Gearbox oil leak after the big BANG
 

My 2007 model xc90 auto has had a knock coming from around the no.5 cyclinder. Took it into local dealer back in April who had it for 3 days and came up with "EGR pipe blowing" they replaced that and said should fix the noise.. Well a different noise appeared and has steadily got worse.

It sounded like an injector so I replaced it, cleaned the EGR valve and Particulate gunk and still it was there...

Well today folks I found out what is was... A conrod appears to have left the piston and then done other damage. Unfortunately it was the missus driving to work in it this am, along the motorway... when it went.

Nice man from green flag brought it home but what it seems to have done it dump transmission fluid rather than engine oil...

Even though there is a fair amount of oil coming out there was loads of ATF, even on the road side (you could see it in the rain)

When it was taken off the transporter there was a moderate patch of engine oil but more ATF.

I crawled under the car and removed the cover and looked up. Where the engine meets the gearbox is where the oil seems to becoming from.

Any suggestions why the gearbox would dump its oil ? If the crank took a hammering in the failure, could it cause the seal in the gearbox to go ?

Reason for asking is it looks like a replacement engine (gulp) but the gearbox had new valves in it about 3 years ago and I'd rather keep this one if it would be ok (hard to tell without looking I guess).

Thanks
Webbo

Or something smashed into the box?

Just guessing but when the engine went it'll have given the gearbox a hell of a shock, particularly at high motorway speeds. Probably shock loaded all sorts of things in there and done some significant damage to it's internals and seals... I bet it hadn't got a clue what was happening and tried to find an appropriate gear...

The bleeding has stopped..
 

Hi Tired Geek

Yes, I guess it got a fair jolt. I looked on Vida and the errors were all gearbox but none of the engine... Selector errors and poor changes so I think there must have been a big off as far as the gearbox goes....

Found a replacement engine and gearbox, luckily same year and model as mine but with about 20k miles less. Also an ex volvo mechanic to fit it at a reasonable price. it is still over a £2500 job....

Looking at it again I am thankful that the whole thing didn't cease in gear and stop the car across the motorway...

Thanks for the comments

No warranty with the car?

Hi Paul

The car has just done 100k and is 7 years old. It has had a history of gearbox problems from volvo and the engine was re-built by them twice... But that was 3 years ago no so can't claim anything from them unfortunately.

I service and maintain the car myself after the warranty expired, probably better than they would, but all any one wants to hear is full main dealer service history...

Well a small update.. After taking 6 weeks to find an engine, the old one was removed today... Anyone ever heard of a crank shaft snapping ?? The pulley turns but the drive plate doesn't... oh and it cracked the block causing the drive plate to twist into the torque convertor... jury is still out on the gearbox... will the nightmare ever end....

Ye gods, this must have been a serious failure!

Yes. I've only seen it once on a 4 pot Perkins engine. The owner had run it low on oil about 6 months before and continued running it until the bottom end started to knock. Sump off and new set of shells and all seemed good. 6 months later with no reported warning it snapped !

The full story
 

Got the car back from a top bloke in Huddersfield.. If you want a mechanic who knows his stuff, is trustworthy and reasonable on price.. Johnson Caton.

It took over 6 weeks to find a d5 engine.. the donor car was same model and year as mine (very fortunate) and the engine had done 78k (30k less than mine).

After taking one look in the oil filter...Johnson advised me that i would need a replacement turbo and probably an intercooler.

When the engine was out and all the components swapped onto the donor engine, the turbo was indeed dead... the same metal filled oil had run around the bearings and the play was excessive.. The intercooler also had what looked like glitter in it so replaced that as well.

Put a new timing belt kit and aux kit on it too.

The worrying thing was that as the crank had cracked the block and pushed its way into the drive plate.. that had pushed the torque convertor against the gearbox housing, no dints but definite scoring on the housing... We didn't know if the gearbox would be ok

Anyway, fitted a new drive plate, the torque convertor and then the gearbox and I crossed my fingers...

Engine refitted and fired up.. The gearbox was a bit clunky and snatched gears... Well you can imagine what I was thinking... rhymes with 'Clucking Bell'

Johnson said he will replace the gearbox oil and thought it might just be an oil pressure problem in the torque convertor.

Whatever it was, it cured it ! I needed a couple of wishbone bushes to get it through its MOT and picked the car up yesterday..

It drives better and smoother than it did before.. the gear changes are hardly noticeable and the engine is much perkier. it was even showing 44.7 mpg on the motorway its not done that for a longtime(if ever)

I think one of the vacuum engine mounts is a bit dodgy as there is vibration upto about 2k rpm from the engine but the rest is fine.

One very relieved and happy volvo owner... but £3500 lighter....

so.. we opened up the old one...

The crank had snapped where the conrod connects to it. This caused the piston to travel further up the bore and smacked into a valve which had then snapped the lifter seat in the cylinder head and dislodged another lifter.

In other words... a piece of scrap metal... We didn't take the head off due to time but I imagine the piston and bore were in poor state too but they weren't seized.

No one I have spoken to has heard of this and Harratts volvo in Leeds couldn't distance themselves further from the issue. "we found a blowing egr pipe and replaced it" Even though it went in for an engine noise and the Master Tech said he could hear it... Not happy with them but nothing I can do...

So there you go... if you hear a knock.. take it to Johnson not Harratts, they mis-diagnosed mine and it cost me £3500...

Also.. Harratts have had 4 service managers since April.. is that odd ??

Mark