Oil leak: VVT hub, cam seals, timing belt

nnamssorxela · Post by **nnamssorxela** » 05 Jan 2011, 08:32

Hello,

My mom's 2001 volvo v40 is leaking oil pretty bad. It started recently, and seemed to get worse over the course of a few days, but it could just be my imagination. I tracked it down to the top end, but there was just so much oil that was spinning off of the cam belt that pinpointing the leak without the knowledge of this engine and it's common faults was impossible for me.

We ended up limping it to a shop to get a professional opinion. Top end is pretty loud (I think it's been that way for a while), but the oil level seems fine (added a quart and the sound died down for a little which is normal), but it just doesn't seem like it is happy. Turbo has started squealing under full(?) boost recently as well, unsure of if the problems are related. It has about 180,000 miles.

The shop said that it needs 4 cam seals, a timing belt because the current one is covered in oil, and the $$vvt hub$$. It seems like a relatively simple job, and the shop wants ~$1000 to do it. If it's straightforward however, I don't mind giving it a shot, as I would hate to have 1k put into this dying car; tranny and turbo? on their way out. motor sounds rough already, and that 1000 could be spent towards a new car.

I found this as well, but I was unsure as to if the 4cyl was the same as the 5cyl: https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... =1&t=34278

Any help is appreciated. If there is a way to do it cheap and dirty, even disabling the vvt portion of the hub and sealing everything up, I would do that.

Thanks,
-Alex

nnamssorxela · Post by **nnamssorxela** » 06 Jan 2011, 07:04

For those of you riveted to this thread, I'll have you know that the work was done at the shop. I have not driven the car or spoken to the mechanic at all, but I heard second hand that the motor is running very strong. I just hope the improved condition of the motor doesn't speed up the inevitable demise of the transmission

. I will be switching back to full synthetic at the next oil change, and hopefully flushing the transmission fluid as well to see if it makes the valves, turbo, and transmission happier. I'm afraid to see what flushes out of the transmission

-Alex