Volvo 480 Club Europe

Posted: **Wed Aug 24, 2022 11:30 pm**

Today I had the absolute delight of buying a 1993 480s, and my temperature and fuel gauge doesn't work, now I'm completely clueless about how to go about finding the issue with them, naturally as I know the temp gauge doesn't work I feel very paranoid about it over heating especially as the cars new to me so I'm wondering if any of you lovely people could point me in the right direction!

Posted: **Thu Aug 25, 2022 8:16 am**

Welcome to the wonderful world of 480 ownership - wonderful because very often these lovely cars are just that, but also because there will be times they make you wonder why you bothered

All part of their charm, though.

Given you say neither fuel gauge or temperature gauge work, I suspect you are suffering from a known issue with these units. Most 480s have the Info Centre but most of the 440s and 460s had the standard gauges like you have, and that is how come I learned about this one.

The gauge unit is mounted on the rear panel of the instrument cluster on 4 deep brass washers. Those washers provide the earth to the gauge unit, but over time they tarnish and become dirty, meaning they no longer make a contact and the gauges fail.

You will need to dismantle the dashboard and remove the instrument cluster, then dismantle the instrument cluster itself. Sounds daunting, I know, but there is plenty of guidance on here for doing that (for example - although ultimately it's for a slightly different issue - I'd recommend the first sections of Jaster's "how to" viewtopic.php?f=24&t=35684

Once you remove the gauge unit (trying not to lose the 4 washers in question!) hopefully they will be obviously tarnished on their faces. Clean them up so they are clean and bright again and rebuild everything. With any luck, the gauges should be alive again. BTW, don't worry if the fuel gauge seems to be very slow at waking up and showing a correct level - that's quite normal in many cases...

Good luck - let us know how you get on and if that doesn't work there's other things to try.

David

Posted: **Fri Aug 26, 2022 10:03 pm**

Thanks for the reply!

I'll ahve ago this weekend to pull it out and have a go!

Posted: **Mon Aug 29, 2022 6:25 pm**

dcwalker wrote: ↑
Thu Aug 25, 2022 8:16 am
Welcome to the wonderful world of 480 ownership - wonderful because very often these lovely cars are just that, but also because there will be times they make you wonder why you bothered All part of their charm, though.

Given you say neither fuel gauge or temperature gauge work, I suspect you are suffering from a known issue with these units. Most 480s have the Info Centre but most of the 440s and 460s had the standard gauges like you have, and that is how come I learned about this one.

The gauge unit is mounted on the rear panel of the instrument cluster on 4 deep brass washers. Those washers provide the earth to the gauge unit, but over time they tarnish and become dirty, meaning they no longer make a contact and the gauges fail.

You will need to dismantle the dashboard and remove the instrument cluster, then dismantle the instrument cluster itself. Sounds daunting, I know, but there is plenty of guidance on here for doing that (for example - although ultimately it's for a slightly different issue - I'd recommend the first sections of Jaster's "how to" viewtopic.php?f=24&t=35684

Once you remove the gauge unit (trying not to lose the 4 washers in question!) hopefully they will be obviously tarnished on their faces. Clean them up so they are clean and bright again and rebuild everything. With any luck, the gauges should be alive again. BTW, don't worry if the fuel gauge seems to be very slow at waking up and showing a correct level - that's quite normal in many cases...

Good luck - let us know how you get on and if that doesn't work there's other things to try.

David

I pulled the Instrument cluster out and pulled it apart and the solder joints for the guage had a bit of corrosion and solder had cracked so I cleaned it up and re soldered it and now it works a treat!

Posted: **Mon Aug 29, 2022 6:55 pm**

Excellent news, well done!

David

Volvo 480 Club Europe

Faulty temperature and fuel gauge ( now fixed!)

Faulty temperature and fuel gauge ( now fixed!)

Re: Faulty temperature and fuel gauge

Re: Faulty temperature and fuel gauge

Re: Faulty temperature and fuel gauge

Re: Faulty temperature and fuel gauge ( now fixed!)