Oil leak - £700 repair

[Miyo360]

Hi,

My car is in for a service today, which includes replacing the belts. I got a call to say the mechanic has the belts off and noticed an oil leak on/near/around where the belts are.

I was told (I'm not mechanically-minded, so please excuse mistakes...) leak was coming from/near cam shaft, need to remove injectors, lift off cover, replace end seals on cam shaft, new washers...

I was told this wasn't urgent but as new belts are being fitted, perhaps its a good time to fix the leak to prevent it leaking on the new belts.

Anyway this was quoted as £700.

I have noticed high oil consumption in the 2 years of ownership. Typically needing 0.5Litres every 1500 miles, or 6 weeks. So this might explain that. I haven't noticed oil on the street outside where it is parked.

I remember ChrisFromFrance having oil issues so could this be a wider issue?

Thoughts?

[ChrisFromFrance]

Originally Posted by Miyo360

Hi,

My car is in for a service today, which includes replacing the belts. I got a call to say the mechanic has the belts off and noticed an oil leak on/near/around where the belts are.

I was told (I'm not mechanically-minded, so please excuse mistakes...) leak was coming from/near cam shaft, need to remove injectors, lift off cover, replace end seals on cam shaft, new washers...

I was told this wasn't urgent but as new belts are being fitted, perhaps its a good time to fix the leak to prevent it leaking on the new belts.

Anyway this was quoted as £700.

I have noticed high oil consumption in the 2 years of ownership. Typically needing 0.5Litres every 1500 miles, or 6 weeks. So this might explain that. I haven't noticed oil on the street outside where it is parked.

I remember ChrisFromFrance having oil issues so could this be a wider issue?

Thoughts?

Hi,

My first engine with oil consumption problem didn't suffer about external oil leaks. It was very clean.
The new engine had an oil leak. A lip seal was changed with no charge.


Oil consumption 0.5 liters / 6 weeks / 2 years => 104/6*0.5=> 8.66 liters
you should have oil in your garage! Or like mine oil is burned.

Did you have the last soft installed by Volvo Dealer ? The soft reports intake valve leaks.

[Zebster]

I was quoted £800 at the last service for replacement of the 'rocker cover' (cam cover) gasket and a camshaft end cap due to oil leakage. I did ask but there was no Volvo goodwill on offer for this issue. The dealer said it wasn't too bad so I declined to have the work done. I've seen this issue reported on this forum quite a few times.

While mine does consume oil betwen services (I get the 'add 0.5L engine oil' message maybe every 2 or 3k miles or so) this is clearly not due to the reported leak at the rear of the engine, as I see no drips whatsoever on the driveway.

[Dash300]

Only ever had to add 50cl of oil once in 109k. Worked hard towing my cars to shows. Shows now stopped so hoping reduced load and mileage will not cause issues! Nevertheless still doing far better than the BMW 5 Series with same usage and mileage.

[darko1429]

Mine is using same around 1 litre for 2k miles not sure what the issue is, however heard people talking about FORTE additives that seem to stop this just wondering if anoyne had any experiance with these? Few videos on YouTube where people swear by these?

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by Miyo360

Hi,

My car is in for a service today, which includes replacing the belts. I got a call to say the mechanic has the belts off and noticed an oil leak on/near/around where the belts are.

I was told (I'm not mechanically-minded, so please excuse mistakes...) leak was coming from/near cam shaft, need to remove injectors, lift off cover, replace end seals on cam shaft, new washers...

I was told this wasn't urgent but as new belts are being fitted, perhaps its a good time to fix the leak to prevent it leaking on the new belts.

Anyway this was quoted as £700.

I have noticed high oil consumption in the 2 years of ownership. Typically needing 0.5Litres every 1500 miles, or 6 weeks. So this might explain that. I haven't noticed oil on the street outside where it is parked.

I remember ChrisFromFrance having oil issues so could this be a wider issue?

Thoughts?

Is it the rocker cover that's leaking though, or the crankshaft oil seal? The rocker cover is at the top of the engine, but it'd have to be a fairly bad leak to make it down to the belt area.

I suspect the crankshaft oil seal is leaking, which is basically right next to the belts (Remove the driver's side wheel, take the wheel arch liner off & the crank pulley is straight in front of you). If there's oil in this area, its highly likely to be the crankshaft oil seal & not the rocker cover.

Just a suggestion, as the garage could be trying to get themselves £700 for an oil leak due to a suspected rocker cover gasket, but it might actually be the crankshaft oil seal.

The oil seal for the crankshaft isn't expensive, its the labour that inflates the price. It won't cost you £700 to replace though.