Hey folks. You all advised me in my decision to purchased a used Volvo last year and I've been very happy with the car this year. I've put about 10,000 miles on it since. This evening I hit a deer carcass in the middle of the road and damaged something under the car. I was wondering if you all could advise me on what it could be and what my expected repair costs are.

There is oil leaking from a a line in the very front of the car, drivers side. The line is bent and oil has leaked out significantly. I don't know foreign cars all that well and it was dark when all this took place but I believe it was a line for the oil cooler. The only problem is that the car is having trouble getting into and staying in gear which seems odd to me given that there is no transmission (visible) damage. There is certainly no transmission fluid leaking. I retraced where I drove after the hitting the carcass and there was quite a trail of oil but only engine oil, nothing else.

I left the car this evening because it was basically undrivable but I'm going to have it towed tomorrow and hopefully repaired. I gave the underside a decent examination considering darkness and being in a parking lot. There were animal remains under the car but only fluids leaking from the hose described above and only evidence of oil.

Some other car details. It's an S40, the straight-5 engine, non-turbo.

Any help is much appreciated.

 

Sounds like you damaged the transmission line.

 

Upon further review...
Yeah, it was a transmission line. I had the car towed to a trustworthy shop this morning. What's this going to cost me?

 

Depends entirely on what exactly broke. Could be just replacing a line - could involve quite a bit if other components are in play (especially suspension components that can be turned into scrap metal by similar impacts). No way to know from what you've told us so far...

 

I drove it several miles after the impact. The trans problem only showed up as the fluid leaked out. The car seemed fine otherwise. No other fluids leaked. The suspension was absolutely unchanged.

 

Update: It was the transmission return line, which is pressurized. The cost was about $350 to fix and I spent a good part of the afternoon pressure washing guts and fur from under my car.