Dealership found oil in my coolant

sac3002 · Post by **sac3002** » 10 Feb 2017, 18:35

Hello, I am new to this forum. I bought my xc70 new in 2014, I currently have 73K miles. I am not overall a fan of our dealership here in Indianapolis. I thought my car was using oil, because the "low oil level" light has come on approx. 3 times. I added oil and rechecked the oil dipstick and the 1qt I added was enough to get it back in range. Took it into the dealership (Tom Wood) and they call my husband and tell him I must have accidentally added the oil to the coolant bc they found oil there. So several thousand dollars later, I get my car back and ask my husband to show me where the oil is supposed to go-he shows me, WHICH IS EXACTLY where I PUT IT! I love my car and I'm quite knowledgeable about cars. I am so upset with them for assuming that I put it in the wrong place (Probably bc I'm a woman). Second of all, they charged me for a new oil cooler. I believe that was the part that failed causing this to happen in the first place. Has anyone else out there had this happen? I'm very upset about this for many reasons.

Post by **precopster** » 10 Feb 2017, 19:53

If oil was in the coolant they may have treated it as a blown head gasket and replaced the head gasket (this is a symptom of a blown head gasket as well as the accused wrong fluid in the wrong container)

So did they charge you thousands just to replace the oil cooler and give the cooling system a flush or did they also replace the radiator and do other work?

sac3002 · Post by **sac3002** » 10 Feb 2017, 21:01

Yes, they charged me 3k (was 5800 until my husband argued) just to flush the coolant system, replace hoses associated, and replace the oil cooler - most of this charge was labor looks like

I'm just sad bc I love my car and I'm worried this could happen again. Also upset because of the false accusations:-(

Post by **precopster** » 10 Feb 2017, 21:32

Yes if the oil cooler has an internal breach the engine oil gets mixed with coolant so perhaps their initial thought was that it was user error until they delved further. Simply putting oil in the coolant won't break the oil cooler and cause a breach though it may clog the coolant passages and prevent the oil from being cooled by the air flowing over it.

If the heater core and radiator were blocked by oil sludge the labour would be quite high; perhaps as much as 12 hours in total.

BTW what is their hourly labour rate? We pay $180/hour at dealers over here in Oz!!

Post by **abscate** » 11 Feb 2017, 19:45

You need your old oil cooler back for inspection. Run down there and get it.

Are you still under warranty? You should be on time, but maybe not miles

sac3002 · Post by **sac3002** » 11 Feb 2017, 21:10

Thank you that is a great idea! I'm over on miles for the warranty sadly ;-(

pojoel · Post by **pojoel** » 28 Mar 2017, 10:21

What engine do you have?

Post by **cn90** » 28 Mar 2017, 19:44

The dealer did several things wrong.
For a 2014 model, it is unusual to have blown head gasket.
The sensible things to do should have been (to rule out accidentally adding oil on coolant reservoir vs a true blown head gasket):

1. Collect the coolant and send for analysis: if there is exhaust gas in there ---> likely blown head gasket (but why in a 2014 model)?

2. Flush the coolant and fill with fresh coolant: cost should have been < $100.
Then return the car to the owner to drive for a week while periodically checking coolant to see if there is any oil in there.
If there is oil ---> compression test on each cylinder.

The 3.2 engine is not known to consume oil. The T6...maybe (the turbo seal is the usual culprit in the older Volvo with Turbo such as 2005 XC90 2.5T etc.).

Post by **abscate** » 03 Apr 2017, 07:13

It might be worth asking Volvo North America for warranty adjustment. Major engine failures like this close to warranty end are sometimes adjusted out, especially if you don't go in chest thumping and lawyerly.

Post by **June** » 03 Apr 2017, 08:51

One thought I had that makes me wander is while the engine is running the oil is under more pressure than the radiator so why if the cooler was bad did the engine not push all the oil out into the radiator? The radar cap is maybe 16 psi and the oil pressure maybe 40 psi so the extra fluid entering the radiator I would think pass the cap once there was no more space. Also when you shut down the engine there is no oil pressure but the radiator should still have pressure forcing antifreeze into the oil? How could a breach only allow leakage one direction when both systems are pressurised? I also know how salesmen and mechanics treat women. I learned a lot from my husband over the years and 30 years of driving. June