|
The 460 leaked water in a big way. I never really noticed it at first, but after parking the car up on the driveway for a week I found a pool of water in the passenger footwell ( our driveway is sloped, and it was parked with the front facing downwards ). All the usual things came to mind, such as “Did I leave a window slightly open?” / “Did a bottle of water leak in the car?” but it soon became apparent that this was more complicated than that.
 Firstly I tested the sunroof. No problems there. In fact unlike the 480 which I had yet to encounter, the 460 sunroof was a thick, heavy affair, even though - like the later 480 - it’s the glass version rather than metal. Another suspect was the windscreen, but there was no sign of what I call ‘milking’ around the edges ( where the layers in the glass separate, producing white ‘blotches’ in the glass which let water through ).
The boot seal was always a suspect, so eventually I removed it and - as it was in very good condition - I re - sealed it with U-Pol ‘Tiger seal’ mastic. I’ll never forget the day - it was hot - and for some reason I went into the boot while I was doing it. The mind boggles. I nearly passed out from the fumes!
As you can see from the pic. above, the floorpan survived all the water well. Stripping was surprisingly easy.
Today I would just buy another seal in such circumstances ( 50 - 60 euro from Volvo ) but in any event this wasn’t the problem on the 460, so no harm done. After doing all of this I gave it the umpteenth ‘hose test’ - washing the car with a hose - and sure enough, a pool of water formed inside the car again.
At some point I took out the electric aerial - thankfully it was some form of a unit not prone to ‘coming undone’ - and I put it back with a good dab of mastic to make sure no drips were getting in through the hole for it. I also checked for missing engine - bay ‘blanking’ rubbers in the bulkhead, though I knew this was hardly the cause of the problem - after all, it was parked the wrong way for this and gravity is gravity!
 Eventually I found the culprit. One day, after about six months of trying things, I opened the boot after washing the car. The boot had dried out and sure enough, I spotted a trickle of water on the right - hand side. Interesting. Very interesting. I soon discovered exactly what was happening. Every time the car got wet, the ‘box’ which houses the fuel - filler cap was filling up with water. The water was then entering the boot, running down the underneath of the back seat, and pooling at the front passenger footwell.
The mats can appear dry but heavy. Don’t be fooled. The insulation on the underside is like a very fine sponge. NOT a 24 hour drying job!
I got out my mastic again and filled around the edge of the fuel - filler housing in the rear wing. This was a failure. I could not understand it. The petrol overflow / spill trap under the filler was clear of debris, so that wasn’t at fault. One hose test later and I stuck my hand behind the boot trim inside the boot where the filler pipe enters the car ( en route to the tank ). Voilla! there was water running down the outside of the pipe itself!
Out came the mastic once again, and this time I sealed the surround of the pipe itself from the outside. Essentially the ‘box’ behind the fuel flap was filling up with water faster than it could clear, and as the filler pipe surround was never actually sealed from day one, it was seeping in at the bottom, where the pipe goes in through the bodywork and running down the underside of the pipe to the boot floor. Since then, the car has been perfectly dry - and that was over 5 years ago! Why could Volvo not do this?
 Take lots of photo’s to remind yourself where everything goes. Label connectors before disassembly.
My only niggle with these cars - and many cars - is that they spent millions developing them, ran them for millions of miles from the Sahara to Antartic in testing, but yet they are found wanting for a dot of sealant in the right place which costs a few quid!
To see more 460 photo’s please click on the ‘440/460/480’ button on the top left !
BACK TO TOP OF PAGE
|
