Hey Guys/Gals,

My Volvo has an oil leak the for the life of me, I can't find. It looks like it is coming from the front of the motor (passenger side) but I can't seem to find it. There is no oil on the timing belt and it does not look like the cam seals are leaking. I have heard that there is a TSB out for the oil pan bolts in the front of the engine, but I do not know anything else about it nor do I know if there is a fix for it.

 

Yes- there is a TSB for oil leakage from the oil pan bolts at the front of the engine (which is on the passenger side!) Basically, the 3 bolts across there will leak oil, as they enter an oil passage, but Volvo didn't apply sealer. The fix for this is as follows: remove and install one bolt at a time- remove a bolt, coat with thread sealer, available from any parts store- don't use silicone! and reinstall,tightening them to 12.5 ft/lb.

Volvo's official fix for this is to get new screws from them, which are already coated with thread sealer, however I've done a number of these this way, and it seems to work fine. Also, if it's been leaking for long, check the engine mount right below there- oil+ rubber= bad. You may want to replace that mount.

 

+ one

 

Also make sure it is not coming from the Vent box.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention that the PCV was just done.

 

OK then maybe it is not from there.

 

I have a post on the forum on this subject. Just so you know and maybe you should now check. The cause of my mystery oil leak was from low compression in the motor. Yes, blowby causing too much crank case pressure resulting in oil getting past the chemical gasket at the mid block and oil pan. Pretty much every where two surfaces meet leaked. Your just may not be as extreme. Check your compression, should be 150's up to 180's.

 

I remembering him mentioning that he did a compression test about a month ago and it was 150 to 145 across the board. I don't think it would be a compression issue.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. Like FCP mentioned, My compression is good at 150 across the board. Does anyone know of a good volvo mechanic in central jersey? I may just take it to have it looked at and then once they find the leak, depending on what it is, have them fix it.

 

Hey - Are you getting any oil leaking from under your filler cap? I had a similar problem from back pressure in the crankcase. It was running underneath the valve cover and then down the back of the engine on the passenger side. I did the oil trap replacement along with replacing the recovery hose clamp under the valve cover as there was some additional leakage also going down to the back passenger side. I cleared the back pressure build up when I had my turbo rebuilt in tandem with the oil trap / PCV system overhaul.

 

No, I was getting oil out of the oil filler cap, but I changed the seal when i did the PCV. I am going to clean up all the oil on the bottom of the engine and on the passeanger side sub frame to see if i can find this leak.

 

I didn't know u had a Volvo? What r u riding in?

 

I've just bought an 850 T5 with 212,000 on the clock. Very sweat and has had regular services---but there is a small oil leak from the area of the block/transmission joint--and its been there for ages apparently. The motor does not smoke and uses virtually no oil but reading around I began to suspect crankcase pressure and a partially blown oil seal. Looking on this forum the PCV is a real pain to replace and as its an old car I decided to do a quick fix on the pressure so I went out and bought enough pipe and T pieces etc to do a separate vent--the idea was to split the pipe coming out of the cam box and run a separate pipe out past the HT leads down to a small catch tank breathing to atmosphere. This way I would be sure of no pressure build up and be able to monitor oil catchment rate and simply poor it back. Further reading on this forum--and a good diagram, lead me to the two breather inlet connections just before the turbo. I reckon that you should be able to blow down both so I added som WD stuff and blew away---no luck until I realised that there was nowhere for the pressure to go and took the oil filler off--I could then blow the WD back through the pipes (to dissolve some of the crud). This confirmed that both pipes were at least clear, and running the engine with the big pipe off did show evidence of some vapour being passed. I also checked that both passages were clear on the inlet hose connector. I'm going to monitor the oil leak at least knowing that the crankcase is venting to some extent (and that there is very little blowby). I'm keeping the alternative vent system up my sleeve for the moment --has anyone tried this?----I think this idea is a lot simpler and cheaper than removing all the inlet manifold etc--and it would be quite easy to have the catch tank vent spliced into the turbo supply pipe just as original--the only issue is that you would need to manually empty the catch tank from time to time--and I've no idea (yet) how much oil would actually be temporarily lost--but I can't believe that it would be much as on old cars the crankcase vent simply extracted everything into the inlet tract and burnt the oil vapour.

Regards, CB

 

I can't find my oil leak too...what is this TSB? my Breather box is new and the oil return line from my turbo is new...no oil from the rear camshaft seals or front...oil drips from somewhere in the middle of the engine...
94 850 T

 

You need to double check your camshaft seals. Both of mine was shot and leaking down the back of the timing belt plastic cover and working its way back in and making it look like it was the front main seal.

 

I was able to get mine to pretty much stop. I when from loosing 1 quart a week to about 1 quart a month. Still to much but it looks like it is coming from the oil cooler line, not the crank seal which is good.

 

How difficult is this fix? would it make it easier if I did the timing chain at the same time?

 

sounds freakin horrid to the bone....still can't find mine

 

Ugh, I have a little bit of oil inside my plastic timing belt cover, I hope I don't have a leak like that. How hard is it to replace the camshaft seals?

 

It took me around 1 hour to replace. I bought the cam locking tool from iPd. Just make sure you get all the timing marks lined up before you take off the timing belt and use a marking pin and mark the cam and gear BEFORE you loosen the 3 bolts that hold the gear to the cam. I used my pocket knife to pop the seals out. The cam locking tool will help you to make sure the cam gears are in timing when you put the cam gears and timing belt back on. I used a table vice to press the tensioner and a small drill bit to hold it in place when I reinstalled it.