Hi,
I recently bought a 2002 Volvo S40. Last night I noticed the car was overheating and I popped the trunk. Light smoke coming from just about everywhere and when I opened the overflow tank it was bone dry and had smoke coming out of it. I put coolant in It and didn't realize it was going straight through. I noticed a steady stream leaking from the passanger side bottom of the radiator. Now I'm not really familiar with volvos so I'm not sure what to do next. Any suggestions?

 

Welcome to the forum. Moved your post to the S40 section.

You need to find out if the radiator is damaged or if it's a hose that's leaking.
Where are you located ?? Might want to add that to your profile.

 

Also, once you find the source and make the repair (sounds like a burst hose or possibly a split in the side seam of the radiator) - I'd suggest you consider also replacing the thermostat and the overflow tank cap...

 

Hmmm sorry to hear about your leak. There are two common issues with this vintage of v40: the lower radiator hose clip rusts and causes a leak on the drivers side bottom of rad. The second issue is that the top radiator hose tends to fail right at the funny 3-way connection at the top of the radiator on passenger side. Based on your description it doesn't sound like either of those. Instead it sounds more like either the rad has developed a crack or the plastic drain plug is leaking. The drain plug is located at the very bott corner of rad on passenger side. Good luck!

 

Thanks for the ideas. I'm gonna take a closer look at the radiator this weekend and I'll let you guys know what I find out.

 

Well, I found the leak. Looks like a new radiator is in my future.

 

Just noticed my upper radiator hose is leaking, just as you describe.

I keep chasing my maintenance list on this car (2000 V40) but it keeps on going. Knock one item off, another problem appears.

 

Hah, be patient you will eventually get a stretch of at least a few weeks where no issues arise. 😅

Good that you caught that early. If it breaks all together it is amazing how quickly one runs out of anti-freeze all together. Apparently if you are prone to slamming your hood down that pipe can suffer some hits from above because the clearance is minimal...at least that is what the guy at my local scrapyard suggested.

 

Your pain, I feel it.

 

Makes me appreciate the Toyotas I own which seem to be good for 200,000 miles with only routine maintenance.

The Volvo is for my kids but teaching my daughter to drive is on hold right now. Broken coil spring, broken strut bearing (again) and sway bar bushings.

Yes it's an old car but it has only 105,000 miles.

 

Yeah, it's a bit more than "routine" maintenance, that's for sure. For what it's worth though I drove a Corolla last week while on vacation and it is completely gutless compared to the little V40. So at least it's got a proper engine!


Man, I could do those struts in my sleep - I swear that I've taken them apart about 10x! The first two jobs don't sound so bad but I'm assuming that you are talking about the FRONT arb bushings? Now that (apparently) is a nasty pig of a job.