Hello everyone. My name is Chris and I come to this forum in need of guidance and advice for my current situation. Let me fill you in on what has been done so far to bring you up to speed and I will make an effort to post pictures up as soon as I figure out what i'm doing (brand new member).

My vehicle is a silver 2005 Volvo S60 with a 2.5T equipped with AWD. I purchased the vehicle from a local dealership who mainly deals with Jaguar but they happened to have the car I was looking for sitting in their lot. I was told the previous owner was a priest who performed regular maintenance and drove mostly highway miles. The records of service checked out and the test drive was exactly what I hoped for so I made the purchase.

Since owning the car, it has seen it's first few services at the "Jaguar used car dealership". My first problem was a horrible vibration around the transmission which could be felt in the shifter as well. The dealer advised they took a look at the car. One of the noises I was hearing pertained to my brakes, a service was done (not to the brakes) and I was given the car. The owner claimed he personally drove the car and felt no vibration in which I made reference to. The next day I broke my vow of not working on my car personally for the first few months and did an inspection. The first thing I grabbed was my exhaust to see if had possibly broken a hanger. Low and behold, I found the problem. Brought the car back to the used dealer who made the repairs free of charge but didn't seem too upset that his guys couldn't find such an easy problem to spot.

The volvo started to see local certified dealers after the used dealer refused to work on an issue because they did not have the proper tool. One day my engine light came on and my car was due for emissions. I brought the car to the dealer who made the necessary repairs (have to check paperwork on what was performed) and it passed emissions. A few months later I returned to the same dealer to have my 75,000 mile full service.

My car has now nearly reached 90,000 miles with regular oil changes roughly 3-4000 miles apart. Volvo had told me they do not use synthetic oil so I went with the dealers recommendation. I changed my oil the last two times after I noticed my oil fill cap on the top of the engine had a filmy/sludge substance. When I drained the oil and pulled the filter all seemed fine. The oil was definitely black but I attributed it to the detergents as I saw no sign of sludge material.

Recently my girlfriend was driving my car when the "Low Oil Pressure, Pull Over Safely" light came on including the low oil light on the dash. I checked the car and found it was 2 quarts low on oil and upon further inspection found my PCV tube running from under the spark plug cover down through the intake manifold and into a plastic breather box had split. Volvo used a cheap plastic with ribbing which eventually dried and broke. I bought the new hose and made the repair and changed the oil. Again the oil did not look bad so I ran new Mobil 1 5w30 Synthetic and a new filter.

The car started up ok and idled normal (at least what had become normal as the timing seemed to be getting a little sloppy at times). After letting it warm up to temp I drove it for about 5 minutes before the oil pressure light started to flash on the screen irregularly until it eventually stayed on. I got it home immediately and put it on the lift.

Up to that point I had not done much to alter anything in the engine compartment and especially not around any of the belts or power steering pump. What I found was the power steering pump leaking fluid from both the pump and reservoir tank via the hose. I have not replaced the hose yet as I found both clamps to be extremely loose. The fluid had run under the pump and onto the alternator and belt below it sending oil everywhere. I removed the upper timing cover and saw signs of oil so I removed the front cover to inspect. Found heavy black grease like oil on the gears, belt and block. Cleaned down everything with brake clean, rags and compressed air. Only reinstalled necessary parts to run the car and started it. Idle still sounded rough and further inspection found the timing tensioner arm was not in the correct position.

I purchased the OEM Volvo timing kit for my car and replaced the tensioner, idler pulley and belt making absolutely sure I did not move the cam gears or the crankshaft the entire time. If anyone wants to know more about this I can provide additional info.

Anyway, after triple checking everything I ran the car again. Instantly it was an enormous difference in sound. It idled how I had hoped and on its first road test it initially performed superb. Until...about 3 minutes into driving when the oil pressure light came BACK on this time staying steady. In my short circle back home the engine inherited a ticking sound which started to cause alarm. I knew now it could not be a sensor issue as oil was not reaching the top of the engine.

