On my 2001 S40 I found an oil leak around the vvt pulley, I was told by a volvo mechanic that 99% chance the vvt pulley is leaking. Is it possible that only the pulley seal is leaking and is there a way to tell whether the seal or the pulley is leaking??? The pulley is not making any noise. I do not want to change the pulley unless I have to.

 

You can clean everything really good with brake clean. Then run it and see where it is leaking from. I agree about the 99% of it being the pulley.

 

I'm new to this forum and haven't heard of a vvt pulley. Variable valve timing?

 

Yes that is what it is.

 

Hey Ikatse. How did your VVT pulley investigation go? I have a 2000 S40, 170K miles on it, runs well. But I may have a leak from my VVT as well. Did yours turn out to be the pulley itself or the seal? Give me a shout. Thanks.

 

Hey Counselor 828,

I ended up replacing the pulley and the seal. The leak was so slow that it was impossible to tell whether it was coming from the seal or the pulley. I was told by a volvo mechanic that most likely the pulley was leaking, I did not want to do the job twice so I bit the bullet and replaced both items. I knew it was either the vvt pulley or the seal was leaking because the vvt pulley and cover around the vvt pulley was wet with oil. The area around the intake cam/pulley was dry.

 

Hi Ikatse. Thanks for the reply. Was the leak so slow you could not see it, or you could see it but could not tell if it was coming from the pulley or the seal? Did you do the work yourself or did you have it done? What did it cost you (parts/labor)? Hard job to do? Did you have to remove the head from the engine or can it be done from the exterior, right where the pulleys are? After the repair, all good now, no leaking? Thanks for the insight, your information is really helpful. I am going to get into it on my 2000 S40 in the next week or so, and I want to armed with the best information I can from someone who has done it.

 

Hi Ikatse,

Quick question, what did the work cost you? I'm having what I belive to be a similar issue on my 2002 S40. To replace the timing belt, tensioner and vvt seal a mechanic is quoting me $1,075, but it seems high too me, any thoughts on what a fair price is?

thanks,

 

I just registered so I could share some info with you guys. I am a mechanic and just finished working on my brothers 01 S40. What a pain in the rear it was I cant tell you. When asked by my brother what car I recommend he purchase I told him Toyota Corolla or Camry, but what did he get? A Volvo S40 with a bad oil leak that he didn't notice because he was too lazy to pop the hood. Any how back to the subject. The S40's and most other Volvo's are known for bad cam seals and VVT gear. I didn't know about the gear until I ran the car after replacing all seals and valve cover gasket (used gasket maker because Volvo uses a liquid gasket). If you are going to go as far as replacing the cam seal I suggest that you replace the VVT gear as well as water pump, timing belt , idler and tensioner pulley. Do the job once and do it right. There are tools required to do the job so it doesn't pay to shortcut it. Oh and the best advice I could give is don't buy a Volvo because this over engineered crap of a car isn't worth its weight in scrap metal.

 

I worked at volvo and changed many vvt pullys on the S40. I changed them for rattling but have never changed one for leaking..... it will be the oil seal that is leaking.

 

Yes they leak and it will sling little drops all over the timing belt. Mine started leaking from the little plunger looking thing. Unfortunately I did not find the leak in time and eventually the timing belt failed causing 8 bent exhaust valves.

(I know this thread is old. I post for people searching the forum)

 

New to this forum. I'm currently having the vvt worked on my wife's 2002 s40. Thanks to asceliksoy reply I added water pump to the work. Total cost is about 1k from a independent volvo specialist shop.

 

Yes, since my last post, I have also seen this plunger thing leak for the first time! It can be repaired without replacing the pulley. You have to remove the gear from the vvt unit. There are 3 bolts holding it on, I used vice grip to remove them as I did not have a suitable socket to fit that bolt. They came out pretty easy with vice grips. Then you can remove the plunger and a small spring is behind it. There will be a O ring on that plunger that will be hard like plastic. Remove it and fit a new seal and it will be good to go.

 

I see a few post that you need a special tool that helps remove the vvt gear and get it set back up correctly.

What is involved ? I see how it can be removed but some say it's difficult to get
it sync'd back up.

Please advise, ideas suggestions ??

Thanks
John

 

What you need is a cam holder tool. This tool bolts onto the drivers side of the cams and holds them from moving. This allows the CVVT gear to be aligned with the alignment marks on the plastic cam cover. If the cams are not held in place they will move. Especially when you try to tighten the CVVT bolt to 120nm (88 lb/ft).



Alignment mark (reference pic, not S40)

 

Sorry for replying to an older post, but the VVT's plunger is leaking on my S40. I have read in a few places about people trying to just replace the o-ring, but since they could not purchase the original o-ring the leak came back within a few weeks.

Do you happen to know if Volvo sells the plunger seal, or did you use an o-ring that fit?

Thanks,

Jeremy

 

Like you I read that the leak came back. Then later posts said the leak was fixed and did not come back. My guess is that you just have to find the right size O ring. And if the leak did return you can try again with a different O ring without too much headache.

 

This post couldn't be any more correct. I had replaced the exhaust cam seal and it didn't help. This pin valve thing was the problem. Loosened the belt, removed the three little bolts, changed out the oring and not a drop. Thanks for the accurate info!!

 

every post so far, regarding this issue, is after the problem occurred. Where do you look/check, to prevent the belt to fail, i tried to look it up, but its so tight there, cant even put my fingers in.

 

Are you talking about the timing belt itself, or the VVT Gear?

As for the timing belt you cannot really determine if its about to fail. After 100k miles it can go at any time. But I have drivin timing belts all the way up to 180k (on a ford) without issue. I guess you could slowly turn the engine over and check the belt for any major cracks. Timing belts with over 80k will have small surface cracks, thats pretty normal. So its best to just go by the recommended change intervals for the car. I thnk most Volvos are 105k, but I have read some interesting articles that recommend as low as every 70k.

As for the VVT Gear, all you can do is check for oil around the plunger. Any oil at all and it can do nothing except get worse.