V50 General : Where to start

[TallPaul1975]

We bought our 2010 Volvo V50 1.6D a couple of years ago now, bought it as we have 3 children and always heard good things about Volvo been good reliable safe cars. Plus they are used for both by the Police and Ambulance service.

Anyway more or less since owning it we have been experiencing intermittent problems with Overheating, temp starts to creep up all the way to the red, warning light comes on dash saying pull over and stop and switch engine off.

However it usually only did this on the dual carriageway/motorway or high revs. Took it to the garage, and they recommended doing an head gasket check as well as replacing the thermostat. They used the dye test and said it was fine. Thermostat was replaced along with the temp sensor, new coolant.

However it still done it, It also started going into limp mode a lot more and a few times the whole car shut down whilst driving on the motorway, not even my hazard would work. Phoned Volvo tech dept and they said it sounds like the EGR as they are electronic often when they fail they can cause a shutdown of the cars system (or something similar to that, it was over a year ago now, so don't remember his exact words) Had the EGR replaced.

But still noticed there was always loads of pressure in the reservoir. So decided to buy a replacement reservoir cap. First bought one off ebay which was obviously a counterfeit as it caused my tank to explode and lost all the coolant. After complaining they sent me a replacement genuine volvo coolant tank and cap. Still Pressure in system, mechanic friend of mine said it could be the EGR cooler as if they go wrong they often give problems similar to blown head gasket. He suggested bypassing the cooler to check. I done this and all seemed ok, so I went and order a replacement EGR cooler. Fitted it myself as it was simple enough, also flushed the coolant systemthrough with a garden hose, disconnected the rad and flushed that through separately. Filled up with new coolant (again) and made sure I bled the system properly.

Hooray I thought car was ok for around 6 months, no further issues, even drove it all the way to poland and back with absolutely no issues, infact crusiing along it showed around 74mpg which makes it the cheapest car for going to Poland we have ever had.

But literally the day after we got back I had to go for an hospital appointment in Canterbury from Dover, and on the way back temp gauge started going back to its old tricks, creeping up till the warning light came on. Invested in a Volvo Vida Dice and connected it, it showed a few faults most were old codes that just needed clearing but was showing DPF was blocked and couldn't perform a Regeneration itself or forced regen.

I went out and pruchased some expensive spray cleaning that you spray directly into the DPF van the unplugged sensor with a long tube. I also added a bootle of DPF cleaner into my fuel tank. Took it for a few long run outs like it suggested and finally it seemed to intiate a regen itself. I connected the dice again and showed DPF was down to normal below 30% capacity.

But our car is still playing up, around town it is absolutely fine temperature sits bang on half way, however it we need to go up lets a steep hill with higher revs it does go into the warning. Also we lose lots of coolant but unable locate where from. I took it to another garage who are not main volvo dealers but they specialise in volvos and the guy who owns it used to work for volvo. He said it looked like the water pump as when I took it to him to look at there wwas no pressure in the coolant tank, but he said when revving it, it appeared as though the water pump wasn't pumping the water as it should. And quoted us £400.00 for replacement water pump and can belt. This is opposite what the Volvo dealers told us, as they said the water pumps on these particular models never need changing not even at 80 000 miles when they suggest cam belt is replaced.

I took it out just the other day and as soon as went up a long steep hill the temperature started going into the red, warning light came on, o I pulled over and checked the coolant. I videod it, the pump was surely working fine, water was jetting out of the return pipe, but there was a huge amount of pressure in the reservoir, so much so that the water level had rised significantly. I am wondering whether its the EGR cooler failed again after less than a year, or something else. If it as failed again so soon - Why? what could be causing them to keep failing?

Any help, advice or suggestions would be well and truly welcome as we just don't know what to do now.

[FunkyMelon]

It sounds like you've had a whole host of issues at the same time between the EGR valve and then the DPF but you mention loss of coolant and pressure in expansion cap - This is almost definitely the head gasket going.

First thing to do is get a proper head gasket test done (hydrocarbon test/sniff test). This will show if there are any exhaust particles in the coolant system, if there is, then it's head off time, skimmed, new gasket, put back on etc.

Don't spend anymore money on parts till this is done, then take it from there.

[TallPaul1975]

Originally Posted by FunkyMelon

It sounds like you've had a whole host of issues at the same time between the EGR valve and then the DPF but you mention loss of coolant and pressure in expansion cap - This is almost definitely the head gasket going.

First thing to do is get a proper head gasket test done (hydrocarbon test/sniff test). This will show if there are any exhaust particles in the coolant system, if there is, then it's head off time, skimmed, new gasket, put back on etc.

Don't spend anymore money on parts till this is done, then take it from there.

Yeah had a sniff test done and passed, also heard that head gaskets going on these cars is very unsual. Will have to have a cyclinder test done I think to diagnose if it is head gaskets.

