2009 S40 2.4i - Spun rod? Dead engine?

LSUinMT · Post by **LSUinMT** » 18 Jul 2023, 10:20

Greetings everyone, newly subscribed but have followed for years. Many thanks to all the contributors over the years, this site has helped me solve problems thru 6 different family Volvos.
So I’ve got a problem...I think my daughter’s S40 engine is done but thought I'd check if anyone has other thoughts.
Here’s a breakdown of what is going on. Please forgive the lengthy post but want to share everything I know about the situation:

2009 S40 2.4i 162,000 miles

About 2 weeks ago she had a check engine light come on while running around town. She said car was running fine. Talking to her found out she filled her car up with gas the day before. I had her check the gas cap and she said it was fine (although I’m not sure she 100% understood how I was asking her to check the cap was tight). I was around the corner so ran up to the store she was at and put my OBDII on it and got an Evap code. I don’t remember what the actual code was(now I know to always write it down just in case). I chalked it up to a loose gas cap, took a test ride and all seemed good.

Wednesday of last week her check engine light came on about 3/4 thru a 150 mile trip. She said the car was running fine. I thought maybe another evap code signaling a bad gas cap. When she got home it came up as P0011 - Intake Camshaft Position Timing. Investigated and determined I would replace the VVT solenoid. Tracked down the part, got all fresh oil and oil filter.

Saturday - changed oil, filter and installed new VVT Solenoid. Knowing my daughter had another 150 mile trip to a remote area thru the mountains coming up I decided to take it for a long test drive to ensure all was well before her trip.

Everything started really well and I was feeling good about how it was driving. At 30 miles I was going up a hill and it seemed the car was kinda struggling. I had cruise control on and it just felt the RPMs were higher than I thought it should be. Considering I don’t drive her car often and am used to my work truck I thought maybe I was overthinking it. Right on the downside of the hill I started hearing an awful racket coming from the engine bay. Kinda sounded like it was coming from the right side. It almost sounded like banging pots together. It was so bad I immediately stopped the car and called my son to come get me.

Sunday I grabbed a trailer and went and picked it up and towed it back to the house. It had a MIL on it but I don’t recall if it came on when I stopped on the side of the road or if it came on when I got back to the house. I know it wasn't on when I first heard the noise and decided to pull over. It was code P0016 (camshaft/crankshaft position).

I threw it back up on jacks, pulled the passenger wheel, wheel well, etc. That’s where it still sits. I started it a couple times to see if I could pinpoint the sound. I cleared the P0016 and after a couple starts it popped up the P0011 code. I removed the VVT solenoid I had just installed, cleaned/blew it out and reinstalled it. Has not returned a MIL since.

When I start it the noise is very loud and sounds like banging metal. After a couple seconds it settles down and sounds like what I assume is probably a rod knock. I’ve never personally heard one before but I imagine it’s sounds like this. Just a consistent low tone knocking. As RPMs increase the knocking sounds more like clanking metal.

I hadn’t brought my old oil in yet so I checked the old filter and oil and found some silver flakes in it.

So, I’m feeling pretty confident it’s a spun bearing and potentially more based on how bad it sounds as RPMs increase. I plan to drop the oil pan this weekend to confirm. Any other ideas I might want to explore before going that route? I did look at the timing belt and it does look like the intake side is a tooth off. I had planned on doing a timing belt change in the near future based on her mileage. I'm not sure if the previous owners had replaced any components the last time the belt was changed (i.e. water pump, tensioner, seals, etc).

A couple other things I just thought of but not sure if they’ could be related…it does seem like lately her car has been consuming oil more than ever before. I’d occasionally top it off when I checked it but recently put in about 1.5qts which was about twice as much as I’d normally top off. I assumed maybe it had been a while since I checked it.
She also recently developed a coolant leak. I hadn’t pinpointed it yet but about a week ago there was a small amount (maybe 1/2 dollar size puddle) under the driver’s side of the engine about halfway between the radiator and engine.
Lastly, when running her car on jacks yesterday looking at some things I noticed the condensation coming from her exhaust looked like it may have oil in it. It had some dark gray tint to it on the garage floor. I should have taken a pic.

I am pretty good mechanically and have no doubt I can tackle any vehicle projects that come my way. I'm in the process of restoring a 1974 Landcruiser, so getting greasy is not something I'm afraid of. While planning my next steps I found a 2007 S40 2.4i that is a few hours away that is for sale pretty cheap. Owner said it ran well and recently he couldn’t get it started so decided to sell it.
I haven’t verified but am assuming I could do an engine swap on these two. Mine is a VIN 39 and am guessing his would work. Is there anything I should look for to confirm? Although, if his engine is ok, most likely I’d use our car to fix his rather than swapping the engines since the condition of both is about the same.

Thanks in advance for any advice, tips, etc. I can attempt to get video or pics to upload if it helps.

I’ll try to share updates as I progress through it.

