V70 T5 No Oil Pressure problem
 

Hello all,

I'm posting regarding a no oil pressure warning message with red oil light.
The car has made a slight whirring whining noise on the last couple of starts that sound almost like a gear or wheel bearing noise. Not very loud and it goes away warm. It has also just started giving a couple of little hesitation bounces in rpm for the first second at startup but could unrelated. Yesterday after driving for about 5 minutes it threw the no oil pressure message with the red oil light on so I stopped immediately.

It was close to home so started again and got home without the oil light coming on.

Started it again today and the whirrey whiney noise is present initially but no light until it starts to warm up. The noise goes away but within about two minutes the no pressure message comes on.

Have spent the day reading through posts and figure that the best thing to do is change all the seals in the sump and hope that the whirring is not coming from a knackered oil pump or worse...

Should I also attempt the oil trap job? Looks a bit of a mare taking off the intake manifold but maybe best if the whole system has gotten clogged. I notice that there are slight bubbles on the dipstick oil after running for a couple of minutes but to be honest I don't like to run the engine and see if it gets proper frothy with a no oil pressure message. On the filler cap there is now some emulsion gunk which was not there when I last checked a few months ago. There is also what looks like a little bit of condensation on the dipstick when it's cold in the morning.

There is plenty of oil sloshing around on the lobe of the cam visible under the filler cap but oddly there seems to be some carbon marking on the quiet side of the cam. Seems odd that the cam is not clean the whole way around???

Spent all day searching the other posts on here and most seem to say that their engine sounds fine when this problem occurs. Mine doesn't sound normal which is a bit of a worry but at least it's had almost no running time in this condition.

Any advice on part numbers for the seals for my specific engine would be much appreciated. Are the aftermarket seals better than the volvo ones? Seems like a weak point of volvo and perhaps aftermarket are actually better quality? Thoughts on doing the oil trap as well? Any links anyone has to a description of how to do both jobs on a T5 would be massively appreciated.

My car is a 2000my (W reg) V70 mkII T5 (2.3) engine B5234T3 Auto.
Many thanks for any advice.
Cheers

How many miles are on your car?
Can you speak to overall maintenance?

Have you owned the car since new? If purchased used, can you speak to the previous owner's maintenance?

Determining if the oil pump is working by using a real gauge might be the smartest thing to do first.

Is the power steering fluid level correct? This goes to the whirring noise.

FCPeuroparts.com (a US company which sells parts) has a line of videos. There's one for replacement of the PCV system (which you've called the "oil trap").

Get a latex glove (to be stretched over the oil filler neck) or a balloon (to be secured onto the dipstick tube). Start the engine and see if it inflates. Inflation indicates the system is clogged.

Many thanks for the reply Georgeandkira,

Mileage is 175,000.

Maintenance history for the last three years is a bit sketchy. There are some receipts for "service" but not much in the way of detail. I'm planning to get the timing belt done when the weather improves but not for another 3 months or so. Previous owner owned it for about 8 months, supposedly he bought from a friend of his just to use for the summer but he lied to me about a couple of other things so I think he might have been covering up something.

I bought it about a year ago and have done 2500 miles in it. It doesn't often go far and is mostly just used for very short local trips. Perhaps that might be the cause of the condensation in the oil?

I checked the filler cap for inflation and it doesn't inflate at idle. Raising the rpm gives a very slight suction on the glove over the filler cap. Not obviously blowing or smoking out of the dipstick.

I've spent the day getting it up onto stands and putting a tin of engine flush into it which I ran for half an hour as per instructions. I then replaced the oil and the filter with 5w40 fully synthetic.

Whirring noise seems to have all but gone away now. It's still hot though as I write so I'll see what a cold start does later on. There was a little bit of knocking though if I gently raised the rpm above idle for about the first minute or so but no oil pressure warning light. The knocking seems to have gone away thank goodness. Was a bit worried the previous might have put some additive in to quieten down a knocking problem but it seems to have settled down now.

I got it down off the stands and took it for a short test drive. It seems fine at idle but with just a couple of minutes driving and a right hand turn (reported in other posts) the no oil pressure warning comes on with the red oil light again.

