the starter position straight away or do you let it prime the engine first for a few seconds? - When you put the key into the 'contact' position, if you listen carefully you'll hear the fuel pump priming the engine and the injectors rattling. This takes 2-3 seconds. At that point I can start mine with ease but if I didn't let that happen I'd frequently get the "System malfunction, consult your renault dealer" message. Try that next time it happens and see if it makes any difference.

Drivers and passenger armrests.. common problem on the ph2. The plastic hinges are terrible quality. The only real fix is to take off the door card, drill your own holes carefully and put in your own metal pins. You'll need a small drill chuck though to get into that space - something like a dremel with the flexible attachment.