My 2000 S80 has an oily foam in the radiator coolant resovouir. No foamy water/oil in engine oil filler cap nor on dipstick; none on transmission dipstick. Compression check fine, spark plugs clean, no excessive dampness in tailpipe.

I assumed the transmission fluid line through the radiator might have a leak, but there is no foamy evidence on the dipstick.

Would a water pump seal failure be a source for oil to enter the cooling sustem and become evident in the resovouir ?

Any other thoughts ?

Thanks for your counsel.

Puzzled in Central Florida

 

It coould very well be the oil cooler as you suspect. It could also be a blown head gasket. How has the car been running? I could be wrong on this, but I believe you can diagnose a blown head gasket by removing the cap to the radiator overflow tank, start the engine and then look for bubbles in the overflow tank fluid. If you see bubbles then you have a head gasket problem. If I am wrong on that I am sure some of the more senior board members will chime in and correct me.

Good luck.

 

If you have a damaged head gasket, juste look at your oil, if it's "hot chocolate" colour, it means that your prestone is leaking into your oil, which is a blown head gasket. If the oil is normal, than you don't have a blown head gasket.

 

Thanks, gentlemen, But - that is not the issue. The lubricants - engine oil and transmission fluid, does not have the foamy mess -- it is in the radiator reservoir.

 

Most likely the radiator is broken inside for the trans cooler or the engine oil cooler. One of thise too!if ur loosing tranny oil or engine oil u go from there! It happen to me changed the oil cooler and radiator new problem solved. As long that theyrs not chocolately oil inside the engine ur good in headgasket. Did it overheat?

 

So i see the blown tranny cooler in the radiator is a common problem. Trying to find the best way to drain the tranny and rad to fix. I just put a new radiator on my sisters car and she overfilled the fluids and burst the internal tranny cooler. :-( I usually do all of our own repairs as we live about 3.5 hrs away from any decent mechanics.....let alone one that will work on a volvo


>><><< 1993 volvo 940 turbo

 

easiest way to fix...get an external trans cooler, hook up the lines to it, flush the trans cooling lines in the radiator, plug those lines and your done...

 

I recently blew a head gasket and had neither oil in the water nor water in the oil. Till the next day after we towed it 150 miles in the dark with a nylon tow strap...an exciting experience!!! The radiator expansion cap did surge and leak though when I started it once. I only found water in the oil when I drained the sump to send it to the junk yard. We had been having mysterious "Missing coolant" for about 6 months prior to the blowing of the gasket. I could never find the leak. When it blew, the car as going 70 up hill at 95 degreed F and running the AC, it shuddered and I saw a vapor trail behind me [like a shot in the radiator ME109!] I looked down and saw the temp gauge pinned at the top of the red. I turned off the AC and it went down to the bottom of the red. If it had been cooler I could have made3 it home, but I pulled off and after cooling down only got it started the once whereupon the coolant surged out the cap of the tank. The difficulty I had starting after cool down turned out to be water in the cylinders. When I got it home I took out the spark plugs, saw the water, used an air hose to blow out the water [a messy job!] and that bed boy started right up. Unfortunately she was fatally damaged [335,000 miles on the clock its not worth replacing a head gasket] so kissed her on the hood and sent the old girl off to the junkyard.

 

thank you! That's what I had planned to do but wanted to make sure that was the best route. :-)