Today i purchased a 1999 v70 awd xc with 160000 miles from copart. I brought the vehicle home and had to jump it, but sure enough she fired right up! The issue i have is that immediately after start up white smoke comes through the air vents. In order for me to take control of this smell i had to shut all four of the vents.

Signs:

A lot of smoke coming from the turbo area. I noticed that it was coming from the drivers side of the black hose travelling over the block from the front of the motor. Do these cars have waste gates for the turbos? Is the turbo needing to be replaced? Waste gate? Gasket?

"Valve cover" gasket non existent and the cover is slightly cracked with 2 missing bolts... The plastic cover is just for visual pleasure essentially, right?

SMOKE COMING FROM THE OIL DIPSTICK WHEN REMOVED (i know this is not normal but what is the cause? is this my problem?)

An occasional puffing/hissing sound coming from what sounds to be the top of the motor.

Washer fluid light is on

no check engine light is on but the system has not been able to run through its monitors

Battery dies after sitting all night.

Thanks in advance to all who help! This is truly a great car and is in need of a decent tune up so i can actually sit in the vehicle while it is running

 

the wastegate is attached to the turbo. the "over the engine" tube is your intercooler pipe - the way the airflow works is it goes from the intake/airfilter into the turbo (low under the airbox) where it gets compressed, then the air flows via over the engine tube down to the intercooler (the radiator looking part). If you had an air leak in that assembly your car would likely run poorly.

Smoke from the turbo could be due to an oil leak getting the turbo or downpipe wet. A common point of failure is the turbo's oil return line seal (the oil line that goes from the turbo back into the block). If you see smoke pushing out of the turbo itself then you may need to rebuild and replace the seals.

Smoke from the oil dipstick suggests you may have a clogged PCV system. Try the glove test: remove the oil fill cap and put a rubber glove (ie like a latex glove) over the the hole. If it inflates it means you have too much pressure in the crank case (which can blow out seals) - likely because its not venting back into the intake.

Smoke in the vents - is there a slightly sweet smell when the heater first comes on? If so you may have a leaky heater core. Feel for any wetness around the foot wells or open the center console side trim to inspect (should be a Youtube vid somewhere on how to do this)

Valve cover gasket? these cars don't have a valve cover per se - they have a two piece head that is sealed and bolted together to hold the cam shafts/lifters etc. The plastic cover over the wires/plugs is not sealed - its there to keep your wires/coils (if you have the coil packs in your year) clean and dry.

Battery drain - you need to test fuses for current draw - could be anything from a vanity light not shutting off to a bad relay not de-energizing when the key is off.

 

Thank you for the detailed reply. I set the car up in my backyard underneath my canopy and will be putting it up on jack stands to diagnose exactly where this smoke is coming from.

I am certain that the glove would fill up because there is a serious amount of smoke coming from the dipstick. I am going to pull off the intake manifold and take a look at the flame trap in hopes that my issue will be cheap....

When i get a little bit wiser as to exactly what my problem is i will report back so please stay tuned!

 

If oil is pouring down the back of the engine on the driver's side, it may be coming from the cam seal behind the camshaft sensor. This is very very easy to get to and replace. I hope you can figure that out when it's elevated.

I would suggest you immediately bypass the heater core. Those hoses are also easy to get to and you can put a bypass in with about 1 foot of 5/8" heater hose. That ought to at least eliminate an obvious source of white smoke inside and also water loss.

 

Upon further inspection i pulled back the console side trim and found that the heater core was leaking coolant (more on the passenger side) and i found several drips hanging on the corners of the plastic cover. I ordered a new heater core through Amazon for $65 with tax and that includes both oem o rings and the new foam seal strip. That should solve my smell coming through the vents, hopefully.

As for the smoke coming from the right side of the turbo it was not cold enough tonight for me to see a nice chimney. I will have to take a look at it in more detail first thing tomorrow morning while it is cold. With that said the seals look to be in good condition looking up at the motor. I did not notice any significant oil leaks in the area of where i suspect the smoke to be coming from. However, i did see that the turbo had a bead of oil hanging off of it and that the intercooler pipe near the rubber elbow looked to be soiled with a light amount of fresh oil. The pan is lightly soiled as well but i didn't notice a drop on the ground from where it has been sitting for 5 days now.

I am going to head to the local volvo dealer tomorrow morning and am going to purchase a flame trap kit to eliminate most of the issues regarding too much pressure.

In addition to this small chimney of smoke coming from the turbo area when i give it gas the turbo isn't very distinguished. I have noticed that i hear an occasional puffing/hissing/whirring that gets a little louder with acceleration and does not go away when the motor warms up (no exhaust leak because i am experienced in that area). This sound is coming from what sounds to be the left side of the turbo while looking at the front of the car. The sound is a little bit louder under the car and when i get under the car i notice that it doesn't seem like it is coming from the turbo, more noticeable by the timing belt... I am hoping that a flame trap will solve my problem but i am fully prepared to replace the turbo since i have one lined up for cheap.

Is it possible that a clogged pcv system would not allow the turbo to work its best?

I also have the off a/c air button along with the recycled cab air button flash at me for the first 30seconds after start up.... weird?

Thanks again friends!

 

Please read my post above and feel free to give your input as well as the more the merrier.

 

no wonder i had coolant everywhere

 

As i could not find the leak by just looking from the top or bottom with a mirror i decided to take off the manifold because it looked as if it was coming from behind it.

As i start to get the turbo exhaust port unbolted from the manifold flange i see some fluid. There is a chance that because there was fluid on top of the manifold that some seeped down into that top chamber. The other couple of "exhaust chambers/ports" coming out of the manifold on the bottom did not have any water fluid.

I am calling it a night because the studs holding the exhaust manifold to the turbo are being an extreme pain in the a**.

My question:

If the head gasket is bad i would see fluid coming from each of the "chambers/ports" instead of only the top?

Is there a chance that fluid would leak in through the top of the seal?

 

Seems unlikely to me.


However, if you see water inside the exhaust, and it was dripping out, then the point at which it was dripping out should have been very easy to find.