So I just bought a 2003 s40 with 115k miles. Driving home (after 20 minutes city driving, 30 minutes highway) the oil light came on. I pulled over, checked, topped with a quart, drove the same amount of time then oil light came on again. I put a quart in and parked it for the night. morning time, puff of whitish smoke from tailpipe. runs out perfect after that. Has never overheated.

My research has pointed me at oil return pipe seal so I'll do that job today. Also did notice a slight valve cover leak but that will have to wait the oil return looks like a big leak.

My question, is it possible to see the smoke on start up when you just have a failed oil return seal? Does smoke ALWAYS mean a different problem? Oil was just changed and looked decent, no milkshake.. I'm hoping once I complete this oil return seal job the car will be that much closer to being a solid driver.

Any help is appreciated

 

Oil return seals can make a mess and can allow oil to get on something hot - but it wouldn't smoke out the tailpipe. If its just a puff of smoke at start up that clears in a minute or so, its either you are in need of a tune up (plugs/coils etc) as you could be you're seeing unburnt fuel from the rich start up mixture or it could be worn valve seals (engine oil seeps in over night - not much you can do without pulling the head) or could be a headgasket or turbo seal leaking coolant. If you don't see any change in the coolant level over time, then no worries on the gasket/seals so consider a full ignition tune up. After that, I'd also look into the crankcase ventilation (PCV stuff). If all looks clean, and you're not losing coolant or burning more than say 1Q oil / 1000 miles there's not much else to do. On the valve cover leak, if its by the timing belt/passenger side of the motor, you could have a leaky cam shaft seal. I have a similar slow leak (spotting the driveway) so that's my next discovery project to figure out the source.

 

great info thanks. it hasn't been smoking at all after I had the oil changed actually but occasionally when cold it will have a rough idle for 5-10 seconds then smooth out. At the oil change I did add a bottle of Lucas oil stop leak. Frowned upon I'm sure but I need to be mobile between all the repairs.

Do you happen to know what the book hours are to do the oil return pipe seal? Since it's under the car and I don't have all the right ramps/jack stands I was thinking about having my local guy down the street do it on a lift if its under a couple hours.

again, thanks for your help! also.. random question here, I have some spark plugs from my 2001 2.0l turbo saab laying around. I ended up going iridium in the saab so these are just layinig around.. Will they work?
NGK laser platinum PFR6H-10

 

NGK has so many models of plugs - since when did spark plugs get so complicated? Anyways, if they look the same size/shape, my guess is they should work - just gap them to .028. I believe the 6 refers to the temperature range of the plug which is what the S40 uses. Some plugs have a resistance value as well (historically that was to suppress noise on AM radio bands) so as long as the plugs have the same depth/height/end cap etc you should be ok. If the seal to thread length is different - no good. Personally I don't bother with platinums - these cars run happy with old school copper cores IMHO... When in doubt, just put in some fresh properly matched plugs and gap correctly - you'll be good for another 30K miles.

 

good to know. my saab was a picky b*tch.