I was reading up on bleeding my brakes, as I'm taking care of various requisite maintenance items on my newly-purchased 780 Bertone. It has only 44k miles, and that has its pluses and minuses. Such few miles indicate that much maintenance is probably in order because although it wasn't driven much, time does take its toll on certain components! Of course oil changes were regular, and it was garaged its entire life, but it still has all the original hoses, belts, radiator - hell, everything is still original. I had the oil changed to a full synthetic and put on a Mann oil filter, and the radiator flushed and filled. Air filter was replaced - and it was dirty.

So, now to bleeding brakes. I can change oil, filters, put a spare tire on, use a torque wrench, and replace a blower motor in a 240. I am no mechanic, but I can follow directions for the most part. I've never done a brake job, and I've read all the FAQ's. How hard is it to (1) bleed the brakes with a Motive power bleeder and (2) replace brake lines on a 7-series? Any experience? Hell, what about replacing front pads? I'm not extremely skilled mechanically, but what sort of skill levels do these things take? I live in a fairly mountainous area, and I take the kids out in the Bertone sometimes. Last thing I want is the brakes do go out on the mountain! Also, last thing I want is some local grease monkeys messing with this car they have "never ever seen before." The more I can take my time and do myself, the better off I am. Absolutely no Volvo repair shops within 70 miles of where I live!! No one, really, that works exclusively on Volvos! I just moved from outside DC to a fairly remote town in the Pacific Northwest - and I had a number of mechanics VERY familiar with Volvos where I was. Here they can work on trucks, trucks, and more trucks. My daily driver is a Chevy Tahoe, so I'm okay there.

And looking at worn components under the hood - how does one attack that small hose going into the block from the water pump on a B280F? Not much room in there! And there are a lot more hoses on a B280 than there are on a B230!

If anyone else has any suggestions on things that need to be undertaken with this low of mileage and this age, that'd be great. I want to do most everything myself.

As for the "biodegradeable wiring harness" - mine looks great, just like new! Maybe cause it spent most of its time in a Californian garage...