…and what a mess it made, oil just everywhere (mind you that I spent about 1 hour in Indy cleaning the top of the engine block as good as I could with some paper towels I had with me; this was afterwards).
A regular engine oil change was due since it had been 5,000 miles when I changed the oil myself for the very first time. I was told by a number of places (dealership and Volvo shops) that special tools are required to do a oil change on a Volvo; yep they were all correct, it is called a filter wrench and can be purchased for a few dollars anywhere. Finding out this kind of information (mainly due to this website) made me doubt any mechanic/shop who was working on my car and started researching everything I could about my own Volvo. Well, I made the decision besides the new oil that I would have to take the entire ignition wire/coil system on top of the engine block apart and do a thorough cleaning and made a few very interesting discoveries which I will mention throughout this write-up (and will indicate by bold numbers (x)).
(1)In the past my Volvo shop always used Castrol 10W30 conventional oil, but have found out through lots of reading that a full synthetic oil is actually recommended for all turbo charged Volvo engines.
First of all to start the process I had to run to the local auto parts store and get my stuff…6 qts of Mobil Synthetic Oil ($40), an oil filter and seal($10), electrical tape ($1) and some swabs ($1.50). Additional tools required were a 12mm socket for the lower engine cover, 17mm socket for the oil plug, filter wrench, oil drain pan, T25 torx bit for the two screws along the turbo air delivery unit, T30 torx bit for the plastic engine covers , a 10mm socket for the screws holding down the coils and wire bundle.
First I placed the car on some ramps and made sure the vehicle was secured. Then crawl under the car and remove the lower engine cover with a 12mm socket. 6 bolts ought to be in place, mine only has 4.
Make sure you find the right plug; the one on the lower left of center is the transmission plug and one on the lower right is the engine oil plug.
After taking off the oil cap on top of the engine block, position your oil drain pan close by and start loosing the plug with a 17mm socket. Once you can unscrew the plug with your fingers, place the oil pan right under the opening with one hand and use your other to unwind the plug; yes it usually gets messy and getting dirty is part of working on your car.
The oil I drained out of my V70 was conventional Castrol 10W30 and I put exactly 5,000 miles on the vehicle since my last change. All miles were driven on the highway, as I call it easy driving. Well here is the next discovery (2), the oil was filthy dark in color, you can call is black and as we will find out later the filter also was just soaked in black gunk. I realize that synthetic oil is supposed to have a longer life expectancy, but I will definitely change the oil after 3,000 miles next time just to get a better idea where I stand with the condition of the synthetic fluid.
I decided to let it drain until nothing was coming out of it anymore, about 30 minutes or so.
After installing the plug and new o-ring make sure you do NOT over tighten it back into place, next was the oil filter and I will say that this step will always be the most challenging one; the filter housing can be extremely difficult to be removed and I therefore have a spare one in my tool box, just in case I bust this one, it is made out of plastic after all. There are different tools available for this task, but I have always relied on the old oil filter wrench. Make sure you have one with a neck where you can adjust the handle, otherwise the wrench will not fit. I realize that the image almost makes it look like as if I am trying to turn the filter housing clock wise, but this is not the case. I had to keep the wrench twisted and therefore gives the illusion I am turning it the wrong way, remember counter clock wise to open the housing up…otherwise this will make for a very long day.
After some not so nice words, the filter housing finally gave way and here I am enjoying another messy endeavor by lowering it down to the oil pan.
Now that is one messy oil filter…
This is what the opening on the bottom of the engine block looks like where the filter housing goes…
Interesting information from the official 2001 V70 2.4T manual…
I then proceeded on cleaning the housing and installing the new seal in it’s appropriate location around the housing threads. It is then very important to fill up the oil filter housing with your new oil (after installing the filter, of course) since upon engine start the first oil used is being taken out of the housing.
Then install the housing back into place by twisting with your hand and when finishing tightening just check it is in place firm enough by just putting a little pressure on the filter wrench. Not much turning will be expected since the threads have already twisted in as much as possible: DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN THE HOUSING.
Since I was almost done with everything under the car, I started concentrating getting my mess on top of the engine block cleaned up. After removing the two torx screws on the turbo air delivery line and then the two plastic engine block covers, the first step was labeling all the wires…
…then I removed the two 10mm screws which held the wires in place and moved them away from the engine block.
Next were the coils, each one is held in place once again by a 10mm screw.
The process was very tedious and it took forever, but I used dozens and dozens of swabs to clean the left side and still had so much more to go.
Every spark plug was checked and everything was cleaned up around them.
The last items were the coils, much oil accumulated around the units and I had to remove the boots in order to clean it all up.
When the cleaning process was done, I took the pleasure in putting the good stuff into the engine. Ahh, after soo many miles finally some fresh oil.
As I put the oil cap on correctly this time, I was under the impression that my day was winding down now, but I took the time to inspect the wires closely. (3) The protective plastic tubing have rotten away after 9 years and that left the wires exposed and uh oh, what do we have here…? NOT GOOD, damaged wires…
It took me another hour just inspect and wrap 4 individual wires independently with electrical tape and then the whole thing making sure I didn’t lose my labels.
Then placed the wires back into place and plugged everything back in where it belonged…that was at least the plan.
Before I put everything back together, I started the car and Big Blue came to life with a big sigh of relief: A clean engine and new fresh oil.
The plastic covers were screwed back into place, the same with the turbo air delivery line and the lower engine cover. After some sweat, some tears and yes blood was lost as well…..JOB DONE.
In conclusion, I have learned today that 5,000 miles of highway driving is way too long for conventional oil (keep in mind I just turned 140,000 miles); we shall see about the synthetic stuff (recommended for turbo Volvos), I WILL change in 3,000 miles and keep it synthetic. In addition, without the accidental twisting of the oil cap seal and the total mess it left behind, I never would have found the damaged wires, which after time could have possibly caused some electrical arcing.
Another exciting day of a DIY 2001 Volvo owner…
Jan