Hi all, bit new around here but I've lurked around a good while.

A few months ago I (technically) bought my mom's old 99 S80 T6 as my other car is pretty terrible in the winter cold and snow. It's definitely had its share of problems as I'm sure most already know about with this car. I've been getting it up to speed as far as repairs and troubleshooting and lots of headbanging. I've gotten some basic maintenance out of the way and replaced the cam reset valve/solenoid and it is running well so far.

The first issue I am trying to tackle is what appears to be oil in the turbo hoses. I had disassembled a bunch of things on the front to replace the alternator and in the rubber hose that drops down the front (between the engine and radiator/fan) it looks slick and a little gritty. The metal and plastic hard lines that run over the engine appear to be OK for the most part, though I admit I have not probed the issue very far. While I was there I removed and cleaned up the TB a bit and also had the same sort of gunk on the plate. Is this something to do with the PCV? Blow-by from the turbos somehow? Is there a good way to clean the inside of that rubber hose short of actually replacing?

My second issue has to do with the suspension. While cold the car makes quite a bit of noise when turning to the right (off the driveway comes to mind) and/or over rough roads. I'm not quite sure if it is a squeak or a scraping, rattling sound but it is definitely coming from the front driver side. Once the car warms up it seems to go away but if I drive over a rough road or such it will act up a bit.

The car drives fine other than having the turning radius of a small yacht and need of a new set of wheels/tires. If anyone can help me pinpoint a fix for these I'd appreciate it.

 

It's not unusual to have a little oil in the tubes going to your charge air cooler. Too much may indicate a failing seal in one of the turbos, but a little is no big deal. It will always accumualte at the lowest point in the air flow. If you were able to drain out a cup or more, that may be a problem. You may also be getting some excess blow-by if your PCV system is getting clogged. How many miles? If you have 150M - 175M (depending on how the car was maintained) you may have to replace your PCV oil trap and the lines going to it. Those can be become impacted with gook and crud over the years and cause your crankcase to build pressure. This will push oil past the seals, including your turbo seals. You will see oil leaking or weeping around just about every seal. It's not an expensive fix, but a little time consuming as you will probably have to pull the intake to do it.

As for your front end noise, evertime one side makes a noise and not the other, it may be a hub bearing starting to fail. Try to find a large parking lot and drive in some circles with the wheel hard over to the right, then to the left. If one side make noise and not the other, it may be a bearing. Check also to see that your inner fender has not come loose and is rubbing your tire.

 

Most likely the noise is the spring seats up front - evidently the oem rubber for those was prone to getting brittle and making all kinds of noise. I had mine replaced along with the struts and a few other bits with non oem parts that hopefully have better materials. May be a DIY if you are ok with working with springs/spring compressors but that was more than I wanted to take on.

 

Sorry for taking so long to get back, but thank you for the replies.

I haven't noticed a lot of oil pooling in the turbo hoses, just seems pretty slick in some places so this may be normal-ish. It has 126K on it now and hasn't been particularly well taken care of before so the PCV trap may be due for a replacement. Dumped about 2/3 of a can of Seafoam in the oil before I changed it and replaced the cam solenoid thinger so hopefully that will have helped some. I assume there is a kit with seals or o-rings I should be looking for to replace that?

I will look at the spring seats for the suspension noise, sound like that is probably likely. Not grinding at lock in either direction so the hubs and bearings are probably not the culprit here. I have never done suspension work before but I will definitely give it a go if I can rent the tools.

I've also thought about replacing the various bushings as I am sure they are toast by now. How complicated is that on an S80? Got a few more issues I want to ask some questions about but I'll leave it for another time unless it looks like it is related. Thanks again.

 

There are complete PCV kits available, although this one seems a little expensive.

Volvo PCV Breather System Kit (S80 Turbo) - S80TURBOPCVKIT | FCP Euro