2 x c303 + volvo emblem 1974 - Wechsel zur deutschen Sprache

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Technical approval for our Volvo C303 at the TuV

General

These details are eventually not important for readers from the UK or the USA, but for dealers in Sweden it may help to prepare themselves and their customers.

If you import a vehicle to Germany from overseas or there has never been a homologation for that type than you have to do a complete technical approval following §21 of the german StVZO - the regulation for allowance of vehicles to the public traffic. Depending on the federal state in Germany you have to go to the TuV or to the DEKRA, only one can do that in each federal state, and in every station only some of the engineers are authorized. Reservation and communicaton in advance and a preview to the car are often neccessary and helpfull, because in that situation are many more things to check as in the normal approval every two years.

If you don't want an approval for just a normal car, but an approval as an real oldtimer you will have to do a check following §21c, and than you need real specialists. For an oldtimer you can start liberal discussions about original parts or not, therefore you may have other requirements to fullfill, where the car can be changed or not. In every case you should check in advance in which place a real expert for checks by §21c is working and than go there.

In every case you should collect data about the car as much as possible. If you did read that before you will be able to answer questions with the right page from the service manual or from the technical specifications at once. May be you will have to translate some passages. Very usefull is a copy from an actual title for a car of the same type, which is registered in Germany. There you can find the right keynumbers for the Volvo C303: 910 is the producer = Volvo(s) and for me the style 1003 means truck with hardtop. The unknown type C03 4X4 1V gets no own number.

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Vor der Halle

Presentation

The nerarest inspection authority is in Colgne-Bildertöckchen. The check by §21 is possible on mondays to tuesdays from 8 to 15, on fridays until 12 o clock. Reservation is not neccessary. I just drove in. Unfortunately just before me a travel bus entered the yard, I had to wait a little bit. After the bus the engineer visited me.

The sceptizism in the beginning shrinked relative quickly, I could answer to all questions promtly and competent. But the list of failings grew and grew. Mostly peanuts, but in the mass its a lot of work. The single points I will list below and on other pages I will show the problems detailled. On the brake test stand and the shuffle plates for the steering my Volvo C303 was tortured - but he survived. Very nice was the sentence out of the undercut: "It is looking nicer from below than from the outside!"

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Prüfstand

Failings

The list of all weak points and failures is horrible to read. Her you can see all single entrys with interpretation. The TuV at cologne may work very precisely, other inspection authoritys may be less pedantic. Often it depends on the engineer itself. Fortunately you can go were you like...

The strange plated catseyes on the bumpers all had certification stamps. In the back is a conflict with the license plates. I need a very small plate not to hide the catseye on the left. On the frame the beginning corrosion is remarked, no surprise. The vacuum hose to the differential switch on the back axle was noticed porous. No more failings.

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Große Angst

Brakes

On the way to the ferry in Gothenburg I was surprised the first time: a sudden braking was follwoed by a curve to the right. But that did not last long. On the test stand it became obviously: The brakes worked uneven on the front axle. This important part had to be reparired for security reasons at once.

At Volovotrucks in cologne Rodenkirchen the crew was very surprised by the car. Normally on trucks they work with air pressure for years. But they did find a pressured bucket for hydraulic oil and the correct adapter to fit it to the little storages for brake oil in the cabin. Naturally I had the service manual at hand to give help to the repairman Hassan.

Very carefully he opened and closed the nipples for the brake lines with the intention not to destroy the old threads. With 2 Bar pressure the oil was extruded, only on one wheel cylinder on the left (sic!) I had to help with the pedal and produce more pressure. On the test stand from Volvotrucks afterwards the left wheel braked stronger than the right one. Confusing.

When going to normal operation with the brake here is an important tip: between the two circuits is a secrutity valve behind the steering axle below of the main brake cylinder. This valve snaps in if the pressure between the two brake circuits is too different. While we worked on the brake lines we had tha effect when using the pedal. After starting the car the brake controll light was on all the time. To set the valve back you have to screw out the contact switch from the valve an screw it in again to make the switch inside snap to zero agein.

For the following work I had dismounted every wheel one time. With the wheel off you can reach the inner side of the hub easily to adjust the brakes. There is a screw for every brake plate to adjust the space between brake plate and drum. I could do it with a offset wrench 13. Just tie on until the wheel is blocked, then turn a little to let it turn again - ready.

Then I adjusted the brake pedal. The pedals are hanging in a littel frame near the steering axle. On the frame is a big screw with locking nut for every pedal to stop the move. With a wrench 13 I opened the nut, adjusted the screw and fixed the nut again. Now the slackness of the brake pedal is reduced, for the clutch it works in the same way. Attention: the contact for the brake lights carries 24 Volts all the time, don't touch (flash!).

The result is a brake that reakts fast and direct and I can leave the steering wheel alone while braking. Problem solved.

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Expert opinion

At the second presentation 4 weeks later nearly all failings were corrected. But there still was the problem with the windscreen, I had to com a third time. On the third visit everything was ok and I received the certificate of conformity to get a new title.

My expert opinion for a Volvo C303 is adapted from an existing german title for a car or the same type. I show it here to explain, which values should be inserted in which field of the standard EU-forms for a Volvo C303. The layout of the expert opinion is like the layout of the EU-documents.

In discrepance to the former swedish title there are some differences. That may be intreresting for an expected real oltimer registration.

The original printout of the expert opinion you deposit at the registration office together with the swedisch registration documents, where you ask for a german title for your car. A copy of that will go to the counter, where following to these values a new set of registration papers will be produced. I mad a foto as an example for the net and anonymized it a little bit.

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Example for a germand experts opinion following §21 StVZO

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