I've been told I have an oil leak from the turbo return oil line seals. I heard iPd has a cheap kit that people use to replace these, so I wanted to know if it was possible to do by myself in my '01 S80 T6 instead of paying hundreds for the dealer to do it.

Thanks

 

I did them on my car. The pass. side turbo is not hard to do but the drivers side turbo is very hard to get at. The parts are not expensive at the dealership.

 

You can do them but they are a pain.
I do the drivers side from the top of the engine.

 

I just finished doing ours.. 99 S80 T6 with 112K.... a REAL pain does not accurately describe this repair. Take your time, I will attempt to list the items required to do this, but tech may need to review and correct me...

1. place vehicle on the highest setting of jack stands, front only.
2. drain the coolant
3. Great time to do an oil change, not required though
4. remove 2 upper turbo heat shields... passenger side removes fine, 12mm bolts holding them on. drivers side, only take out and remove 2 bolts and the 3bolt is under manifold, just loosen as the heatshield slides off.
5. under car, go ahead and take out the 4 torx bolts (t-40)holding the water cooled oil cooler on the oil pan. loosenscrew clamps to the hoses attached to the oil cooler.. remove oil cooler very carefully from the hoses and move these hoses up and out of the way if possible. ours had aluminum heat shield material onboth, try to remove this as well.
6. while you are under the car, now loosen and remove the hard coolant line going to the passenger turbo,torx bolt, be careful when removing this bolt, crush washers on both sides, set this line aside.

7. You are now ready to remove the 2 allenbolts holding the drain tube onto the turbo.. once removed, you can then lift the tube out of the recessed area of the oil pan, clean and install new o-ring on bottom and new gasket for turbo.. tip.. put a little silicone on the tube gasket surface to hold the gasket in place and also just a small amount around the o-ring. once you push the tube back into theoil pan, it will seat the oil ring in the silicone. now bolt up the tube on the underside of the turbo and you have now completed the passenger side.

8. Drivers side.. where do I begin... hmmm, I removed the exhaust heat shield atthis point to get a better view of the tube on the passenger turbo, but you may not have to remove this. tech is right,remove these allen bolts from the top side.. get a 5 mm allen wrench, not on a rachet, but the ball tool. now standing beside the right fender, on a small stool, lean over withyour right arm and place the allen tool into the bolt and loosen. You may have to have a long extension from under neath the car with an elbow attached to loosen the other one. some profanity at this point is acceptable whileworking..

you will have to remove the rear coolant line from the drivers turbo as well toget a better view and feel for the bolts underneath the turbo, same installation of oring and gasket now applies here as well.

Tip: If you remove the exhaust heat shield like I did,you will have difficulty in getting it to go back in correctly, I stopped the madness and took my hacksaw and cut a small portion off othe end closest to the trans and installed back on with no problems and still covers theexhaust with noproblems.

button everything back up, fill up with coolant, fresh oil and filter if needed and start your car and you are finished.

tip: after filling the coolant bottle up, drive the car or bring it up to temp, the coolant bottle will empty about 2 times before it you get it right,, I used about 1.2 gallons filling the system back up.. used 50/50 prestone.

Im now a happy camper now that this car does not leak all over the garage anymore..

whew..

the dealer wanted $650 to do this job.. parts cost $13.48.

Give yourself about 5-7 hours to do thisjob, no special tools needed.. be careful removing the torx bolts from the oil cooler asto muchtorque and they will strip... also, be careful when removing the oilcooler,it is pressed onto o-ringson oil pan, do not damage these0-rings...

Good luck

 

I looked the job over on my 2002 S80 and then went in to call dealer for a quote. They wanted $600 and that was my motivation to go back out and start digging into the repair. Not much help was found online. This post was the most helpful, but there were steps I did not have to take. I did not drain any coolant or remove any coolant lines, nor did I remove the oil cooler.

S80 owners will inevitably be making these repairs so here are some of my tips. Don't look at the passenger side or you will cringe at how simple that side looks and ask the Volvo Gods why they have forsaken you.

Remove the passenger side of the strut brace and pull it forward to give your arm more room. I removed driver's turbo heat shield and the shield on the Y part of exhaust and an O2 sensor, but think it wasn't necessary to take all that off.
REAR bolt - I used a 30 Torx bit inside of a ratcheting box wrench. I used tape to hold it from sliding out of the wrench and I cut it to give me about a 1.5" length on the torx bit. I stood on the passenger side and reached this bolt from the topside of the engine.
FRONT bolt - I used the Torx bit in a socket wrench with various combinations of extensions and U-joint sockets. I taped the U-joints with duct tape to make them more firm and have less play. Access to this bolt was between the oil pan and transmission.

I did not use any Silicone adhesive, reinstalling the return pipe was rather simple. Shove the bottom in till it won't go in further and then rotate until the top lines up. I put the front bolt back in by sticking it on the socket extenson, but it fell off so many times and was lost for 30 minutes or better. Adhere it on your bit so you can get it started.

Sounds simple and it was only 2 bolts but I bet it took me almost 5 hours. Satisfaction from no drips was priceless.

I have pictures so let me know if there is interest in this old thread.

 

post the pictures and this becomes a write up, should be stickied for future reference...

