Split liner / head gasket symptoms

[ASt85]

Whilst what you describe has many of the hallmarks of a failing cam or crankshaft sensor, once you have ruled out the plugs, the most likely cause is a dodgy ignition coil which become more apparent as the temperature rises and resistance, dry joints, poor connections etc increase.

If it doesn't want to change up the gears it is very unlikely to have anything to do with engine mounts - vibrations tend to be would be worse/more apparent at low revs and tend to even out as the revs rise i.e. it would be less apparent at higher revs and wouldn't alter how an auto box changed up or down since that is dictated by the revs and the accelerator position.

[craigoodwood]

Thanks ASt85, just to reiterate I no longer believe its a misfire, initially the vibration felt like 2 out of the 5 weren't firing but now I'm almost certain I've damaged the input shaft, synchro mesh or the clutch assembly.....
I still have full power and boost and when I drive it gently I can get it into gear reasonably, when I do boost it it won't slide into gear until the revs have dropped

[Lmason]

when engine running, try pressing clutch see if that makes a difference to the noise

[MetB4]

Warped head would be my guess.

[craigoodwood]

Bit of an update as it may help someone in the future, I found this week that the engine mount under the cambelt was dead, managed to get it off drill some holes in it and bolt it solid while I await delivery of the new one, the difference is unbelievable to be honest

[rich_f]

My car has exactly the same symptoms as yours - very shakey idle, will not go into gears when revs are high. You say bolting the mount solid made an unbelievable difference - does that mean it fixed the shakiness and the gears not going in?

[craigoodwood]

😄 To be honest I just mean it's a whole lot better to drive than it was, it can handle revving upto the red line without the vibration but whatever is affecting the gearbox is still an issue

[andrewc1267]

Originally Posted by DaveNP

Are your engine mounts OK? not had it myself but a number of people have had odd vibration symptoms due to them.

I have a v70 and the lower engine mount below the timing belt end had failed and the vibration was massive

[craigoodwood]

So after a mammoth weekends work I can lay this to rest, last week I had a horrific oil leak which I believed to be the rear main oil seal so I set about doing the deed.
I had got myself another gearbox ready but by the time mine was out next and next to it it was soon apparent that not all m56's are the same 🤦*♂️ so I split mine and checked all the gear teef, synchros and bearings and all was normal, checked over clutch and it appeared basically unused considering it had been in for about 8 years so I went to get it back on the flywheel and noticed one of the springs on the pressure plate had snapped which in turn had put the pressure plate about 3mm off centre, Boom, there is the vibration and the reason it struggled with going into gears as it would of only been giving 2 thirds of its force....
So yeah I'm chuffed, struggled to get the clutch bled properly and lost the heater temporarily but it drives like brand new again 😁😊

[rich_f]

I'm convinced this is the same problem my car has, so I'm tempted to replace the same part as you.

So was it just a new clutch kit? PFS has the genuine volvo clutch kit cheaper than the Sachs one. Which is the better one to go for? It does mention that the Sachs one comes with release bearing, whereas it doesn't specify on the genuine one, so it may not be included.