I have been battling leaks for 4 months. Jan 29 I replaced the solenoid gasket (for the 2nd time in a week) and put RTV on both sides of it..... Yesterday I find that it is leaking.


I even have oil in the electrical connector which maybe how it keeps getting in the pool on the head. But the back side leak looks to be coming out of the RTV sandwich. See the shine on the RTV?


any ideas what to change next?

 

The gasket goes on dry.

 

and then 2 days later it leaks. Dry, wet, new, old, Rtv, no RTV and it still leaks. Volvo brand and non volvo brand.

any other ideas?

 

I recently came across a solenoid diagram that showed that the two pieces could be taken apart and that there was a gasket between the cylindrical piece and the solenoid body. It might be that that gasket is cooked.

 

The only way to get oil in the electrical connector is a leak internally like pierremcalpine points out

 

That is what I assumed too. I am gonna go to the JY and pull one. Maybe it will be alittle bit better than the one I have on here now. Then I can take mine apart and check out the innards.


Ordered 2 more gaskets to arrive tomorrow. Might try the DRY install theory on one of them.


Thanks

 

It's not a theory. It's the way the gasket should be installed.

 

Would people actually install a wet gasket? Or maybe just on an oily surface? Is that what you mean?


I went thru several DRY installations before I added RTV. When the gaskets were removed, you could see that oil had made it's way thru gasket to get out. There was also oil on the gasket in the area of the machined surface of the sol, letting me know that the oil had also gotten over the gasket (between the gasket and the sol) to get out. Not sure about under the gasket (between the head and the gasket)


This is a delicate area for torque. I don't want to strip out the threaded hole in the aluminum head with a steel bolt.


Is there a recommended torque?

 

I mean no RTV or anything. Clean the surfaces so they are free of oil or contaminants including old gasket material. Put the gasket in place and install the solenoid.

I'll double check the torque spec but its probably 17Nm.

 

10Nm is the spec

 

I would not be putting RTV anywhere near that gasket. Those stupid oil passages are so small within the solenoid and the vvt that any sort of blockage we become problematic. Scrape every little shred off and install gasket dry ask directed.

 

Is this dry enough? Here is a view of the gasket (dry) the sol face (dry) and the head surface (dry).

I took it for a test drive, maybe 10 miles. Checked the leak situation and all seems to be ok. My daughter will drive this week and I will check periodically. My fingers are crossed.

It took some doing, but I was able to take the possibly-bad solenoid apart. I was able to pull the valve section out. I saw one O-ring. It was flattened out, but not brittle and broken. I see a C-clip on the end of the valve, I'll try to take that off to further investigate the internals of this monster.

 

Yep, that's how its done.

 

Here is a link to a thread discussing many things VVT. Look about half way down page one to find where someone took apart the solenoid.

https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-...lvo-s40-47208/