Hi there searched through the posts and can find "similar tales" BUT they all seem to relate to the 1st Generation V70 or the 850 T5 the vehicle in question is my 2003 V70 T5 with the 2.4 Engine and 102,000 miles on the clock. (i.e. a 2nd Generation V70).

Driving down the M6 south of Manchester (an interstate for you folks accross the pond!)en-route to Bournemouth from Scotland(about 300 miles into a 500 mile trip) I passed through a couple of rain showers, flicked on the rear wiper and nothiced that the rear window smeared slightly. Though nothing of it and continued on for another 20 miles... encountered another shower, rear wipers on again the smearing was a LOT worse... screen wash did nothing at all to clear it [>:]don't like the look of this says I so I dropeed the speed down to a more respectable level and nursed it with a VERY wary eye on the gauges and warning lights ready to kill the engine at the first sign of trouble and drift onto the hard shoulder.

Limped into Keele services and parked up and got out walked round the back and found the rear door and screen covered in oil droplets ... Uh Oh [:@]... as i walked round to the front down the drivers side a rapidly spreading pool of oil emerged from under the drivers side wheel (passenger side to you good folks in the states and elsewhere, remember the steering, direction turny thingy is on the RHS of vehicles here in the UK ) opended the bonnet (hood) there were a few whisps of smoke from the exhaust but that was spray. Had a look under her and there was a HUGE streak of oil eminating from the wishbone all the way back to the rear of the vehicle together with the pool under the cam belt side of the engine. Not knowing these motors I called the recovery services to see if they could diagnose it and fix. RAC chap turned up within 15 mins (thank you ) jacked her up and had a dammed good poke around, turbo pipes appeared to be fine as did the oil cooler pipes, sump (oil pan)was clear, the leak apeared to originate under the cam belt cover, cambelt itself was dry as a bone which would potentially eliminate the camshaft seals. Between us we took the descision there and then that this was terminaland arranged tohave the vehicle and myselfrecovered back home - got in at 4:30am the next morning [:'(]. Thank the lord for breakdown cover .

Whist arranging a hire vehicle to retry the journey ( I was on my way to an installation) I phoned our local dealer (who's principal is a mate of mine), who put me on to his senoir technician who said that they had seen plenty of "O" rings let go on both the turbo and oil cooler pipes but NEVER anything that sounded like this. His thoughts were that it was either the crankshaft seal or that there was a small "piston" oil cooler under the cam belt cover in that area as well. A crankshft seal (or any other rotational seal) would not account for the catostrophic rate of failure (rotational seals tend to go gradually unless the fail as the result of an "explosive" failure in the engine (i.e. the crank of a rod exits stage left via an un-approved route and the seals join in forthe ride)so my inkling is that it has to be agasket or"o" ringunder high pressure, could also be a stress fracture in a metal line as well. Bear in mind that this vehicle whist it only has 102K miles on it spent the first 80k of it's life in "uniform" as an ARV (armed response vehicle - remember the police here in the UK do not carry firearms as standard, specialist teams are the only ones that are authorised to hence the nature of the vehicle) so whilst it has been serviced to within an inch of it's life it has been driven very hard and very fast at times in its life.

I haven't jacked it up to have a look myself yet (just got back yesterday and have been tied up with office stuff since) but I will later today or tomorrow, as whist the local dealer is a mate of mine we have an agreement that my vehicles will never darken his door given the (standard) dealer prices he charges but I get totally impartial tech advice from his guys and discounted partsin return for keeping his AV systems sweet at a suitably reciprocal rate.

The question ladies and germs of this forum is have you ever seen or heard ofthis sort of catostrophicfailure before occuring on these engines, I am just not familiar with the intracacies of these beasts yet (why do I get the feeling than me and the cam belt end of this engine are going to become intimately aquainted ) and the volvo tech said that the engines were basically bulletproof and that they just don't let go of oil seals like this. It could still turn out to be turbo/oil cooler pipes but I have to be prepared for all eventualities. Are these engines the same as the older models, are they an evoloution or totally different? What the best approach to cam belt cover removal (apart from the jack it, up remove wheel and wheel arch liner) and are there any nasties lurking in there. What other nuggets do I need to know.


Thanks in advance

 

You engine should be the same as the U.S. engines.
I have seen alot of the seals blow out like that. Which is usually due to lack of servicing on the car.

