Hi, I have a '95 850 glt that has a pretty severe oil leak. I'm having a friend who is not too experienced with Volvos try to troubleshoot the problem. While taking a look under the hood, he saw something next to the engine on the left side that looked like an external oil pump that could be the cause of the leak. Does the 850 have an external pump?

And one more question, have any of you 850 owners had problems with your fire arrestor (aka PCV valve)?

Thanks! - Kollyn

 

PCV system (parts of) on these cars sometimes clog. Most people replace the whole system as it's not to bad of a job. Plus parts are not too bad on the price side. http://www.fcpgroton.com/product-exe...category_id/63

 

It could be alot of things I would clean the motor and start it and look for the leak.

 

I will definitely take your advice, Tech, and clean off the motor and look for the leak.

Would cleaning the PCV system, in your opinion, drastically reduce the leak if it is clogged? That's what several people have told me. And I also heard that a PCV clog could cause acceleration issues, which I definitely have.

 

Yes I would do that ASAP as well.

 

If it ends up not being the PCV system, you may have a bad rear main seal. Just hope and pray that that's not what the problem is because its pretty expensive to fix it. It's over 8 hours of labor to install a $37 part. I had to do that recently and it was not fun.

Also replacing the PCV system is not all that expensive, somewhere around $15 or so you might just want to clean it for now and then replace it. A bad flame trap (which is part of the PCV system) will cause increased oil pressure on your rear main seal which can cause premature failure. Might be a good idea to replace it considering it could help you dodge a large expense.

Just my two cents