Hello all,

For the past few weeks now I have noticed that my cars been leaking oil on a daily basis. I park the car and an hour later theres a pretty decent sized spot on the driveway. For a while now, the part under the spark plug cover has been filled with oil and a hose going from the front of the engine to the turbo has been mushy. So I thought that maybe the PCV was to blame. I bought a new kit off of FCPgroton and had my mechanic install it. To my dismay it is still leaking.

Also, my turbo has not been engaging properly since all of this started. I bought a good condition used one a few months ago and had it put in. So I know I do not have a faulty turbocharger.

I went under the car and took a few pictures today. It seems to be more of the drivers side area right between the axle and oil pan. I mean everything has a coat of oil on it. I do not know what it could be at this point and I would like some help before I go and pay someone to find out for me. I tinkered around a little and took some pictures and made some observations.

Thank you for your help.


http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/...0/GEDC0102.jpg

Saturated spark plug area trailing all down the right side of the engine

http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/...0/GEDC0103.jpg

Here is the mushy hose which as you will see was disconnected from the turbo

http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/...0/GEDC0104.jpg

Oil pan all slicked up

http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/...0/GEDC0107.jpg

http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/...0/GEDC0118.jpg

Now here was something I noticed. This hose was all stale and rotted and had fallen off into this position. I do not know where it came from

http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/...0/GEDC0122.jpg

Here it is again.

http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/...0/GEDC0120.jpg

Here is the end of that mushy hose which had become disconnected from the turbo. I reconnected it and the turbo is still not engaging.

 

I think you have a bad rear main seal. Look on the left side of the motor. You can see a little square opening where you can see the flywheel teeth. Are they coated with oil? If the car is on ramps, run it for a sew seconds. Does the oil have a waterwheel effect in there? If so, you have a blown main seal. It's about ten hours labor for a good mechanic. Twenty hours for your average garage hack do it yourselfer.

It happens all the times on Volvo Front Wheel Drive Cars. It most likely was caused by too much crankcase pressure due to a clogged oil sperator which was caused by too infrequent of oil changes. You maybe able to unclog the PVC system and slow down the oil leak to a manageable level but if seal has been radically displaced your are probably in for a lot of work or a thousand dollar reapir bill.

 

"The part under the spark plug cover has been filled with oil"
This could be simply the oil filler gasket needs replaced.
You might want degrease the engine and find exact spot where the oil is leaking.

 

Well I pray to god it's not the rear main seal. You mentioned infrequent oil changes as a reason, yet this cars oil has been changed every 3500 on the dot, how is this possible? I do not have ramps only Jack stands. How easy/hard is it to replace the oil filler gasket?Also the left side is dry and the pcv is in good shape (no dipstick blowing).

 

Sorry, I meant "oil filler cap gasket".
It is hard to tell from your pics, but is that similar leaking?
http://volvospeed.com/Repair/turborepairline.php

 

[quote=dmtri07;215876]Well I pray to god it's not the rear main seal. quote]


I seriously doubt he cares about your seal but you can always try.

 

I just went through the RMS thing. At first I was in denial, I fixed the turbo return line that goes from below the turbo to the crankcase. Those leaks really don't ammount to more than a few dribbels but I hoped and prayed. I deliberately tried to avoid looking at RMS but something said it was the source of hemorrage. Everyday, I had to add a quart of oil but I attributed it to cheap oil and/or evaporation. Finally, one day, I was driving into my parking space over a fresh blanket of pure white Minnesota snow and I could see what looked like a blood trail from a wounded deer all across my parking lot.

I quickly went to Autozone and bought a bottle of Bars Leaks Rear Main Seal in a Bottle, plus Lucas Oil Conditioner and finally STP. I knew one of three chemical miracles could heal the rotten and torn rubber of the sixteen year old seal that had probably seen a trillion crankshaft revolutions but alas modern chemistry failed me.

I finally had to be a man and admit, that I got royally screwed on this car by some Ahole Car Salesman on Criag's List. I always bring my Rhino Ramps when I inspect a used car I intend to buy but because it was so cold (-20) I didn't. I broke my own convenants of Never buying a car from a Salesman and never ever buying a used car without inspecting the undercarriage but I DID!!! Now, I am wearing the dunce hat.

Because I dion't have a heated garage and didn't want to spend a week in the garage nor I did I want to spend a fortune on a car worth 3k at most. I put it out for bids on Craigslist and had a guy, who assured me had the expertise to do it, offer to do it for $450.00. He told me he was "sick and tired of ripping people off at stealerships and just wanted to do honest work for honest people" I should have know better because the first day he had the car he called and said there would be delay because he couldn't get any Vicodin and couldn't bend over. I told him that I was going to take to someone else but he pleaded with me: telling me how much he needed the job. None the less, he did finish the job in seven days, he promised it in three.

After I picked up the car and paid him $460, he wanted an extra ten for coolant. I drove it for a week without too many problems however one day I was driving on the Interstate and pulled into a wayside and say the oil light flicker? I thought, what the ...k, how can this be? Sure enough, the RMS he installed blew out and I lost all my oil. Fortunately, I have AAAA so I didn't have to pay $350 tow. I called, the CList mechanic, who said it wasn't his fault because I did not pick up the "heavy duty turbo seal" Actually, both the turbo and the n/a engine use the same seal--there is no "heavy duty turbo seal" Of course, he would give me a refund and only offered to do it the second time for $50 less. I really became suspicious of this dude, so I checked out his crimminal record and found he had at least five DUIs, multiple felonies and had at least a half dozen judgements against him for accidents without insurance and lots of other things like evictions etc. When, I asked for my $ back he denied he ever did the job. Unfortunatly, it was purely cash transaction.

I was so sick of this Volvo and the agnst it was causing me that I decided that I was going to pay a real mechanic whatever it would cost just to end this nightmare. So, I called a reputible shop, with a very honest owner who told me would do it right for less than $1K, it's a lot of work!! so it was a fair price.
He did do a good job and it hasn't leaked. But look, now I just stuck $1500
in a car $3k at most.

Two days after the competent mecahanic fixed it the tranny light came on and flashed a code about being in the wrong gear!!! I reset the code and it hasn't come back. I did discover the tranny was two quarts low on fluid because neither mechanic knew how to check it with the motor running while the motor is at opearting temperature. The so-called competent mechanic also forgot the all important vacume line that runs from the vacume T to actuator between the air filter and turbo intake. Forgeting this line can actually cause a seal to blow!!!

Now months have passed and I have only had to replace the motor mounts, interlock switch, o2 sensors, cat converter, blower motor, vacume lines, and a few sundry things. I need to get another 100k miles out of this car to recoup my investment.

What did I learn from this:

1. NEVER EVER TRUST A CAR SALESMAN especially some guy from Craigslist

2. NEVER BUY A CAR WITHOUT LOOKING UNDERNEATH

3. NEVER HIRE A CASH MECHANIC FROM cRAIGLST, unless you really get good refernces

4. NEVER EVER NEGLECT TO DOUBLE CHECK THE WORK OF EVEN A GOOD MECHANIC, There are hundreds of steps in complex procedures so even the best are going to miss something.

 

Well I took the car to my guy back home and he told me it was the turbo itself actually leaking oil. How can this be when I replaced the turbo with a newer used one 3 months ago?! Can anyone think of why this might be happening? He said it's coming right from the middle of the turbo. I can't imagine why it wouldve veiled again.

My symptoms again are:

leaking oil while idling
turbo does not boost whatsoever


Thanks guys and i'm glad it's not a rear main seal!