Hello everyone!

This is my post/tread detailing my journey with and progress on the 1999 Volvo S40 (R) T4, I recently bought.
I have been looking for a car to drive daily and a car that had something special to offer and a car I wanted to sacrifice my time, energy and money on (whether I made the right choice, is to be seen).

One day I stumbled upon a guy selling a Volvo S40, that had been standing in a garage for about 8 years, having been tuned in Sweden to 240 BHP and that was all the ad pretty much offered in terms of information, also had some pictures of the car. I noticed the T4 badge and what I believed to be the B4194T engine. I'm aware that some people like to pretend and but on fake badges, so I took the "R" and "T4" badge with a grain of salt (I still doubt the "R" is official, since I cant find any information about it)...

Long story short, the asking price for the car was around 788 USD (converted from DKK) and after some back and forth with the guy and everything checking out (papiers etc.) and it actually being a T4, I bought it.

The car arrived shortly after on a flatbed:


The cars in pretty good shape on the exterior, not much to see. Except for some scratches, some small bumps and bruises. Also need a minor rust repair job on one of the front panels, or just a replacement.
For those who might have spotted the exhaust, I believe the seller said it was 2.5" stainless steel cat-back exhaust and that's also what it looks like under.
All in all, the exterior (at least the visible parts) looks fine, all things considered.

The car had not been running for those 8 years in the garage, and it came with 20L (around 5 gallons) of gas in the tank which has been sitting for those years. The seller told me that he wouldn't even try to start the car before changing all the fluids, and I can only say that I agreed with that. So first things first I got the car jacked up and put on jackstands. I started with draining the old coolant, that to my surprise was still green (only seen old coolant come out like a brown mess LOL), I took it as a good sign considering it being locked up in there for so long, also might be a bad sign. I then drained the engine of oil, which also looked good. No nasty surprises in that department. I struggled with getting the housing/casing for the oil filter off, since it was almost glued to the engine but I got it off and changed the oil filter.

Next was emptying the gas tank...
While I do know some things about cars, I was unsure as to how I was gonna empty the tank most effectively. I started off by taking out the old gas filter, to replace it and hopefully let the gas run out that way. But... It didn't.
I elected to siphon out the gas the old fashion way and eventually got it "empty" or as empty I could get it.I finished off by filling up on new coolant and oil, I elected to run with Shell HX8 5w40 motor oil.


(no engine parts were hammered with the rubber mallet, lol)

Next day, I started off with putting on a couple of gallons of new gas and I bled out as much air from the coolant as I could without running the car. Then I tried to start the car to find out that the battery was drained and needed a jump. So I got the jumper cables on and tried starting up the car. The first couple of tries the engine fired a couple of times then died, I tried this a couple of times with no success. I then when to check the sparkplugs to find that they also needed a change, so off I went to get new spark plugs... While changing the sparkplugs I noted that the coilpacks are NGK which I believe aren't stock, I also noted that the connectors for the coilpacks are rather degraded. I got the sparkplugs changed, everything put together and went to start up the car. The car once again fired up for a second, then died. I tried this a couple of times again, but with no greater success.

With everything seemingly in order, oil changed, coolant changed, filters changed, new gas and sparkplugs. I was almost at a loss for what the problem could be. I dreaded that my decision to buy the car had been stupid one (might still be)... I pondered a bit, 'cause it sounded like the engine didn't get enough air and chocked out every time I tried to start it. I had an old '99 Audi A4, some time back that had a real rough idle, one of the "tricks" I learned from that car, was that if the MAF sensor is broke or reading incorrectly, the engine won't get the air it needs or too much. So by unplugging the MAF sensor, you can let it default to the ECU and if it gets better, the MAF sensor is probably busted. So I unplugged the MAF sensor , and a few turns of the key later we were running. Running pretty rough, but running.

The MAF sensor is definitely broke, every time I plug it in the engine won't run and if I plug it in while the car is running, the engine chokes and stops dead. I've checked the connector with a multimeter and it does supply 12V, so I do believe that it is the MAF that is the problem. The car also shows the "check engine light" and sound? but I think that's because of the sensor. So I need to order a new one of those.

So, I had the car running which was somewhat of a success. Apart from the fact that it sounded like I was about to go fishing. So the engine wasn't firing on all the cylinders, and I admit: I'm no mechanic and I'm still learning. But lucky me a truckdriver who was offloading of some things, heard my S40 T4 "fishing boat" idling and came to take a look, LOL. He showed me how to check which cylinders was firing and which wasn't, by unplugging the coilpacks one by one, with the car running. While doing so, I noticed that one of the wires was arcing on the engine block.. Which I found disturbing. The weird thing was that all the coilpacks where arcing on the sparkplugs (you could hear them arc on the plug when they got near them as they should), so they should've been able to create a spark and fire on all cylinders. After some tinkering with the coil packs and wires (also some cleaning), and putting them in the right order, I got the car running "smooth" that is to say that it is firing on all cylinders, no longer arcs on the block and no longer sounds like a fishing boat. But I really need to go over those wires, connectors and coilpacks, perhaps change them to new ones.

By this stage I had the car running, everything was working, the temps were fine, oil level were fine and the car was running. Some problems still that needs answers are, a yet to be determined ticking sound from the engine itself (mechanic friend believes it might be a hydraulic lifter), MAF sensor needs replacement and a rather low and a little rough idle at around 800 RPM.
I read about an "idle screw" and might try and open that up a bit more? Ideally it should be idling at around 1000 RPM?
Also thought about getting some carburetor cleaner, and but some of that in the system and see if it makes a difference.

I had the car out on the road the same day to test it.
Everything interior works, powered windows, blinkers, A/C, cruise control, lights, dashboard, gauges, powered mirrors, heated seats, etc.
Power steering works, gears work, brakes are O.K, suspension a bit stiff but it works, turbo spins right up and lots of torque steer if you floor it. Not bad for a car with 130k miles and 8 years in a garage.
As of right now, I have driven the car around 200 miles with no major problems, except for the "ticking sound"...

Also I have a lose connector in the passenger side footwell that I cant figure out? Really need to find a manual for the car, lol.



Anyways, that's the current state of the S40 T4. Still some things to do, but making progress.
Also wanna check with OBD, maybe look at changing the timing belt + waterpump, just for good measure and definitively finding the source of the "ticking".
Feel free to give suggestions on things I can try regarding my issues, problems you see or foresee, etc. I would really appreciate it!

-BKH

Below you can see how it looks atm.

 

I enjoyed reading your story so far. I hope you keep updating us with progress.

According to the Haynes manual, the idle speed is 750rpm. I couldn't find anything about manual adjustment - the manual says the computer will control it. Might be worth cleaning throttle body, idle valve and checking for vacuum leaks if it's not idling right.

If ticking sound is lifters you could try using an oil flush additive before your next oil change or it might improve with driving or a different oil weight.

Definately worth doing the timing belt ASAP.

Did you find out anything about the R badge? I've never heard of it either, but maybe it was used in some country I am not aware of.

Don't think 1999 models have OBD but you can get a cheap OBD (VAGCOM type?) And VOL-FCR software to read codes.

PS. There is a copy of the Haynes manual you can download on the Facebook group "Volvo S40 V40 Classic 96-04".