Hello! I am new to the Volvo community, I am having an issue after an oil change. I changed my oil and filter and no problems there ran great! later that day my car started to overheat so I putted my way to my job and shut the car off the moment I got there to prevent other damage to the engine. I have put over 4 gallons of water in my cooling system in the last 2 days and just replaced the heater hose line near the firewall and fixed a leak from a FoMoCO part. Now it is showing a low oil light and when I checked it the first time there was nothing there and I double-checked and the level was fine the second time. The expansion tank is also empty from full in less than an hour. Sorry, it is a long post just wanted to cover everything, Thank you!

 

so to recap, your car over heated and now its consuming coolant and oil? sounds like a head gasket or cracked/warped cylinder head. Assume you don't have obvious signs of oil/coolant leaking out of the radiator area?

 

If you shut down the engine when the coolant temperature light comes on, you won't damage anything. Driving that last few miles to the office or home or taco stand with the light on can be a VERY expensive drive.

I agree with mt6127 that you almost certainly damaged your head gasket (or more likely, head), which is going to be a pretty expensive fix (expensive if you DIY, really expensive if a shop does it, and hideously expensive if a stealership does it). If the inside of your oil fill cap looks like you dipped it in a chocolate milk shake, don't drive the car any more - you'll damage much more than "just the head"...

 

Hello again and thank you for the people that have responded and tried to help me out with my issue, I found the leak and it seems the engine was just low on oil and it's not milky or anything which is great! I replaced the heater hoses near the firewall and fixed one leak but the upper radiator hose, it's the connection that goes into the thermostat, its dripping onto the transfer case and running down, All of my local part stores want around 65-85$ for the hose, does anyone know where it could be found cheaper for the US (Cali) but with still OEM quality, Thank you all very much!

 

my go to Volvo friendly stores include FCP Euro (east coast - here in CT), IPD USA (West Coast) and Tasca Parts (dealer store,alas also east coast).

What you can do is start on the Tasca site and get the Volvo part number and a price for genuine Volvo, then google that number ie "Volvo 30681899" or "volvo 30723082" (for the two main radiator hoses) to see who sells genuine and recommended OEM in your area.

 

Thank you I ended up finding the part I needed and one of my semi-local stores had it in stock so I will be putting it on Wednesday morning and I will keep you updated, thank you again for all your help!

 

How did it work out for you? Did you need a new head gasket?

 

I actually blew out my hose connection going into the thermostat and after replacing the hose it stopped for a while and that leak is no longer in that area. No I didn't need a new head gasket thankfully. I'm currently dealing with another coolant leak on the expansion tank connection into the head near the turbo.

 

Did all these leaks occur at once? I ask because a blown head gasket can cause exhaust gases to enter the cooling system which over-pressurizes the system causing leaks. There is a test kit to find out if combustion gases are mixed in the coolant. If the leaks continue after fixing your latest one then that might be your next step.

 

No, they were all a few weeks apart from each other, I have finally fixed all of my coolant leaks and just need to drain the system and put in the correct 50/50 mix to stop my car from overheating at this point. It ended up being a cheapo coolant tank that I bought from Oreillys and it had a design flaw that allowed air into the system and allowed coolant to leak out no matter what I put on it to stop it.