S70 ran out of oil :(

[MadeInJapan]

98 s70 T5. Almost 280k miles.
Lent to a friend. Only use synthetic oil. The car was 1000 miles away from an oil change when I got the call that something was wrong. No oil on the dip stick. Added 2 quarts- still nothing on the dip stick. Loud clicking after I filled to the max line on the dipstick. No engine codes!
Looks like maybe a broken rocker arm? What’s your diagnosis & what to do?

IMG_5229.mov

Engine view noise

(16.6 MiB) Downloaded 78 times

[scot850]

That is loud. Sounds like the 95 850 I helped fix last year. But in it's case, it was actually a bad water pump bearing transmitting the noise to the RH end of the engine.

Your car I think still has the hydraulic lifters. Could be at the age of the car one has got dried out. Maybe fill the oil to max and then take for a gentle run around the block. That 95 sounded like a bag of bolts on start up after the water pump was fitted as it had stood for about 4 months unused. Running it on the road for only about half a mile and suddenly all the noisy disappeared and it purred. That car had over 320k miles on it.

Neil.

[MadeInJapan]

Thanks Neil! Will try that! Anything unusual you saw from the video? And, yes, hydraulic lifters.

[MadeInJapan]

Just tried about a mile run slowly. On a coast it’s not bad but any acceleration at all and it’s loud as well! Once home and in neutral the sound is as loud as it was before. Sound seems loudest right in the middle of the front cam- the lifter you saw in the video.

[yanga001]

Stick a scope into the oil fill cap and see how the cams look. They would have taken a beating if the rocker went bad/got stuck. You can also do the oil change and look for glitter in the pan. You have really hardly worked oil mixed with new good synthetic. Change it all and see if it makes any difference.

Noises come from loose fits/smacking. Something had to erode away to cause said smacking. What erodes away will probably be in the pan/oil filter if that happened.

The car didnt spin a bearing, and you dont have rod knock so at worst it seems to be a top end issue.

[Sveedy]

I would think the first thing that would fail, due to oil starvation, would be the lifters.

[ZionXIX]

I have ran my 850 out of oil twice due to the cooler line blowing off the radiator on the highway. I couldn't stop for several miles. That was 10+ years ago and she's still running fine. My lifters always sound like that after it's been sitting undriven for more than a week. My xc90 2.5t sounds like that ever since I rebuilt the head.

[scot850]

No, I did not see or hear anything too terrible. I hate using the snake oil fixes, with a few exceptions. One being Seafoam.

You could try running it through the engine oil and see if it cleans the lifters and allows them to refill. I do warn that it comes with risk for high mileage cars as it can have an effect on cleaning all dirt from areas you may want it to keep compression and seals! If I recall the instructions say to run in the oil for 100 miles or so before an oil change, although I also recall it claiming to be safe to leave it in. I would suggest rechecking that as it has been a while!

I did this on a 93 850 we had and a 98 V70XC with noisy lifters and in both cases it helped. If the o rings in the oil pan to block have not been replaced then the oil pressure to the head may take a while to get oil back up, if at all, to the lifters to refill them.

Neil.

[abscate]

Give it a week or two of light running to see if the lifter tick eases. It’s taken me this long to get top ends quiet.

[MoVolvos]

98 s70 T5. Almost 280k miles.
Lent to a friend. Only use synthetic oil. The car was 1000 miles away from an oil change when I got the call that something was wrong. No oil on the dip stick. Added 2 quarts- still nothing on the dip stick. Loud clicking after I filled to the max line on the dipstick. No engine codes!
Looks like maybe a broken rocker arm? What’s your diagnosis & what to do?IMG_5229.mov

.
Did you figure out where the oil went? The noise actually sounds pretty normal. The Volvo's owned since 2012 so have had a few to compare though not all have the 5 cylinder. Except for the 98 all are still in herd.

98 S70 T5 250K
00 S70 SE
02 V70 XC
03 S80 T6
07 S60 2.5T
08 C30 T5
09 S60 2.5T AWD
12 XC90

https://www.amazon.com/ATP-AT-205-Re-Se ... VW1LM?th=1

The 00 had the ticking sound from the oil pan but could have been easily mistaken for a lifter. Used some sealers to help fatten / rejuvenate the oil ring and noise is gone for the most parts when using dino 15W40 diesel motor oil. When I purchased the car due to the lower oil pressure the oil light came on one time but went away quickly. Try the AT205 in case you have an issue with the shrunken oil pan o-ring and use a thicker 15W40 as the motor is old and the thicker oil will do a better job with blowby and sealing of the piston / cylinders. Currently using Rotella T6 15W40 in the 00 but being it's synthetic and slicker it does not work as well as the Kirland Dino 15W40 (no longer available). Will have intermittent light ticking with Rotella vs no ticking with a Dino.

In case you think it's the pan and want to tackle it? The first video has a great before and after sound.





.