Appelsap
New member
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2020
- Location
- Netherlands
Last year I bought a Volvo 244 from 1982, with the intention of engine swapping it. The car is originally from Finland and brought to the Netherlands by the previous owner in 2009. It has been of the road since 2014, most likely because of the change in tax laws. It went from tax free to ?150,- per month. It has a B19 engine with a bw55 auto. The car is a GLE, and has some nice options, like the window trim, 4 power windows and a/c. Having a/c is very rare here, it was never retrofitted to r134 of course and not in functioning order now. I also can?t imagine how slow it must have been with the a/c on, being a B19A.
The car is in good shape with minor rust. It even has some history with it proving the milage, and where it was originally purchased in Finland. The B19 started right up with a new battery.
This is the reason of the high monthly tax. The car has an lpg system (gas). Due to a law change in 2014 the car was no longer exempt from tax (it will be again in 2022, at the age of 40). The benefit of an lpg system is the cheaper fuel price, 1/3 of the price of petrol/gasoline, although it uses about 20% more fuel.
Removing the system will result in a much lower tax bracket, ?120 per year (special exempt for some cars with build date 87 or older). So that is what I did.
After removing the lpg system and having it checked by the government, I started working on the new mot. As it was expired 5 years ago. The car needed a new wheel bearing (left front), the rear callipers needed to be rebuild and the CO% was too high at 12%! After some adjustment of the needle I got the car to a nice 3%.
The day after having passed the mot I found this from the rear of the car:
The tank had rusted through and started dissolving the undercoating. I bought a new one, cleaned it, painted it and put it back.
As a last thing I put a new timing belt on, which was very easy. Much easier than on a 940 if you ask me, it took me 30 minutes.
Having done all of the maintenance I started driving the car and enjoying it. I had never driven a car with an automatic Transmission. And even though it was slow and a 3 speed, I thought it fitted this car, which made me think. I had planned to swap the car with a 2.0L T5 and a m90, which I bought while getting the car back on the road. So I got a S90 for it?s engine and transmission.
The car is in good shape with minor rust. It even has some history with it proving the milage, and where it was originally purchased in Finland. The B19 started right up with a new battery.
This is the reason of the high monthly tax. The car has an lpg system (gas). Due to a law change in 2014 the car was no longer exempt from tax (it will be again in 2022, at the age of 40). The benefit of an lpg system is the cheaper fuel price, 1/3 of the price of petrol/gasoline, although it uses about 20% more fuel.
Removing the system will result in a much lower tax bracket, ?120 per year (special exempt for some cars with build date 87 or older). So that is what I did.
After removing the lpg system and having it checked by the government, I started working on the new mot. As it was expired 5 years ago. The car needed a new wheel bearing (left front), the rear callipers needed to be rebuild and the CO% was too high at 12%! After some adjustment of the needle I got the car to a nice 3%.
The day after having passed the mot I found this from the rear of the car:
The tank had rusted through and started dissolving the undercoating. I bought a new one, cleaned it, painted it and put it back.
As a last thing I put a new timing belt on, which was very easy. Much easier than on a 940 if you ask me, it took me 30 minutes.
Having done all of the maintenance I started driving the car and enjoying it. I had never driven a car with an automatic Transmission. And even though it was slow and a 3 speed, I thought it fitted this car, which made me think. I had planned to swap the car with a 2.0L T5 and a m90, which I bought while getting the car back on the road. So I got a S90 for it?s engine and transmission.