It is looking that way so far , you can take the cover off fairly easily and run it . Has it ever had a non volvo water pump as far as you know ?

I'll try and take of the cover off and run it as soon as I'm back from the weekend, I've only had the car about 6 or 7 years but I can check the paperwork or ask the previous owner Peter (as fellow forum member) if he knows if it's had a replacement.

It does sound like the pump is leaking, but that is no mileage at all for a Volvo pump. In 43 years of Volvo ownership I have never replaced a pump - 360GLT 270,000mls, V40 2.0lt 370,000mls, current V40 145,000mls. My son did have to change the pump on his V50 T5 at 140,000mls. Started leaking and stained the back of the block with a white powdery substance. New Volvo pump about £100, so not the end of the world. If it is the pump, ONLY replace with a genuine Volvo pump.

If you're a master of bodgery like I am and wish to try something to act as a stop gap temporary repair I have had success by thoroughly cleaning the area around the leak and applying rtv sealer or instant gasket around it, if you're like me, then sending it into a garage and the cost of it does necessitate some saving up at times, I have done this on 3 cars over the years and it has worked as a temporary measure.

Thanks folks, it is rather bizarre after reading what you are saying about never having needed to replace these pumps before!
Well I'm back from my weekend away and hopefully, i'll get a chance to take a look at it tomorrow.
Really dont want to bodge it so if it is a new pump thats required i'll buy genuine volvo and have to bite the bullet on the cost.
Had a rental 6 speed VW golf over the weekend and wow was it a nice drive, im now pondering if the writing is on the wall for the T4 :confused_smile:

I was able to get the car up on some ramps today to take a look from underneath and this is what I saw.
https://i.imgur.com/h80XI0lm.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/fasI0KOm.jpg

So it looks like the leaking has been coming down the pipe rather than out of the pump but I'll no know for sure until I can run the engine up again while on the ramps to provoke the leak (i was defeated by the rain today).

One thing I did notice was the jubilee clips on the oil cooler end of these pipes are rusted to hell so I've got some new ones to replace these after I've managed to hack them off.

I also took the bracket off that is also rusted pretty badly just to make sure it hadn't worn a hole in the rubber pipe etc and couldn't see any damage.
https://i.imgur.com/primp43m.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tp9z7pLm.jpg

I loosened the jubilee clip on the top end of one of the pipes to the oil cooler and the whole water system drained out so it's only losing a little bit of the water, not everything, just enough to empty to bottle or a bit more, so the leak has to be between the top of that pipe and the bottom of the bottle which does seem to be right around the water pump area).

I also noticed there is a drain plug in the system (item 11 on this diagram) anyone know how this is opened and closed? i.e. is it an overpressure blow off valve or just unscrew it to drain the system kind of thing?
https://i.imgur.com/uXNhro4m.png

This is the rest of the cooling system for reference:
https://i.imgur.com/6VutLIYm.png

So what I think I'll do next is take off the pipes to the oil cooler and just check them for holes or damage, then replace the jubilee clips and refill the system of water and run it up to see if I can tell where the leak is coming from

yes that is a drain tap . just open it with a 13mm spanner . There is no sign of coolant around the bottom of the pulley so not the water pump .

Whilst you are changing hose clips , have you seen the lower radiator hose clip on the left? these rust through and you loose all your coolant in about 3 seconds , the cloud of steam disappears and you think all is fine , there is no coolant in the engine to transmit the heat to the gauge sender until it soaks through the head , by that time the engine is wrecked , I have seen this twice wreck engines . So renew the lower radiator hose clip too unless there is no sign of rust at all , which is unlikely looking at those other clips .

Ok, thanks that sounds reassuring!
I'll check the bottom radiator hose clip too, thanks for the heads up on that one.
Will report back tomorrow when I've been able to get on with more, providing it doesn't rain all day again.
Cheers!

Bottom radiator hose clip is clean and looks relatively new, I removed the two rubber hoses to the oil cooler to visually check them and couldn't see any problems, So put them back on with new hose clips at the oil cooler end to replace the rusty ones I cut off.
I refilled the water until it wasn't taking any more and started up the car, I managed to record a video to show the leak is definitely coming from behind the plastic cover that's over the water pump and belts, I managed to remove the top half of the cover (that covers the cam pulleys) but I can't find how to remove the bottom half to see where this leak is emanating.

If it's at the point where it can't be coming from anywhere else but the pump im either going to have to find somewhere that will do the job for me or call it quits and sell the car as is.

I just don't have the tools or ability to do it myself.

Any idea how much it would cost in labor to do this?

As far as i can tell it will be about £100 for a new pump and another £80 is for the belt kit is that a fair guess?

Here's the video:

[YOUTUBE]https://youtu.be/6SmOrdS-3jM[/YOUTUBE]

As you can see here, it is a Volvo pump on the car, i'm wonder of the gasket has just failed or bolts have come loose.

https://i.imgur.com/TD7cZ0Nl.png

And here you can just about see the water glistening at the bottom of the cover.

https://i.imgur.com/OgXAAd6l.png

I've just done a quote search online with https://www.whocanfixmycar.com and got proces ranging from £320 to £400 for a belts and pump change, no doubt they will not be quoting for an OEM pump though.