Engine 850: B5234T/2.3/20v/T5: V70 T5 oil leak

[taiwan740]

Best of evenings to you on this fine locked-down day,

My latest edition to Club £400 is a 1998 Volvo V70 T5 Automagic.

It has quite a bad oil leak. The whole of the underneath is wet, as is some splattering on the rear bootlid. Spectacular!

I took a look-sie with my peepers and its spraying all up the back of the block, but no seepage from the front crankshaft or any of the camshaft seals. I thought rear main seal initially, but from the angle and the spread on the oil ejection, my hippopethisuses is that a very fine spray of oil is coming from some kind of turbo seal, or perhaps a hole in a pressuried oil line coming to/from turbo.

When idling, there doesn't seem to be noticeable leakage, so I'm guessing it is a small leak that gets worse with oil pressure.

Is this hypothesis remotely possible? And if so, do these symptoms therefore eliminate a rear main seal issue, or am I just an idiot?

Of course, as this is the internet, I'm not going to provide any pictures. That would be too helpful (car is out of reach)

[Luxobarge]

Oil feed to the turbo is a favourite, it's an O ring. I'm sure you know this, but you're going to need to break out the Gunk or paraffin etc. and clean it all down, then get under there with it running and see where it's coming from.

Another suggestion is camshaft seal - this went on mine, and it's amazing where the oil managed to get to. A bit easier to work out that one though, and an easy enough fix.

[turboboy]

As Luxobarge says there is an "O" ring which can cause leaks, but also at the other end of the pipe is a gasket which you should change at the same time.

You have to take the pipe off anyway to change the "O" ring so it is sensible to do both. I believe the gasket is on the upper end of the oil return pipe where it is attached to the turbo under a bolted flange, held by two screws with internal splines but cannot remember the size.

I bought both the "O" ring and gasket intending to do the job myself but in the end got a local garage to do the job.

[volvo again]

May also be worth checking the pcv system...

[taiwan740]

Turboboy - how much did it cost you for the local garage to change that stuff? And how much were parts, and where did you source them from?

[turboboy]

Originally Posted by taiwan740

Turboboy - how much did it cost you for the local garage to change that stuff? And how much were parts, and where did you source them from?

Now I know I am getting old when something seems fairly recent but turns out to be seven years ago. I'm turning into my Dad!

Took the car to my local Volvo dealer because a) they are within walking distance and b) there was another job that needed diagnostics and I only had a cheap hand-held OBD11 at the time.

Parts were:
31251439 Sealing Ring (Turbo Pipe)
31251456 Gasket Turbo Oil Pipe

Parts cost back then was £3.20 so maybe £6.40 in today's costs.

No labour time listed on the invoice (just a total) but I'm guessing that they charged me an hour.

If you are planning on doing the job yourself and do not have a local Volvo dealer to get the parts from then I would recommend either phone (or probably emailing) FRF Swansea who I cannot recommend highly enough, or alternatively Parts for Volvos Online).

HTH

[SteveSarre]

I think that when I did one of these, one of the small bolts that holds one of the joints together was difficult to get at. Maybe it was Hex or Torx.

Anyway I did what I could and asked the local indy to do it properly when they next had it in.

It is not complicated but awkward when lying on your back.

Might be worth buying spare bolts just in case they get rounded

Parts for my 98 T5 are
Gasket 1.00 3514546
Hex. socket screw 2.00 986871
Sealing ring 1.00 30637866


HTH
Steve

[taiwan740]

Hello

Thanks for the info!

I have taken the opportunity to take a look under the car and get a better idea of what is going on. So, i've bought the sealing ring and gasket as suggested, and can see the pipe which takes the gasket and ring, however that one is dry. The other pipe, which is the same width and goes off further to the right and connects to the block near the brake booster, that appears to be very wet near where that ring is, I assume.

The car does not leak oil if I don't hoof it like a yobbo, so i think this pipe must be the turbo oil feed (?) and under higher pressure its ****ing everywhere.

Is that likely? Is it a ballache to replace that one, and is it the same sealing ring? Should I just do the right thing and help out the indy mechanic and get him to sort it? Needs to go in anyway for bulging tyres.

cheers