Hey everyone, I have a Volvo v40 2004 with the 1.9t. I know there are many threads about the VVT pulley issues and I was wondering if my issue is a leak at the pulley ( maybe at the plunger part) or at the cam seal? My car only has 93k miles, and I see most posts are cars with over 150k miles with VVT leaks. I was planning on doing a timing belt job before I discovered a leak near the VVT/exhaust cam. There seems to be oil film inside the timing cover. Now I'm thinking that I need to buy a cam holder tool + seals + VVT pulley instead of just my timing kit. Is this leak fixable just by replacing the seals and not the whole pulley?

 

I always simply replaced the pulley. (if needed during cam belt replacement) But I had to warranty my work also. (and customers don't like to come back for the same problem)

 

Since the car is rarely driven and has low miles, I am going to attempt to replace just to o-ring on the plunger. From reading migbro's posts: 2000 S40 1.9L Turbo - Broken Timing Belt - Volvo Forums - Volvo Enthusiasts Forum i need a viton o-ring 2mmx8.5mm. I found a place that will ship for about 9 dollars for 14 dollars in total for about 50 o rings. I have an 11/32 6 point socket which i hope is going to work when taking the gear off the VVT hub, but if not i'll prob have to buy this socket: . Also doing timing belt at the same time, the plan is to
1. get everything aligned with the timing cover marks
2. mark the VVT hub, gear and belt with some model paint
3. loosen the weird nuts attaching the vvt hub to the gear
4. loosen tensioner and remove belt
5. remove gear from hub, take plunger out and replace o ring.
6. put the vvt hub back with the gear and plunger + new o ring according to marks. if its moved from the marks on the cover rotate back into place.
7. with timing belt off replace it as normal and replace tensioner, idler, water pump.
Does this sound reasonable?

 

If you are going to remove the VVT hub from the cam - You will need the special tool to hold the cams in position when you remove the VVT gear - otherwise you may end up with bent valves -

 

i'd like to leave the VVT hub on the cam so i don't have to use the cam holder if i can avoid it. it would look like this when i remove the Gear from the hub Photobucket | IMG_0958_zpsc378a594.jpg . so as long as the hub stays on the cam I should be good right?

 

So you plan to undo the circled bolts, all around the VVT, taking the VVT pulley apart and replacing seals, etc - by undoing those bolts from the back side of the pulley and not spinning the cam to avoid bending valves? I guess since it's a 4 cyl it's easy to set the crank where all pistons are hallway up/down avoiding valve collisions.

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I do not want to remove the bolts you circled. if you see the spring in that picture, there was a small piston/plunger that was there above the spring that was removed, and i'd like to replace the o-ring on that, then put it back above the spring and set the gear back on the hub. So what's shown in the pic would be the most the VVT hub would be torn down.