If you look at the top of the motor. There is the little cover that covers the belt. It has 2 torxes 30 screws. Remove them and the cover. Then remove the steering bottle from the coolant bottle and set it on the top of the engine. Then remove the bleeder hose going to the coolant bottle and find a vaccum cap or something to plug the nipple. Then unplug the sensor for the coolant level.Usuall on the 2001 cars it is on the side of the strut tower behind the bottle. Slide the bottle up and set on the top of the motor.
Then the front timing cover is held on by either a 10MM or a 12MM (Volvo couldn't decide what size they wanted to use and kept switching)

Then you will have access to looking at the belt and seals.

 

Thanks for that Matey,

I'll get stuck in at it this afternoon (when the rain stops!)

Cheers

 

OK,

Right, pulled the belt cover off and stuck my head in for a wee peek, can only spot this (arrowed) wee dribble... there seems to be a heck of a lot more oil come out from behind thisguard thingy over the driveshaft.... clues.. suggestions for further investigations... hayulp



10mm bolt on this one by the way, managed to get in without having to shift the Power Steering resevoir or the expansion tank, just lifted them enough to get my hand in (I have small hands that can reach into all sorts of nooks and crannies, the wife loves it.. )

 

With out seeing more I would have to say a Cam seal went out.
Look on the back of the exhaust cam pulley and see if it is all wet.

 

Nope dry as a bone... the leak originates lower downand seem to be from JUST behind the area covered by the cam belt cover on the rear of the block,not in the area of the cam belt at all.It seems to originate just above where the driveshaft (RHS) exits the gearbox but on the block... (as it's deffo engine oil)if you see what I mean. What is in that area on the RHS (passenger side in the USA) of the rear of the block that could let go? Could this be a turbo or oil cooler feed pipe or "o" ring failure after all? (I didn't diaganose the fault after all - trusted the judgement of the rescue service technician who dug around in there and had said it WASN'T a pipe.

I'll get the wheel off and get under it tomorrow evening and have a look see

 

Good luck my friend! I'm interested to see what this is.

 

Does it leak at idle?
If not but only when driving I would say maybe turbo return line o-ring.

 

Right,

Wheel off, can't see anthing obvious apart from the fact that EVERYTHING is covered in oil..... I've taken a series of pictures of the offending area any idea of the culprit?

Yes at idle there appears to be NO oil leak... I'm terrified to rev it as there is no oil in it at the mo 1/4" on the end of the dipstick, I might fill her up with something cheap and nasty just to check and see what happens.





There seems to be a pipe with a missing connection on it in this picture... not knowing WHAT it should look like under here I hand it over to you wise chaps

 

The pipe you think is missing something is supposed to be like that. That is to drain the coolant out of the block.

The turbo return line is in the second pic. It is the bigger pipe that is rusty with it being dry towards the top and wet on the bottom.

But it kind of looks like it is leaking more towards the front of the engine.

 

Hey Muttley. Did you ever figure this out?

 

can't post a detailed reply... very frustrating

 

Been away on business then got tied up with SWMBO's Landy that decided to have a hissy fit and spring a leak in the rad and chuck a UJ in the front propshaft so have been spending more time under that recently, OH the joys of motoring .


Right chucked some really cheap and nasty oil in to the T5 (Tesco "value" oil £1.80/ltr - oil leaks for the diagnosis of ) working on the principle that it is all going to come peeing out again so there is no point in giving it Mobils best!

Fired it up an spotted a steady drip from a bolt attached to a "P" clip holding a pipe. This pipe is power steering. Further investigations show that the oil actually originates at a banjo on another pipe directly above it... ah ha says I found it this must be the fabled "Turbo oil return", taken a pikkie and labeled it appropriately below (all pictures taken form underside, back of block.



You can just see the banjo complete with drip - this accounts for the oil appearing to emerge from the back of the cam belt cover the next picture makes this clearer



And heres one showing the oil cooler on the back of the sump

 

This will continue when I can get it to post more (thus the edit!) a little chunk of text at a time and you can post

 

 

One line at a time then!

 

Just for good measure I had a look at the blower and UhOh looks like this is where the actual leak originates from, I

 

assume that it is tracking down the oil feed pipe (I'm guessing that's what the banjo pipe is) but there seems to be a

 

heck of a lot more oil on the cambelt side than in the turbo area to account for this so an I looking at two oil leaks here? anyway here is the pikkie (the one above)

 

Now i would say that the gasket on the oil return has gone blowing an oil mist out onto the feed pipe an it is this that has tracked down the pipe to where it emerges in volume at the cam belt side of the block.