HELP! Small oil leak turned into massive dumping!

rob'93850GLT · Post by **rob'93850GLT** » 20 Jan 2006, 09:42

While driving I noticed smoke and smelled burning oil. Stopped to check it out and added some oil...ended up on the ground. Massive leak. Seems to be coming from the drivers side of the engine. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Don't know as much about Volvos as most.

White850Turbo · Post by **White850Turbo** » 20 Jan 2006, 13:29

Ummm, are you saying that as soon as you pour oil into the engine, it comes running back out? How is the car running otherwise? I certainly don't think this is your typical leaky seal. Busted oil pan, air conditioned block? Try and inspect a little more and see if you can determine where the leak is coming from. Pics would be of great help too.

rob'93850GLT · Post by **rob'93850GLT** » 20 Jan 2006, 16:35

Good question. When I pulled over and checked the oil there was residue built up on the dipstick. I cleaned it and checked the oil...there was not much in there. I added some and drove to the auto parts store by my home. When I came out I pulled forward to see how much oil had leaked...there was a large puddle. Next went home and put the car up on ramps to see if I could spot the leak. There was oil dripping from numeruos spots. The car is running fine so far as I can tell. The oil light does not even come on. Tomorrow I will try to do a more thorough inspection.(I live in downtown chicago and my garage is very small and dimly lit) I do most of the repairs I can in the alley. I read about the fire trap and the head gasket or o-rings...what are some of the symptoms of these problems.(most of it being your advice on this site)

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 20 Jan 2006, 18:46

Hope it's a simple matter of a messed up oil filter or loose oil pan nut, or even an oil return line from the oil cooler. Hope one of these is your issue, but things don't sound so good. Do you see any oil leaking if you look from the top of the engine or is it all from down below?

rob'93850GLT · Post by **rob'93850GLT** » 20 Jan 2006, 20:54

This is going to sound naive, the leak seems to be coming from the upper middle of the engine on the drivers side. The way it sprayed, it seemed to be coming from everywhere. There is not much more I can tell you at this point. When I get under there tomorrow and get a better look, hopefully I wil better be able to describe it to you. I was pretty freaked out the first time I looked. I cannot tell you how much this site has helped already. Whether I do the repair myself or take it in, I feel I will have a better understanding. I do have a guy here in chicago that does repair on only Volvos.

rob'93850GLT · Post by **rob'93850GLT** » 21 Jan 2006, 14:03

Near death.

rob'93850GLT · Post by **rob'93850GLT** » 24 Jan 2006, 11:51

Good news bad news. Good news the car starts. I removed the flame trap(totally clogged) The bad news is the pcv box blew and the cover is broken and dislodged. This was probably the problem all along. Bad news gets worse. As you know as a result of this being totally clogged I think once I replace the pcv it will still leak oil as the RMS is probably shot to hell. I figured all this out by spending hours on this site and VS.com. Cannot tell you how much I learned. Also think the problem was caused by using crappy oil filters put on by jiffy lube. Again I did not know.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 24 Jan 2006, 13:04

"...BTW there is a plastic tube that runs across the top of the engine, between the metal flap and where the oil goes in(excuse the ignorance) Anyway it has been dislodged. Very hard to get back in place. Not even going to try..."

I would try to get that hose back on there as part of your repairs if all other pressure bottlenecks have been relieved. Mixed opinions about runnin' w/o the FT, I 've had mine out for a while but the official recommendation is to replace it.