Hi everybody, I need your knowledge. Got last December the first Volvo in my life, drove it just 2600 Miles, mostly City traffic, and went on FWY for about 50 Miles.
1. The red light with oilcan symbol lit
2. The light went off when I reduced speed,, was just 3 Miles away from my destination
3. Thought I could make it
4. Thought wrong, engine lost power, after a quarter Mile quit.
5. Oil spill around filling Cap, but level still on lower mark
6. Car was towed to repair
7. Guy took a short look, said oil was spread on Timing belt, so this jumped, engine is totaled.
8. I convinced him to do more tests, after a week he called: "I tested 2 cylinders for compression, both zero. Take the Car to the junkyard."
9. he stated the timing belt was fairly new. The odometer shows 117000 Miles, I spend 7000 $, I don't like to get rid of the Car.
10. I definitely will get a second opinion, but still would be interested to get some ideas what could have happened. When the Motor is started, it sounds like one cylinder likes to fire up. There is cooling fluid in the reservoir.
Maybe head gasket? camshaft issue? He did not read out the computer...I guess this leads to an engine swap, but not without knowing what went wrong.
Your thoughts will be highly appreciated. I guess the manners will ask to introduce myself, and I promise I'll do that in the next post.
Thanks everybody for reading this long sermon. Norbert

 

so start with the fact you have zero compression in two cylinders - what was the compression in the others? Did the tech do the test correctly?
a few possible causes 1) valve timing issue - did the timing belt slip a few notches (not enough to take out the exhaust valves but enough to mess up timing) did the tech check the timing marks? 2) valve damage (leak down and wet/dry compression tests plus an inspection cam may help 3) head gasket issue - I wouldn't expect a blown head gasket to take the cylinder down to zero but if the bad cylinders are adjacent I suppose its possible. Any other signs of a head gasket fail - oil/water mixing etc? 4) piston/ring damage - again the compression test gives some clues here but an inspection cam may help. 5) I'd also drain the oil through filter paper - any chunks of metal or heavy debris showing up? (giving the loss of oil pressure, I'd be looking for debris that clogged the intake so the tech may want to drop the oil pan to inspect plus he would be able to see anything major on the lower end.

As you noted, it could be one of several things, best case is the timing belt jumped and needs to be reset, worse case is you have bottom end issues. in between is not much better since a head gasket or head replacement (even going used) is a major cost. The fact that the oil pressure light came one is disconcerting so you may still want to look at doing a swap. Check out car-part.com to get a cost estimate for sourcing a replacement engine and google around for estimates on shop hours.

 

Thank you very much for your thoughts on this. I decided to let the Car tow to a friend of friend who has all the tools needed. I guess a repair would be the only chance to stay lower than 6000 $, so to consider I spent 7000 in last December and now add another 6000 doesn't makes me feel good. Somehow I lost confidence in Volvo.....
But of course I like to know what happened inside the engine, I'll keep you informed, provided you like to know.
Thanks again, Norbert

 

Just to finish a sad story, this engine is heavily damaged. My friend took the Boroskope, intake valves made hard impacts on the pistons. Sold the car to somebody to knows how to repair it, bought myself a Mercedes E320 and convinced myself not to think anymore about Volvo! Goodbye fellow Volvo Friends, Norbert