[Julien]

I have a thing for buying cars that need love, typically e30s , miatas and few VWs as well. The other day I stumbled on a cheap e30 m3 for sale on craigslist that didn't run (still $28k) and decided that fiscal responsibility > an e30 m3. So I did the next best thing.. ask the guy if I could come over and get his m3 running for him :screwy:

When I got there I noticed he also had an R that had been parked almost as long as the m3 (3-4 years). I didn't know much about these but I have two buddies in Charlotte that love theirs (Hi Eamonn & Ian :beer. I decided to convince the owner to let me buy the R because I needed a new daily (Auto for LA traffic) and it seemed like a fun project. He had just replaced the 4C shocks before parking it, which was nice.

Here she is the day I picked her up.

Before moving her I did an oil change and bled the brakes as the pedal went to the floor.

After that was a quick trip to American/Discount tire for a set of DWs06 (or whatever their version of that tire is.. contact pro sport something)

I brought her home with a moving permit (CA thing) to get her readiness monitors set. In the meantime she got a light wetsand in some problematic areas and a full rubbing compound/polish/wax

The paint sucks in some areas (clearcoat failure) but she came out ok.. Installed my roof rack to cover the bad patch on the roof

The hood has bird dropping clear damage, which is annoying. I'm hoping to pick up used hood at some point or maybe get the roof

In the meantime I installed a GROM unit for bluetooth

One commute to Anaheim and back and she was ready for SMOG! Well evap hadn't set yet, but that's allowed :thumbup:

Next was getting her titled and new sticker

(i covered a 2013 sticker with the '18 )

Anyways. Now it was time to address some serious differed maintenance and warped rotors. I placed two orders, one with IPD for timing belt/wp/drivetrain fluids and one with BMA (local) for brake pads/rotors/gas cap)

Random pic in Beverly Hills

:beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer:

 

[Julien]

Hovercrafted her to install brakes and later check the AWD function

Swapped out a HID ballast

Timing Belt, Water Pump, Spark Plugs, Filters (Cabin, Air, Fuel)

2001 date stamp water pump :facepalm:

Replace Inner CV Boot

At this point I felt a lot better about the general shape of the car but performance wise it still felt... lacking. Having been in the VW/BMW world for many years I knew
How Important good diagnostic software is, so I pulled the trigger on VIDA right away (what a pain that is to get installed - ugh).

Intake leaks... "great" I thought. Lucky for me, they turned out to be two loose vacuum lines. One to the intake manifold, one off the sucking jet pump below the cover (behind the driver headlight)

I noticed these leaks when doing a drain and fill on the transmission. Took ~3.75 qts out, put about 4qts in.:thumbup:

Car feels noticeably faster and the transmission shifts worlds better artywave: super happy about that. Really like driving this car so far, auto and all. Next step is to see how she does over the following few weeks (I got all the above accomplished in one week - I'm beat) and perhaps get a Tune and the torque limiting removed. Oh I forgot I still have to do the Angle Gear and Haldex Fluids (filter) at some point, argh.

:beer::thumbup:

 

[George @ ViVA]

Congrats on your R purchase! I see you’re in SoCal as well. I have 05 S60R in Flash Green. We should plan a local meet up soon!

 

[dougy]

cool story i actually read the whole thing...welcome to ss. :beer:

 

[Hounddogger]

Not afraid of spending money when needed? You’ll love an R! Welcome!

 

[Julien]

Congrats on your R purchase! I see you're in SoCal as well. I have 05 S60R in Flash Green. We should plan a local meet up soon!

Nice! Is there a local (facebook?) Volvo R group? If not, should we start one for all 4 of us?

cool story i actually read the whole thing...welcome to ss. :beer:

Thanks!

Not afraid of spending money when needed? You'll love an R! Welcome!

Well, got the car for cheap, now I'm approaching market value with these repairs. In my mind I'll have a nicely sorted example for the price of a craigslist/ buy here/pay here special. Hope that other than maybe the PCV the repair train has left the station for some time.

 

[Nudibranch]

Great read! Went down great with a morning coffee here in wet winter NZ. Glad you're giving her a new lease on life. Wife has her grubby hands all over my baby today. I swear if she doesn't treat her right.....

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lawdogg]

Wow that was super awesome of you - What was wrong with the M3?

 

[Julien]

Great read! Went down great with a morning coffee here in wet winter NZ. Glad you're giving her a new lease on life. Wife has her grubby hands all over my baby today. I swear if she doesn't treat her right.....

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Haha, mine hasn't driven the volvo yet, so she doesn't know

Wow that was super awesome of you - What was wrong with the M3?

