Hey Guys I'm New To The Forum and New to Driving a Volvo. I picked up a 2000 S40 about 2 1/2 weeks ago. Had about 159,900 miles on It. I fell in Love. car runs Good Handles Nicely and looks real cool. Fast forward to Last Night and about 600+ miles in. I'm driving through the heavily congested downtown area of Los Angeles and seemingly out of nowhere I start to hear this Ticking coming from the Passenger side of the engine. I pull over to have a Look and The sound seemed to be coming loudest from around The rear Cam shaft Pulley in the drivebelt. The sound hasn't gone away since.
I was able to get it home and i haven't noticed a real difference in the performance of the engine. Except when revving it sometimes the rpm drops a little and comes back up almost like it loses slight power and then stabilizes. I uploaded a Youtube video to better showcase the problem. Would like to Know If it's a Real serious problem if I should even turn the car on and what I might need to fix the problem. Also found out the previous owner was using Standard oil instead of synthetic oil, can this be the cause ?
Thank You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPdGyQUmBDc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

CEL? Code(s)?

Probably the VVT pulley and/or VVT solenoid.

Plan on doing a complete timing belt system replacement asap.

 

No Check Engine Light, No change in operating temp.
As I rev the engine the Ticking Becomes more constant. Sometimes It Acompanies a Slight Rattle that doesn't last more than a Second. And If this Carfax is accurate Timing Belt was changed out about 20,000 miles ago .

 

I second the vvt. Unplug the solenoid on the top of the engine just next to the cam gears. If the sound goes away it is either the solenoid itself or the vvt. Usually if the solenoid is bad you will get a CEL.

 

Alrighty then. Carfax. What could go wrong?

 

Is it leaking oil? My 2001 started making a knocking noise I couldn't pin down and leaking oil onto the ground. A couple days later the timing belt skipped a few teeth and bent 8 exhaust valves.

Remove the timing belt cover and check the VVT gear. Look at the little plunger looking thing. If it's leaking then stop driving the car and fix it. You can replace the o-ring without replacing the whole hub.

 

"[QUOTE=Hudini;402220]Is it leaking oil? My 2001 started making a knocking noise I couldn't pin down and leaking oil onto the ground. A couple days later the timing belt skipped a few teeth and bent 8 exhaust valves.

Remove the timing belt cover and check the VVT gear. Look at the little plunger looking thing. If it's leaking then stop driving the car and fix it. You can replace the o-ring without replacing the whole hub. "

yes, I removed the plastic enclosure from the top of the engine and found a small puddle of oil next to the 3rd spark plug as well as oil splashed throughout the cam pulleys. Also should note that I'm noticing a little bit of rocking from the rear Cam Shaft Pulley. like it's either a little loose or something is going on inside with the actual cam shaft.

recorded a video of what I found

 

the belt seems to be nice and dry based on the footage, no? With this in mind, I'm thinking probably not the VVT. When mine started leaking I had a thin line of oil along one edge of the belt as well as on the very edge of the teeth on the VVT itself. The other telltale sign for a leaky VVT is oil which has splattered on the underside of the timing cover - if yours is dry, then your VVT is likely fine. Oil waaaay over by one of the cylinders would definitely not be caused by leaky VVT. More likely a bit of spillage from your last oil change...

 

There is oil all around that area, I think the video did a Poor job of illustrating but the Cam Pulley is got oil all aroud it on the front side and in the inner side the pulley itself seems a bit wobbly

 

With a VVT leak (as opposed to a seal leak) you will get a steady stream of oil being slung out onto the timing belt cover. It will leave big oil spots under the car. There will be no doubt it's leaking. When you run the engine with the timing belt cover removed, the VVT will sling oil all over including up onto the open hood. It will sling it on you too if you get yourself in the same plane as the gear.

A seal leak or a PCV hose leak or a bad gasket on the oil fill cap will leave a puddle on top of the engine (under the beauty cover) and allow oil to run down the face of the engine. These leaks will not cause any oil to reach the timing belt. These are messy but non threatening.

 

Did you try unplugging the solenoid? If ticking stops you have narrowed it down. Easy test

 

Yeah I Unplugged No Change in The Noise. Also the Solenoid plug had oil Inside it. I'm Just about to throw in the towel and Take it To A Volvo Specialist Lol. Still Think It Might Be the Exhaust VVT gear though As most of the oil spilling seems to be coming from there.And while it isn't as severe as oil being flung up into the hood and Puddles of oil under the car it seems to be sputtering it around a Bit.

 

Darn - well you guess is probably a very good one. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

I wanted to update this Post. I had a Tech come out and Look at it and after like 2 minutes of looking at it, his diagnosis was a Blown Head Gasket and a Bad Camshaft arm. He stated that the blown head gasket was the reason there was oil on the timing belt system and atop the engine and also the reason for oil being inside the Cvvt solenoid plug. according to him the repair would range into the $1500 region. Alternatively a engine swap would cost about the same.

