A cautionary tale!

Post by **scot850** » 21 Jul 2016, 17:36

So some of you regulars are aware I am 'reconditioning' a 97 850 NA to hopefully go to California for my niece as her first car.

Car came with some history but was difficult to view due to where is was parked so I didn't notice the oil leaks at the front and side of the engine.

The history claims the car was at a repair shop in town here in Calgary where it supposedly had the PCV system serviced. All superficially looked good including the Volvo part # sticker on the pipe from the catch tank to the top of the cylinder head. There was oil leaking from the oil filler cap which had the hardest oil seal I have ever found on one of these cars, and it leaked well. On looking further I found the 2 parts of the flame trap unit were not connected at all, also leaking oil nicely. But some of the oil on the front of the engine I couldn't see where it was coming from.

I was in 2 minds if I should pull the intake to investigate further, when I removed the spark plug cover plate, I found no clamp on the PCV pipe to the top of the cylinder head. So off came the intake, and I find that all the parts of the PCV system apart from the tip pipe are probably the originals. Car has done less than 20k miles since the work was supposedly done, but all the other pipes are brick hard. There were no clamps on any of the pipes except the short pipe into the block, and these look original. The pipe is absolutely hard! The short pipe at the bottom is a style I have not seen in years. A short 1" piece of rubber pipe and 2 ring clamps. The system was leaking from this nicely.

: Top of PCV oil trap - no clamps

: J pipe to block

The receipt lists all the parts (but no clamps) but even the trap is filthy inside. Fortunately the system appears fairly clean otherwise. The 2 pipes from the flame trap to the PCV trap and the left end of the intake are also original I'd guess. The foam covering it is badly frayed.

Bottom line the PO was ripped off and I am out a bunch of money and added work re-doing sloppy work.

My recommendation to anyone who is new to cars is if you are using a new repair shop, always ask for the old parts back. Try and find out before you go what the parts look like, not all but some of the larger pieces. Companies like FCP have many examples of parts in picture form to help.

Another piece of sloppy work is there is no mileage recorded on the receipt, only a car type and color and date.

Please be aware out there!

Neil.

Post by **tryingbe** » 21 Jul 2016, 18:08

You should send CBC an email regarding to that shop.

Post by **oragex** » 21 Jul 2016, 18:23

I bought some parts from eeuroparts and forgot to order the oil filler cap seal. Would now cost $3 + $15 shipping so went to Home Depot and got a plumber rubber seal about the same size

It's a softer seal the 'powdered' rubber type and no leaks to date

Post by **scot850** » 21 Jul 2016, 22:51

Nice one on the seal. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts!

As to bad shops, they are out there, I have had issues with Ford, GM, Kia, BMW and others over the years with poor repair work or just plain bad diagnostics. It is a case of weeding out the bad ones unfortunately. I am lucky to have a good independent locally when I need it, otherwise if I can't do it and they don't have the skills/tools I take it to the dealer who are also good for the most part.

Neil.

Post by **abscate** » 22 Jul 2016, 09:08

oragex wrote:I bought some parts from eeuroparts and forgot to order the oil filler cap seal. Would now cost $3 + $15 shipping so went to Home Depot and got a plumber rubber seal about the same size It's a softer seal the 'powdered' rubber type and no leaks to date

Can you get the SKU and post for reference please?

The short pipe at the bottom is a style I have not seen in years. A short 1" piece of rubber pipe and 2 ring clamps. The system was leaking from this nicely.

I ran into this on my 1999 - I think I took pix. The new parts had the combined metal/rubber hose, which I was unclear as to which side went where. I know I wrote a thread on that.

Here you go...I ended up with metal to block

skloon · Post by **skloon** » 22 Jul 2016, 09:56

My 850 came with similar issues- a local Volvo specialist had done the suspension including spring seats- 5000 km earlier- I noticed that the struts moved a lot and pulled them to find the seats trashed- I looked at the bill and saw that they noted they 'forgot' the spring seats and credited the bill $50.00 labour to cover- they also re did the rear brakes leaving off the parking brake shoes

Post by **scot850** » 22 Jul 2016, 10:52

Got to love repair shops, and our families wonder why we work on out own cars! (OK, so we are also nuts...!).

It is concerning that we are still finding those old style shortie pipes on our cars. I don't think they have been fitted for a decade or more!

Figuring which way around the pipe fitted was also a challenge for me. Typically I took the car apart and then had to order the parts and 2 weeks later went to refit everything and couldn't figure which way around it went. I did figure it out at the time but now have no idea. The cars I have had have had them fitted both ways, but I came up with a logic which way they should be fitted due to the rubber on one end. Now if someone can remind what that logic was I'd appreciate it!

Neil.

Post by **abscate** » 22 Jul 2016, 11:16

I think I decided the metal hit the plastic case of the PCV tank, which was a bad wear scenario, so I put the rubber against plastic and metal against the metal block.

Post by **scot850** » 22 Jul 2016, 16:03

I think just to be contrary, I used the reverse logic of not having metal to metal, especially as there is a slope on the block face. No I am going to have to go and do a limbo under the 'R' to find out what I did and confirm back to you. Why can't Volvo instructions just tell you!?

Neil.

Post by **scot850** » 22 Jul 2016, 16:28

I recall now I used the Volvo parts diagram as my guide as it shows the rubber ridge against the block and metal tube face towards the PCV tank.

PCV parts layout P80 turbo 99-00.docx: (324.59 KiB) Downloaded 111 times

If the file can be opened, then if you look at the orientation of part #4 you will see what I mean.

Neil.