Little bit of smoke coming out of dipstick, and oilfill?

Crankin · Post by **Crankin** » 17 Mar 2007, 21:52

Hi guys I am new to this forum and am in the market for an 850. I talked to my mechanic and he told me to take out the dipstick while the motor is running and warm, and look to see if there is smoke coming out of it. He also said that I should take the oil filler cap off of the engine before I start the car and look for steam or smoke to come out.

HE said that if I see smoke, then that means there is a backed up PCV system and in the near future it will put extra pressure on the seals mainly the rear main seal and the cam seals. He said alot of the time when the rear main seal is gone it is because of the pcv system being backed up and that is why the seal went.

I have looked at probabley 5 cars now ranging from 140 km to 260km and everyone of them have smoked to some degree. One car salesman said he has looked at a whole bunch of Volvos and has always seen smoke he didn't think he ever saw one not smoke?

Am I wasting my time looking at these problem areas or is this true for the 850 motor?

Thankyou in advance

crankin

larryh · Post by **larryh** » 17 Mar 2007, 22:10

i own two volvos, a 94 850 and a 2000 V70R. the 850 (with 250,000 miles)has some dipstick smoke and the R (100,000mi) does not, so i think the car salesman might be pulling your leg.
if the car was good in every other way, i don't think that smoke would be a deal breaker for me....

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 18 Mar 2007, 06:51

Your mechanic is absolutely right....and the smoking will occur because Volvo's service interval doesn't mention replacing the PCV system. I agree with the other poster to not let this keep you from buying an otherwise decent car. www.fcpgroton.com sells the PCV replacement kits (oil separator and all related hoses) for all of our cars (you'll also need an intake manifold gasket on top of the kit). Since your mechanic is so knowledgeable, talk to him and buy the car of your choice and a PCV kit and pay him to have the PCV system's nipples cleaned and hoses w/oil separator replaced.
Good luck!

Crankin · Post by **Crankin** » 18 Mar 2007, 09:05

Thanks for the reply guys, my mechanic had mentioned that it was an expensive job about $700 CDN. Does that sound reasonable? To me it sounds like he doesn't want to do it! Is it a dificult job? I am not affraid to tackle messy jobs by myself. A person that has a little more than basic automotive tools is it worth trying to tackle myself?

Thanks

Crankin

dripcandles · Post by **dripcandles** » 19 Mar 2007, 19:21

$700 is about what the Volvo dealer charges, and if your going to pay that much I would certainly let the dealer do it because if they screw it up you have a lot more recourse than with an independent. I just did the job myself and it was about 9-10 hours of not so fun work, but this job has a big learning curve. I took a few pictures which I will eventually post, but I know that if I post them on one of the threads from way back about how to do it yourself, where they will do the most good, some people will get angry that I "bumped" an old thread. My independent mechanic does the whole job in 2 1/2 hours. Oh, and the parts are about $120 US from fcpgroton. Good luck.

Post by **srnkanator** » 19 Mar 2007, 19:30

Never get mad at old thread . . . just want to learn . . .

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 19 Mar 2007, 20:07

dripcandles, post it here with pictures and I'll make it a sticky over in the repair database as well...Certainly, I should have taken pictures when I did mine...it took about 5 hours...a lot longer than I had figured, but now that I've done it once, I'd say I could probably do it in about 3 hours. It's not difficult really, just takes patience getting the intake manifold off and back on and dealing with the fuel injectors. Wish I had new fuel injector 0-rings to replace the old ones when I did mine.

Post by **luketrash** » 20 Mar 2007, 07:33

My volvo blows steam out the dipstick hole and I replaced the PCV system in its entirety. I also made sure to clean the hole in the block to the oil trap as if it was new.

steam blows out the flame trap and dipstick tube at the same time.

Every 850 I've looked at since I bought mine does it too.

So.... In my case I'm doing the Auto RX thing, hoping that it's a stuck ring that will get knocked loose and reduce the crankcase pressure. However, after the first 1500 miles of A-RX I'm still smoking out the dipstick.

I think the test I saw was to stick a little water baloon over the dipstick hole. If it inflates, you have enough pressure to possibly blow your rear main seal. Otherwise, I think we can probably chalk it up to engine tolerances and the car having blowby past the rings.

My car only has about 115k miles on it, for what it's worth. But I just bought it in October, 2006, so I have no idea how it was treated in earlier life.

Now that it's warmer, I wouldn't trade it for another car. It runs smooth and I'm not leaking oil out of my rear main seal.

oldredwheels · Post by **oldredwheels** » 20 Mar 2007, 07:53

Guys,

Maybe I have the same thing as Luketrash after the PCV system replacement, wear and ring issues. The engine is running smooth and is getting good mileage. I see slight smoke at idle from the dipstick but, touch the throttle cable and build a slight increase in vacuum and the smoke immediate sucks in. No smoke on the oil filler cap, just the usual splash of oil.

(May have a clean but stuck open EGR valve which might be helping to pressurize the inlet manifold a bit at idle, will let you know once I get a weekend to redo.)

No water on the dipstick, condensation and a bit of oil at the PCV connection to the throttle inlet.

Any other oil additives worth trying other than Auto-Rx for seals and such? Getting a very occasion oil drip in the main seal area after long hot runs.

thanks,

oldredwheels

'94 855 non turbo stock 153K

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 20 Mar 2007, 18:39

If you have the slight drip, do the ARX now! It has helped these small leaks to clear up completely....of course, everyone's experience is a bit different.