[Bungo]

What DPF do you have, wet or dry.
Not 100% sure on your model but others are, wet (with fluid top up required) replaced at 70k , dry at 140K.
I think DPF most likely cause.

[TallPaul1975]

Originally Posted by Bungo

What DPF do you have, wet or dry.
Not 100% sure on your model but others are, wet (with fluid top up required) replaced at 70k , dry at 140K.
I think DPF most likely cause.

Didn't know there were two different kinds of DPF's wet and dry. Just thought a DPF was a DPF lol. Anyone I know when I connected the vida dice it came up that the Additive dosage was empty and needed refilling, so purchased the original additive kit and done it myself and then reset the parameters by the vida dice. But like I said only a couple of days ago I connected the vida dice to my car and it showed the DPF working perfectly fine.

I will find the pictures I took of screenshots of the dice and try to add them a bit later on.

[Welton]

Are you sure the radiator is clear internally and can support a good flow of coolant through it? this sounds just like a Nissan Primera we had at work years ago, bought second hand as a kinda pool car we found it would overheat under load.

Turned out the previous keeper had put some Stop-Leak type additive in and got rid of the car shortly after, the additive kind of 'set' inside the radiator I remember the lads were flushing it outside but it was only when they reversed the flushing direction that huge creamy-coloured lumps came out which were scale-like in consistency.

The car had been performing ok under light load but as soon as it was loaded up the temperature would rise quickly and pressurise the system (blew the heater matrix connections once, that made a right mess). The rad flushing exercise solve the issue!

[Bungo]

Originally Posted by TallPaul1975

Didn't know there were two different kinds of DPF's wet and dry. Just thought a DPF was a DPF lol. Anyone I know when I connected the vida dice it came up that the Additive dosage was empty and needed refilling, so purchased the original additive kit and done it myself and then reset the parameters by the vida dice. But like I said only a couple of days ago I connected the vida dice to my car and it showed the DPF working perfectly fine.

I will find the pictures I took of screenshots of the dice and try to add them a bit later on.

Well you have the wet for sure then. It has a life of around 70K , don't know what mileage you have.
However, if Dice/vida says it's working fine ???

[TallPaul1975]

Originally Posted by Bungo

Well you have the wet for sure then. It has a life of around 70K , don't know what mileage you have.
However, if Dice/vida says it's working fine ???

around 83K Volvo also said they recommend replacing Cam belt around 90K miles.

Really unsure what it could be be, my gut instinct is a bad EGR cooler again, the replacement one which I fitted less than a year ago was only £43 from this place https://www.autodoc.co.uk/ arrived from Germany. But I wonder whether it could be a cheap nasty cooler which just failed prematurely or a faulty cooler from them.

And if it was nothing to do with the quality of the EGR coller than I need to find out why I've had two EGR coolers fail on me, saying that the first one looked like the original one from when the car was new 2010.

The reason I am leaning towards the EGR cooler at fault, and not a blown head gasket is purely down to the fact that it passed a sniff test last year, done by a garage. And we drove all the way to Poland and back around 1200 mile trip not long after I replaced the EGR cooler with No problems at all - now surely if it was a blown head gasket this kind of trip would surely put strain on the engine and show some tell tail signs. We did have DPF problems when I got back though, DPF was not doing the regeneration itself as the DPF was to full and the Eoyls fluid tank was empty.

There is also no oil in the coolant and no creamy like substance in the oil. The loss of coolant is not always, only seems to happen when we we are going at speed are accelerating up hills revs above 2000. Then the temperature gauge starts climbing all the way to the red, warning light comes on and loss of power. Pressure in the system, pump is definitely working.

I read somewhere that EGR valves only start to open and work over 2500 rpm. This is do with, so they don't opwn whilst you are driving around town, stopped at lights etc. Once you raise the revs and acceleration the ECM triggers the EGR to open and do it's job. So my theory is if it is the cooler faulty and leaking, the fact that it only happens when we are hard acclerating over 2000 rpm. This would be opening the EGR valve allowing the hot gases to pass through the cooler before re-entering the engine. The hot gases could be forcing coolant into the emmissions. Tried looking for steam out of the exhaust but it's a bit difficult when your driving along lol

[TallPaul1975]

Any help or advice guys would be very welcome

[iainmd]

I'd give up on cleaning your DPF and replace it with a new one. It's supposed to be replaced at 75k miles and it gets to the point eventually where it can't properly clean itself as mine did and replacement is required.

If you replace the DPF and top up the EOLYS fluid tank your emissions system should be good for another 75k. Also check the 2 pressure pipes from the DPF to the pressure sensor mounted beside the battery and make sure that there are no splits in the hoses. They are renowned for wearing through.