No spark/fuel. Ended up tracing everything back to the main relay/factory alarm module and DME. Once I got fuel/spark it ran on starter fluid so we topped off the old gas up with fresh 91 and I did a quick back flush on the injectors with brake parts cleaner (they got new orings too). On the next visit (when I picked up the volvo) I addressed brakes... it was a tough one as the system kept clogging itself up during a pressure bleed. The driver side got so bad I actually swapped the caliper over to the pass side, filled up the piston with brake fluid and then swapped it back to the driver side to back flush the system by compressing the piston. The dirt came out eventually, It looked like a rusty milk shake. Poor thing.

BTW I recently moved to LA from San Mateo

 

[OwenB]

Welcome to SS! You seem to know what you are doing when it comes to cars, which is good when you own an R . Us SoCal R owners are a small but mighty group, which means whenever you see another R you are even more excited (I have only seen 3 R's this past year). It's always great to see another R get put back onto the road, and hopefully your's will treat you good.

 

[lawdogg]

No spark/fuel. Ended up tracing everything back to the main relay/factory alarm module and DME. Once I got fuel/spark it ran on starter fluid so we topped off the old gas up with fresh 91 and I did a quick back flush on the injectors with brake parts cleaner (they got new orings too). On the next visit (when I picked up the volvo) I addressed brakes... it was a tough one as the system kept clogging itself up during a pressure bleed. The driver side got so bad I actually swapped the caliper over to the pass side, filled up the piston with brake fluid and then swapped it back to the driver side to back flush the system by compressing the piston. The dirt came out eventually, It looked like a rusty milk shake. Poor thing.

BTW I recently moved to LA from San Mateo

Nice work. I actually might have to move to LA soon. Any suggested areas to look for a place to live for someone who has 4 cars and wrenches on them?

 

[OwenB]

Nice work. I actually might have to move to LA soon. Any suggested areas to look for a place to live for someone who has 4 cars and wrenches on them?

You might have trouble finding a place in LA with enough space for 4 cars, so I would recommend moving to the OC. Houses are (slightly) cheaper, most have 2 or 3 car garages, and the commute is not that bad. Of course, if you are working in LA, a commute might not be the best option, however if you want to live around LA, you can't beat Orange County.

 

[Julien]

Nice work. I actually might have to move to LA soon. Any suggested areas to look for a place to live for someone who has 4 cars and wrenches on them?

Tough to get that in LA. Where would work be?

You might have trouble finding a place in LA with enough space for 4 cars, so I would recommend moving to the OC. Houses are (slightly) cheaper, most have 2 or 3 car garages, and the commute is not that bad. Of course, if you are working in LA, a commute might not be the best option, however if you want to live around LA, you can't beat Orange County.

That or the Valley

 

[lawdogg]

Tough to get that in LA. Where would work be?

Hollywood

 

[Julien]

Nice work. I actually might have to move to LA soon. Any suggested areas to look for a place to live for someone who has 4 cars and wrenches on them?

You might have trouble finding a place in LA with enough space for 4 cars, so I would recommend moving to the OC. Houses are (slightly) cheaper, most have 2 or 3 car garages, and the commute is not that bad. Of course, if you are working in LA, a commute might not be the best option, however if you want to live around LA, you can't beat Orange County.

Hollywood

You'll either have to A) spend lots of money on rent B) Street Park C) Live in the Valley to have 4 cars indoors

 

[OwenB]

You'll either have to A) spend lots of money on rent B) Street Park C) Live in the Valley to have 4 cars indoors

In essence, living near LA is going to be a challenge no matter what! Yay SoCal!!!

PS, no matter where you choose to live there will be ungodly amounts of traffic for no reason whatsoever.

 

[lawdogg]

When you say "the Valley" what do you mean?

 

[Julien]

Nice work. I actually might have to move to LA soon. Any suggested areas to look for a place to live for someone who has 4 cars and wrenches on them?

You might have trouble finding a place in LA with enough space for 4 cars, so I would recommend moving to the OC. Houses are (slightly) cheaper, most have 2 or 3 car garages, and the commute is not that bad. Of course, if you are working in LA, a commute might not be the best option, however if you want to live around LA, you can't beat Orange County.

When you say "the Valley" what do you mean?

The large residential area above bel air/beverly hills/dtla including sherman oaks, reseda, canoga park, van nuys etc... also the origin of the term "valley girl"
https://www.google.com/maps/place/S...44d6afdc710f7!8m2!3d34.1825782!4d-118.4396756

 

[Julien]

I recently swapped the master brake cylinder, pads and rotors and still have a soft-ish pedal. Anyone have any ideas? I bleed her with 15PSI on my pressure bleeder and activate the ABS pump via VIDA. Brakes got this way from the car sitting.

 

[Hounddogger]

I recently swapped the master brake cylinder, pads and rotors and still have a soft-ish pedal. Anyone have any ideas? I bleed her with 15PSI on my pressure bleeder and activate the ABS pump via VIDA. Brakes got this way from the car sitting.

Brake vacuum pump? Or a messed up connection there?