95 Volvo 850 Turbo - Yellow Residue

[dtmmoore2]

I have been having problems with my engine. What I imagine is a tell-tale sign of a coolant leak (and perhaps a blown head gasket?), there is yellow powder residue (as seen in the attached pictures below) that has sprayed onto the oil cap and the some of the nearby pipes and hoses. This residue is also found on the underside of spoiler attached to the trunk which I assume is resulting from burnt coolant being exhausted out the tail pipe.

I have been having smoke coming out of the tail pipe and posted last month that the smoke was blue and that oil was burning and was advised of what could be causing that to happen. At that time there was no sign of a the yellow powder residue as there is now. What I did notice was that reservoir was not full so I added an entire standard container of coolant to the reservoir. Somehow a small socket driver (the size of a small screwdriver) fell into the reservoir and was only noticed and extracted from the reservoir yesterday following my discovering the yellow residue on the oil cap. I can imagine the would have obstructed the free flow of coolant out the bottom of the reservoir to some extent but not sure if this would eventually lead to the residue which I observed for the first time only yesterday (I have been adding oil to compensate for the burning oil for the past month and almost on a daily basis inspecting the engine as I attempted to figure out what was causing the burning oil). This was before there was any smoke whatsoever being exhausted through the tail pipe. My car had broken down and would not fire and my mechanic had found that the rotor had disintegrated and he replaced the rotor and cap. He then told me over the phone that the car was smoking blue smoke.

Now I can only assume that not only is oil burning and being exhausted out the tail pipe but it is now combined with burnt coolant being exhausted out the tail pipe as well.

Would like to know what is the likely problem causing this residue and what can be done to fix it and eliminate the smoking.

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[scot850]

Are you sure you did not drive through something that was thrown up under the car? I am struggling to think how water residue got onto the oil filler cap as well as the turbo intercooler pipe, and the top radiator hose.

Have to say that top radiator hose looks crusty!

Are you seeing any residue out of the top of the coolant header tank? It is usually the first place for coolant to leak if the system is pressurising or as you said it burns out through the muffler system. What colour is your cars tailpipe? Black or whitish gray?

You can get simple kits that have a chemical in them that you remove the header tank cap, and sit in there with the engine running. The fluid changes colour if exhaust gases are present in the coolant (head gasket leaking in other words).

Have you checked the turbo coolant lines at the back of the engine? Are they swollen or split? Are you losing a lot of coolant?

If the turbo lines are leaking it would pull coolant under the car and throw it up the rear of the car.

Neil.

[dtmmoore2]

Thanks Neil! Turns out the top radiator has a fresh tear in it at the clamp ... an engine mount needs to be replaced and that has put a strain on that hose.

Doesn't explain yellow residue on the rear spoiler but you have provided a possible explanation. I will check the turbo lines. The dip stick does not show any coolant contamination so that's a relief.

The inside of the tailpipe is black and not whitish gray.

As for the original blue smoke I was concerned about that I have lived with for past month, I mentioned that the PCV system passed the rubber glove test; compression feels normal but will be testing it. Turbo boost feels normal and there is no change in the usual movement of the turbo gauge. As I said, the blue smoke just suddenly started happening. Someone suggested that the lower piston ring(s) which is supposed to wash the oil off the cylinder walls on each stroke may have worn down enough that the smoke would just suddenly become a problem from one day the next. I can't tell you the mileage on the engine as it was bought from a wrecker and installed in 2014, but I am wondering how often to these rings wear out because when I bought the car in 2009 I was told that properly maintained, these engines are good for an extraordinary high mileage.

Any thoughts on piston ring wearing out would be appreciated.

Just reading the forums it seems replacing the piston rings is going to big of a job ..my mechanic says that if I really like this car, I would be better off trying to buy another 850 Turbo somewhere in the southern states and he would convert it to a manual drive using the parts from my car. Any thoughts about that would be appreciated as well.

[scot850]

Compression test will be the way to go next. Still think it is either a worn turbo seal or valve seals.

Can't remember, does your car have SRS air pump and valve? The pump is under the battery tray with a rubber pipe running up to a Valve sitting at the back of the engine on the exhaust manifold. Can't recall when Volvo started to fit these in North America.

Neil.

[dtmmoore2]

Yes, my car has the SRS air pump under the battery tray.