I took another look at it today, finally was able to get it inside my garage, and unscrewed the vvt solenoid . To try and figure out if somehow it was the culprit. when I screwed it back on and started the car, oill started gushing out all over the place, like a literal fountain of oil , the oil seemed to be gushing out from right under the vvt solenoid ehere it connects with the valve cover. when I looked at it the small little gasket underneath seemed to be torn. A question arises then, if as I earlier stated when I unplugged the solenoid and found oil all over the connection could it be that it hasn't been working this whole time ? But then What about the CEL ? Could it have been cleared by the previous owner somehow ?So i came up with a Game plan, short of doing an engine swap or dismantling the whole thing I'm going to replace the solenoid, the gasket, clean out the plug replace the vvt gear as the gear has a little bit of play and see if that works, after all the knocking/ticking seems to be coming from the gear itself, oh and then replace the whole timing belt system pulleys etc. need some feedback am I going crazy ?

 

Not going crazy at all. If you do the work you will need to secure the cams with a cam holder tool to replace the VVT gear. It needs to be installed fairly precisely.

While you are in there do one more thing. Clean out the air/oil separator. This is the large-ish black plastic box under the intake manifold. You will need to remove the intake manifold to get to it. Not a big deal and usually you only have to replace the intake manifold gasket and maybe the fuel injector o-rings. Those are pretty low cost.

The air/oil separator being clogged caused my 2001 to have too much back pressure which pushes oil out of the seals.

 

That's crazy talk! I like your plan. Keep us posted. I would go to a different mech next time, he obviously is not intimate with the x40 series.

 

Yeah this guy claimed that he was working at a Volvo dealership Out in santa monica but the things he was saying were not adding up.
Anyways I had a Question about what tools are needed for the Job. Besides the cam lock, like I know there needs to be a Rubber gasket Sealer Used for the solenoid gasket (and all other gaskets) when I install the new one. which is it and where can I find it ? As well as any specific Tools to take apart the VVT hub

 

There is no need for rubber gasket maker for the solenoid. Just the green cloth gasket that you get from volvo. Make sure you get the udpated kind with the mesh filter built into the opening.

Here's a guide I put together for doing belt, vvt, and cam/crank seals. I hope it helps. Make sure you go to the second page where the link has been updated with the latest info. In the guide, you'll get a good idea of what tools you need.

GUIDE: Replacing Cam Seals / Crank Seal / VVT Hub - Volvo Owners Club Forum

On a related note, not sure what your mileage (mine was 150,000) is but you may want to consider replacing the cam seals while you have the gear off - my exhaust/rear cam seal was. It would be a real shame to do all that work only to find out a couple of months later that a stupid $20 seal is forcing you to go back in there. Take a very good look at both the intake and exhaust seals when you have the gears off - if they are bone dry then maybe you let a sleeping dog lie...?

 

Hey Guys Just wanted to give an Update, So far I have replaced The Solenoid and Solenoid Gasket and somehow Oil is still Managing to get into the connection, also when I unplug Still No CEL ? Any ideas ? Also My Father Took a Look at it yesterday and noticed that The exhaust Gear ( the source of the ticking had a Missing Screw that secures the Gear to the hub, He found it by some hose next to the Coolant reservoir so he Tightened them up and The Ticking went away . I still see little specs of oil sputtering From around the pulley though and the Cam gear is still slightly wobbly. So nevertheless The part is on its way.

 

Hi Guys, finally had some time to do the work, when I got to removing the Exhaust VVT gear I found that whoever did the previous Job used silicone all Over the Cam Seal. It was all over the Place (someone went Silicone happy) did the best that I could to try and remove it all, but I think it was possibly a futile attempt, more on that in a Minute. I replaced the VVT as well with a Used tested VVT. I should note there didn't seem to be a fault with the original one, but since I had just ordered this one I figured what the hay. I Installed, tightened the Cam Screw Snugly, adjusted the Gear to match the timing marks, put on the timing belt (I really struggled with this part, that belt is tough) finally suceeded! i removed the Cam Lock, rolled the engine clockwise twice,reconnected everything and Fired her up. While she was still in my garage she seemed fine so I decided to take her for a drive, Got her on the street she seemed to be drivIng well got her on the freeway and got it up to about 70 again everything seemed good. When I got back home and popped the hood though, It was as though no progress had been made, belt had oil again, it was flinging from around the pulley left a Trail on the roof of the hood, and to add to it I found a Moderate oil spot on the floor and water dripping fom around the Oil reservoir and further back on the passenger side. Feel like i'm now at - square 1. I'm thinkibg the seal isn't properly installed due to small portions of silicone still stuck in their or maybe I didn't torque the center bolt tight enough or maybe also the PCV system has something to do with. One things for sure it looks like i'm going to have to go back in there.