 

https://volvoforums.com/forum/members/silver-seighty-21409-albums-s80-turbo-oil-return-seal-repair-37/ shows the pics I took during my repair. I don't know how/who to make this a sticky thread. Just a newbie ya know. Still enjoying the absence of this oil leak.

One more tip - good idea to buy 1 or 2 extra bolts for mounting the return line on the turbo. I nearly lost one of the bolts for good, and the torx head was getting stripped a bit by the time I got it tightened back in place.

 

Here's how I am dealing with
the oil leak problem on my 2001 S80 T6:
1. Took car to dealer for diagnosis - this cost me $110 but was actually well worth the cost because without knowing where the leak was coming from I would have never been to locate the source.
2. Ordered the parts from iPd - 2 required for the twin turbo S80 T6 - total cost with shipping under $15. Again, well worth it because they include an instruction sheet although not for a twin turbo but you get the idea.
3. Put the front of the car up on a set of ramps that I use for doing oil changes.
4. After removing the plastic skid pan from under the engine/ trans, I slid under the car from the front with a small flashlight to take a look. I could see that the flange of the oil drain pipe on the passenger side (right side for us yanks) was soaked with oil, but the flange on the driver side was dry as a bone.
5. Since this thread talks about how difficult the driver side is, I decided not to concern myself with the seals on that side and concentrate on the passenger side only. (I am a huge believer in the "If it ain't broke, don' fix it" theory of auto maintenance.)
6. I then grabbed the necessary tools to tackle the screws holding the pipe flange. This consisted of a T-30 Torx bit, a 1/4 inch socket, a 1/4 inch drive ratchet, and two 1/4 inch drive long extensions. With that set up I could reach the pipe flange bolts from under the car. I also took the advice of the previous poster and applied some electrical tape to the ratchet assemblage to keep from losing the pieces as this is a difficult area to work in and I didn't want to drop any parts.
7. I first tried tightening the screws and as soon as I did that I realized that they were not tight. So my conclusion is that this was the cause and source of the leak. I tightened the two screws and am now going to run the car for a while to see whether the leaking has stopped. If the screws work their way loose again, then I wil clean the threads and apply some lock tight. If that fails, then I will remove the drain pipe and replace the gasket and o-ring.
This is a work in progress, but I wanted to post this as it may be a very simple and inexpensive solution for folks like me who want to do their own maintenance and despise wasting hundreds of dollars at the dealer.
I will try to post a couple of pics and update as to how this works out. My next Volvo project is the timing belt replacement, and then the broken rear shock bracket, which the dealer told me about after his diagnosis, which was quoted at a total repair cost of $7,500, including new radiator and two new tires. Is the dealer going to tell you that the screws are looose and it will take him twenty minutes to fix it? Seriously, I don't get it.

 

I've read the other posts. Maybe I am just too frustrated at this point to understand what I am doing wrong. I am trying to change the seals on the passenger side. The coolant line is loose. The oil cooler is loose. I've also loosened the oil feed line to the top of the turbo. Still, that feed line will not move. I am not able to get the drain tube out. I can wiggle it around, but there is no way to get past the oil line. Here's a picture of where I am at. You can see the drain pipe is snug up against the oil line. Does anyone have any idea where this oil line is attached? I can't get it to move enough so the I can remove the drain pipe. Any help would be appreciated as I am trying to do this for a friend. At this point I have killed his car...

 

Hi guys. Sorry to be a pain. Trying to bump this one to the top. I really need help so my friend can get to work tomorrow (and I can get this car out of my garage).

Any suggestions I how to get the oil feed line to the passenger side turbo loosened is where I need help. I have loosened it at the top of the turbo but it is still firmly in the way of my removing the drain tube. Any suggestions?

 

This might be a silly question, but here goes. Did you remove both of the Torx bolts that hold that turbo return oil line in place? It looked like one bolt is removed and the other is still holding your return oil line in place.

 

I wish it was as simple as that. Both bolts were removed from the drain tube.

I work on cars often. I have done full restorations, engine rebuilds, etc. On a T5 car, this is an hour operation. On the T6 it is a total pain due to the additional plumbing around the drain tube. I eventually got out the sawsall (no joke) and cut the f'ing thing in half - at which point it dropped out :-) I filed the cut edges smooth, and reinstalled with the new seals. I used a piece of super high test silicone hose (about 5/8) and a couple clamps to join the two pieces back together. At the end of the day, it's a drain tube - there is no high pressure on this thing. The silicone hose should work for a permanent patch. I'll check on it as I do oil changes.

 

Hello,

I saw this post and thought I'd add what I found when I replaced the return pipe seal on my S80 T6 (right hand drive). Theres a banjo fitting low on the back of the engine block with both turbo oil drain pipes attached. If you clean round the area first (carby cleaner or similar) and slacken it (do not remove!!), you will find there is enough movement in the return pipe to replace the seal and gasket.

If you remove the banjo bolt, there are 3 copper washers between the block, return pipes and bolt that are nearly impossible to get back into place if they drop off - voice of experience here!

The banjo fitting is near the bottom engine mount and on the drivers side (RHD cars), passenger side (LHD cars).

I've attached a pic...