Goodbye 98 V70

[abscate]

I’ll miss you , so keep your eyes open for another Volvo



I think the appeal is the high quality parts used on this brand.

Abscate, you helped me quite often. I appreciate it. Your humor also helped get me through a couple of trying weekend repairs.

Thanks for making my day, today.

[SuperHerman]

This write up on changing the oil pan O-rings provides a good many pictures showing the design of Volvo's bottom end/oil pan configuration and what aged O-rings look like.

viewtopic.php?t=31236

Worth a look.

[98v70dad]

This write up on changing the oil pan O-rings provides a good many pictures showing the design of Volvo's bottom end/oil pan configuration and what aged O-rings look like.

viewtopic.php?t=31236

Worth a look.

This is a fairly easy, although time consuming job IF you know you need to do it. My low oil pressure light flickered once on a dangerous 8 lane stretch of the interstate and about 3 minutes later the car was dead. No other warning.

[mrbrian200]

The v70 was a non-turbo - total dog in the performance category.

Ok, so it took you 8 seconds instead of 5 or 6 to speed up from 45 to 100mph.

[FLXC90]

The v70 was a non-turbo - total dog in the performance category.

Ok, so it took you 8 seconds instead of 5 or 6 to speed up from 45 to 100mph.

Which will get you run over in Atlanta traffic!

I have a 98 N/A with 240k on it that has been in constant service, and a 98 T5 with 110k, that sat for 5 years before I got it. During my initial attempts to start the T5, the top end was not getting oil, I suspect the pan O-rings are dry-rotted from lack of use.

[lext]

I understand your situation and your sentiments. Those oil pan O-rings become a problem after 10 years of use are are a pain to replace. For Volovs - all I know is for older high mileage Volvos if the pressure light comes on and/or flickers and disappears under RPMs (and the easy stuff is excluded like low or dirty oil) - it is usually the oil pan O-rings. Oil pumps hardly ever fail.

I just do not know how else one would design the engine without using O-rings. Granted it is a cheap part, but I have not seen any O-ring technology that is superior than what is used. From time to time better O-rings come out that last longer, but at some point the O-ring will reach its useful life. Using an O-ring to form a seal between two halves that need to transfer fluids and keep them separated or under pressure is a very common practice which I don't see another option or way to approach the design challenge. I have seen this design in every engine I have worked on - from BMW, Subaru, Volvo to VW and even lawn mowers and motorcycles. I have also seen it in transmissions.

Thinking back to the oldest car I ever worked on - those cars did not have the oil needs of more modern cars. The over head cams, valves, lifters ... need to be lubricated. The price of progress?

The problem is that to assemble and/or repair the engine or transmission it has to be made of separate pieces. Do we really want an engine that does not allow servicing of the oil pump or top and bottom end? To join the two pieces, in this instance the oil pan and block, an O-ring has to be used - a hard fitting cannot be utilized without adding more parts somewhere or making more parts disposable - resulting in higher costs of ownership. I have seen progress with 3D printing of parts, but then the entire assembly becomes disposable in the end. The simple O-ring has been tasked with a mighty responsibility and it must be serviced just like everything else.

I would like to hear how others would address the O-ring problem from a design perspective. As I own various car brands - I enjoy seeing how each company and nation approach certain design issues. Pretty interesting stuff for sure.

Reading your talk about the O-ring reminds me of something. Didn't one of the space shuttles (Challenger?) crash or exploded due to a faulty O-ring? The O-ring failed because of it couldn't stand the low temperature, I think, and it no longer sealed, thus letting superhot gas leak somewhere it's not supposed to leak, and eventually the whole thing just break apart.

You can't avoid it though, because to achieve a seal between two tubes or hollow parts, you're going to need an O-ring

[abscate]

I’m not sure I find they got to root cause on Challenger. Feynman putting orings into ice water was memorable but I don’t know if a determination was made. Should be google able

[j-dawg]

It was the o-rings. Launching in cold weather, they could not seal between the sections in the SRBs. Some plumes escaped through the leak and started breaking stuff. It's visible in ground camera videos.

[j-dawg]

That said, for static sealing applications o-rings are my first choice. Easy, cheap, effective.

[SuperHerman]

When I wrote my post questioning other possible solutions I also thought of the Space Shuttle incident. Reliance on a simple O-ring has its draw backs. Maybe the solution is to change the oil pump design and suffer other maintenance issues - not a simple solution.

I did not realize that the OP had catastrophic failure - total bummer. Everything I have experienced and read the Volvos usually give a little more breathing room. Now I am wondering if I should proactively do my XC90.