Speaking of the battery I recently began to experience difficulties starting the engine. The starter was replaced with a used starter four of five years ago. It worked fine although it often required me to turn the key twice before the starter would engage. I installed a new batter in February because the old battery seemed finished. In the last month or so I have been forced to use a battery pack to jump start the engine, especially if it was parked with the engine off for a few hours. However, what I discovered in recent days is that if I turn the key once and hold it there, I hear a slow whomp............whomp ..........whomp .......whomp ....whomp .. whomp whomp whomp etc. and then the engine starts. Before I found this out, I had been charging the battery overnight for a few nights but ended up each time eventually having to use the battery pack to quickly start the engine. I then had a car electrical specialist do some testing and he said he found that there was a draw on the battery. He wanted me to leave the battery with him to test it even though as I said it was brand new in February. Once this was done he said he would then move on from there to diagnose where the problem lay (if not with the battery itself).

So my question is, since the electrical specialist did not witness the "whomp .. whomp ..whomp etc." and thereby could not have formed an opinion on that, what would be your best guess as to what the issue is? I am thinking that since I installed a used starter, as I said, about four years ago, and since this starter had often required two turns of the key (for whatever reason, sometimes I had to turn the steering wheel at the same time as I was turning the key in order to engage the starter and start the engine, which was weird) could it be that the starter has worn out, and this is why it needs a prolonged turn of the key to finally engage lately.

Thanks again for any thoughts you might have on this issue as well.

[scot850]

Poor or slow turning of the starter are usually caused by:

1) Bad engine earths or missing/broken earth wires.
2) High resistance in old battery/alternator/starter cables. There have been some threads on this recently. Have the electrician check those cable resistances.
3) Bad/worn starter. If you used a used one last time it may be failing. But it would be the last on my list for now.
4) Bad or weak battery (I know you have this already being checked)
5) Battery drain. Fairly easy to do yourself with a multimeter. Always check the glove box light first and if it is a wagon check there are no broken or shorting wires in the tailgate or trunk lid wires. For the glove box, stick your phone in there with it in video mode and see if the light goes out when it is closed. If you have a sedan, do the same with the trunk to make sure the trunk light is going out. Lastly, check the interior lights are going out including the door marker lights on the rear of each door when it is shut.
All the electrician will do is remove each fuse in turn with the -ve battery lead removed from the battery and the multimeter bridging the battery and cable. You should be looking for any where like 10mA to a max. 50mA drain as normal. On an 850 I found it was between about 10 and 30mA.

The whomp,whomp could be your bad engine mounts allowing excess engine movement. Check the top and bottom torque mounts and most importantly the mount under the crank pulley on the RHS of the engine bay on the sub-frame. Leaving this will break your radiator.

Hope this helps!

Neil.

[dtmmoore2]

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. Definitely going to have to get the mount under the crank pulley replaced asap. Hopefully this can be easily sourced. FCP EURO or IPDUSA I suppose, but do you know if there is any place I can order it from (besides a Volvo dealership) in Canada?

The whomp whomp whomp (maybe there is a better word I could have used to describe this sound effect!) is the sound of the starter slowly turning over until finally it is strong enough to crank the engine into life. I was hoping that this sound would be a clear sign the starter needs to be replaced because checking the wiring for any issues with them seems like a time consuming (and expensive) process.

[dtmmoore2]

One more thing. I bought a front passenger side door to replace the side mirror and decided to take the whole door as the donor car had practically no rust. I have installed the door only to find it does not fit snuggly along the top of the door frame and part way down the middle pillar between the front and rear doors. The edge of the door juts out a 1/4 inch or so. As a result, at higher speeds the wind noise is unacceptable. Hopefully I will find out from my auto body shop that the door can be adjusted in some way to allow it to shut snuggly. If not I will probably have to reinstall the original door. Before I noticed this issue, I was wondering what to do about swapping out the locking mechanism so that my key will turn the lock in the new door (I do not have a fob anymore for this car). Is this readily doable or will I have to find a mechanic that specializes in car door locks?

[abscate]

If turning the steering wheel changes cranking, you may have a bad electrical part of the ignition switch. It’s a $50 part . Thst would also explain, or at least fit, the “key twice cranking” problem

I’ll bet that door didn’t drop fully into the pins. Volvo frames are incredibly rigid, as are the doors

[scot850]

As abscate says, the door may not be sitting correctly on the hinges. I have had to 'bend' the top and rear of the window frame in the past to get them to fit correctly. Something you have to be careful with if the hinge seating is not correct.

Ignition switch may also be an issue as abscate mentions but not sure why turning the steering wheel would make a difference?

Neil.