I wonder if the oil is all ending up at the top under demand and failing to drain back down into the sump quickly enough due to some blocked lines?

If started and left at idle it sems perfectly happy and sounds quite okay now.

Getting ahold of a pressure test gauge here in UK seems to be expensive. I've asked about and no one I know has one and paying a garage to do one will probably end up being costly and require booking in etc. Opening the cap I can see plenty of oil sloshing around up the top at idle so it's clearly being pumped.

Got some O-rings on order to do the sump job. Looks a bit fiddly getting it off but hopefully I'll find some blocked lines and a blocked screen inside the pickup.

Any advice on the procedure or links to a writeup about how to get the sump off a B5234t3 engine would be great. I'm hoping for this engine it doesn't require subframe off or anything equally hideous. I don't have a workshop manual for the car and not sure where to get one.

If the sump job doesn't sort it out I guess I'll have to have a go at the pcv under the inlet manifold. That job looks a bit involved and a right pain but maybe it's actually easier than it looks once all the plastic covers are out of the way. Do the hydraulics need to be disconnected as well as the fuel and inlet manifold? Serious pain if so.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Cheers

kindly take this as a suggestion. :), if you are definitely going to remove the sump and check the oil pickup. ok great if you find it clogged, but please take a main bearing cap off and check a bearing shell at same time, just so you can assess if any damage done when it lost pressure.

Thanks stegreg.

That sounds like a good idea and probably pretty quick and simple.

Is there a particular main bearing that tends to go first? I'm imagining that it'll be pretty easy to take a single shell off but will need to know the correct torque setting to do it back up!! Looks like I'm gonna need a workshop manual or a good blog with details. Is there any printed material on this sort of thing that's cheaply available?

Can anyone point me to the correct sump removal procedure for the B5234T3 engine on a p2 V70 T5 2000my car? I see lots of writeups and people saying they need to jack the engine a good 2 or 3 inches but these are all on other models. Some have reported no need but I don't know for my model.

If I need to lift the engine I will have to go about things in an entirely different way than putting up on ramps. Will have to be axel stands so I can get a wheel off to work the mount. Much less clearance underneath and I don't like the look of the stands on the subframe. I'm limited on jacks and stands etc and just trying to figure it all out before I drain the oil and hit the point of no turning back!!

Thanks

I haven't actually done this but I did look into the process on VIDA a few weeks ago for my wife's 2001 V70 T5. Thought we had a leak from the sump seal but it was actually Turbo Return seal.

Anyway, there is no need to do anything with moving the engine. Just take out the dipstick and tube, then remove the screws.

VIDA recommends to remove all screws except 4 corners which should be loosened enough to allow the sump to move. After the seal is broken, the last 4 screws are removed and the sump can drop down.

I'll try and extract full process later and post it on here as there is a sequence to refitting the screws at different torque settings.

Awesome. Thanks so much b1mcp.

I'm still waiting for the Haynes manual to arrive in the post and just been reading others' experiences.

A description of what to do from VIDA would be superb.

Mine is a W reg (2000) V70 T5 which is the 2.3 B5234T3 engine in a P2 car.

Confusing how many variants there are and it would seem from reading other posts that the P80 cars have issues with the sump clearance and also the p2 V70XC's. Maybe there are differences between European and US market as well. Many of the writeups seem to be for S80's rather than V70's so there could easily be a lot of difficulties that don't apply to mine. Fingers crossed. Car now on stands with oil draining overnight. Hoping for a dry day and get this done before dark.

OK, here's the VIDA process for the Sump. Good luck with it (especially the Dry Day bit!)

You are a total legend!!! Thank you so much. Will take a couple of photos on the way and let everyone know how it went. The dry day looks a bit shaky and the wind and cold is going to be a bit of an issue but got to crack on. lol. If I can get it off tomorrow and retreat inside I'll give it a good clean up and replace all the o rings and prep for a dry window. Got the proper volvo sealant and don't want that ruined in the wind or rain. Hopefully will have drained down nicely overnight and not too many drips. Thanks again