Post by **volvolugnut** » 18 Jul 2023, 12:12

Do some easy checks before removing the pan.
Pull the plugs and turn with a wrench on the balancer pulley. Listen and feel for interference or looseness. Use a boroscope in each cylinder if you have one.
If you do not mind cranking, do a compression test on each cylinder.
Check the timing marks on the belt if you can still see them. Or check the timing using the cam pulley and crank pulley marks. The timing belt might have skipped a couple teeth.
volvolugnut

LSUinMT · Post by **LSUinMT** » 18 Jul 2023, 16:49

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll pull the plugs and turn on the balancer pulley this evening. I'll also take a look thru a borescope and see if one of my buddies has a compression kit I can borrow. Or maybe I'll just pick one up tomorrow.
I did look at the timing marks on the top cam pulleys but didn't check the crank pulley yet. It looked like the right one may have been one tooth forward. But as you know the marks are not the easiest to line up with the plastic cover.
I'm going to work on it some more this evening and will let you know what I find.
Thanks

Post by **Krons** » 18 Jul 2023, 18:24

Agree on the easy stuff first. Can’t recall how easy pulling the pan is on the S40, on my 02 S60 it was pretty straightforward when I had low oil pressure due to old and crusty oil pickup orings. Not a lot in the way. The five cylinder would be easy to pull rod caps for a bearing inspection if you get that far.

LSUinMT · Post by **LSUinMT** » 19 Jul 2023, 00:11

I pulled the plugs and hand cranked it. There was a little resistance as the pistons changed direction but other than that it was relatively smooth.

I did a compression test and got consistent numbers on all but #2. The other 4 held at about 135. #2 got to about 115 but slowly started dropping.

I then ran my scope down the cylinders. My scope is pretty old and I couldn’t get good pics but here’s what I found. The 4 consistent all looked the same. They looked dry and dark, almost like covered in black ash. #2 looks like it’s wet or covered in oil. Maybe I just can’t see it on the others because they’re so dark but are those bright silver spots on the sides of #2 normal?

Thanks

LSUinMT · Post by **LSUinMT** » 19 Jul 2023, 06:49

I also forgot to add this picture to my last post. This is the exhaust spot in the garage I mentioned.

LSUinMT · Post by **LSUinMT** » 19 Jul 2023, 12:06

After taking some time to actually think, it dawned on me the marks on the side of the #2 piston matches the head. So the piston must be making contact with the head. My initial thought is that the timing must have jumped but I'm starting to wonder if maybe failed bearing caused too much slop, causing the contact.

Any advice on next steps?
Do you think I should be looking to find what caused everything or should I focus on what the damage is? My gut is telling me that by pulling it apart to check damage I'm pretty much guaranteed to find whatever caused the problem. And if it's worth salvaging I should be able to correct the issue during the rebuild.

Post by **volvolugnut** » 19 Jul 2023, 18:01

My thoughts: Drop the pan and check the main bearing of #2. Maybe all you need is another rod. Used?
volvolugnut

LSUinMT · Post by **LSUinMT** » 20 Jul 2023, 09:32

Yeah, I'm going to plan on dropping it. It'll probably be several days before I can get to it. I'll need to move it to the other side of the garage to give the wife her spot back. That's going to take some rearranging. I'll update once I get into it. Thanks for the input.

RobsS40 · Post by **RobsS40** » 12 Aug 2023, 18:42

Just bought my first Volvo a few weeks ago: '06 S40 T5. Had lots of known problems, but I was working through them. Suddenly one day huge loud rod bearing knock.

You can tell the sound several ways: it's loud. It's terrible sounding. There are metal flakes in the oil. The knocking frequency coincides with engine speed. Most importantly: the sound is quite dependent on engine load, including when revving it gently in neutral. It can even go away at lower speeds and very light throttle.

Yours could still be a valve interference. That might be worse than my story:

Also, your piston could be hitting the head if there's much bearing loss.

I've done a bit of engine work before, so I put it up on ramps and dropped the pan. #5 rod bearing was pounded to almost paper thin. Much bearing shell steel was galled onto the crank, so I had to start with a small sharp file and remove all of that. Then worked it starting with 400 grit paper, up to 2000. It took me 3-4 hours. There are some youtube vids of people doing this.

I do have micrometers, and checked most of the other bearings visually and with plastigage. Others looked new. I have no idea what was done to the engine.

Since the others were so nice I left them and only replaced the one, after much polishing and checking it a lot. Clearance ended up being the same as the other 4, ~0.001"

It was difficult cleaning the oil pan- many non-removable baffles. Solvent didn't really cut it. Ended up using powdered laundry detergent and it looks brand new. Many people swear by "Simple Green". I think it's the same SLS detergent, but I'm not sure- Arm & Hammer worked.

I did remove and clean the oil filter housing, oil cooler, and generally checked all "O" rings, seals, etc. All were good. Maybe had been replaced. There are many stories of them being a problem. I wish I knew its history.

I've got a few hundred careful miles on new bearing and so far so good. I might drop the pan and re-inspect the bearing someday.

I'm used to bearing shells that have the tab that keeps them from spinning, but this one does not have them.

My guess: someone ran it out of oil, #5 rod, furthest from oil pump (concentric with crankshaft), died. Someone slapped in new bearings, but didn't clean up #5 crank journal so it seized and spun. Plastigage is our friend.

"King" bearings are probably some of the best. I ended up with "DNJ" from ebay. Seem very good. Time will tell.

I'm curious how you're doing with yours.