Back on the lift again the oil was drained, oil cooler unbolted from the oil pan, dipstick tube removed, fuel line bracket disconnected and finally the pan itself was lowered (very slowly as there is no clearance). I was completely shocked by how much oil sludge I found in the pan and jammed into the pickup tube. Oil return passages in the block were so clogged that when I scooped out about 3 inches of the sludge material, black oil began to drain from the block.

The oil pan itself was completely jammed full of sludge, especially in the valleys located behind the metal shield which cannot be removed without drilling. I brought the pan to work and first cleaned it in a regular parts cleaner tub. Scraping and using the brush which flowed parts cleaner fluid from it did not do the job. I then ran the pan through a heated, high pressure parts washer which used water and a solvent. This method did work very well but some sludge remained in spots which were too difficult to get a screwdriver or scraper on. I soaked the inside of the pan with Kerosene and after scraping again and running it through the parts washer did it look good enough to re-install.

The pickup tube screen was 90% blocked with sludge. This was also cleaned up and is now close to brand new condition. I am now in the process of taking the timing back apart to remove the oil pump because I am worried of putting this all back together and having the gunk remaining in the engine instantly clog up my pickup tube again or any other oil passages. I plan on cleaning the oil pump and hopefully not having to replace it. Having the pan off allowed me to remove my oil pressure sensor which was also clogged with the mud.

My question to you starts with, have you ever had similar problems on an 05 2.5T? I was thinking about running Sea Foam through the engine, gas and vacuum line after repair but am scared of dislodging anything that otherwise may be fine. Has anyone else used Sea Foam on my car? And lastly, should I remove the top section of my engine and expose my camshafts and other components for oil sludge or hope the Sea Foam may clear this up?

If you read my pathetic attempt to describe my situation, I thank you. I will post pictures if anyone wants to see my nightmare. Not that I wish this on you, but I hope someone else has gone through this and can offer some good advice...

 

Don't use Seafoam as it's a solvent - too aggressive for this situation. Use Auto-Rx. Clean the pan and the bottom of the block as best you can and put it back together. Do 2 or 3 Auto-Rx treatments, change the oil filter frequently while running the treatments. Should clean it up for you.

 

Hi Chris and welcome to the site.

Man that sounds like a mess and nightmare. The only thing I can think of that would cause that kind of sludge is that the PO did not have regular oil changes. I have seen a few motors like that on youtube but I'm surprised that you were able to drive 20,000+ miles on the car with that kind of situation.

I have heard of people putting tranny fluid in their motors and letting them idle for a few minutes, then changing the oil. Maybe a quart to 5 quarts of oil. How much oil were you changing when you did your oil change? Sounds like 20% to 30% of your oil system was sludge.

Tech, one of the mechanics that help moderate this site pulled his oil pan off his 850 and had NO sludge. So I'm pretty sure the previous PO neglected some service.

 

When doing the regular oil changes were you using the 5.7qts of oil? If yes and the amount of sludge the oil must have been filled to the brim. Have you checked the PCV system ? I would guess that these are also full and blocked and while having this apart you should make sure that this is also clear and free of contaminants ... GL and sound like you are on the right track but i would like to see a picture of how bad it was ...

 

IF you are really worried, and don't want to drive it, you can fill with auto-rx and leave it running in park, or go extreme and fill the engine(not oil pan) up with kerosene and let it sit for a few days. That just about runs the gauntlet.

 

Hey guys,

Thank you for the responses. I'm on my phone so when i get back to my computer i'll get some pictures to put up and show all of you along with answering your questions. For now the good news is the Volvo is driving again and better then when i first got it. Check back in the next day! (thanks)

-Chris

 

If you have time, could you post those pics and tell us what you did to solve the problem? It might help me solve the same issue on mine as well as help others.

Thanks!