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'96 855 Oil Leak Behind Timing Cover

Help, Advice and DIY Tutorials on Volvo's P80 platform cars -- Volvo's 1990s "bread and butter" cars -- powered by the ubiquitous and durable Volvo inline 5-cylinder engine.

1992 - 1997 850, including 850 R, 850 T-5R, 850 T-5, 850 GLT
1997 - 2000 S70, S70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70, V70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70-XC
1997 - 2004 C70

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BigRed
Posts: 203
Joined: 18 April 2010
Year and Model: V70R 1998
Location: Pittsburgh

Re: '96 855 Oil Leak Behind Timing Cover

Post by BigRed »

Thanks for the advice! I'll let the crank seal be, my hands will be full enough doing a timing belt & cam seals for the first time.

The prices I listed for seals were for two each, still a large difference between the resellers.

BigRed
Posts: 203
Joined: 18 April 2010
Year and Model: V70R 1998
Location: Pittsburgh

Post by BigRed »

When I got in there I found the cam seals to be dry. There was significant oil collected under the spark plug cover. It appears it was flowing towards the front of the engine then into the timing cover. I'm doing the PCV tomorrow with FCP kit.

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erikv11  
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Joined: 25 July 2009
Year and Model: 850, V70, S60R, XC70
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Post by erikv11 »

erikv11 wrote:Front cam seals is a good call but first check under the spark plug cover for oil. If the PCV hose (or the oil cap itself) is leaking oil under there, it often drains out the front side of the engine and down behind the cam pulleys.

If you have a leak up there fix it (change the cap gasket, do a PCV job) and see if that takes care of it. If it doesn't ... front cam seals.
What you describe is exactly what I was talking about in this post^^.

Personally I would leave the front cam seals alone, they can last a very long time if the PCV is kept clean. Just hang onto the replacements in case you need to do them later (or send 'em back to fcp?) .
'95 854 T-5R, Motronic 4.4, 185k
'98 V70, T5 tune-injectors-turbo, LPT engine, 304k, daily driver
'06 S60 R, 197k
'07 XC70, black, 205k
'07 XC70, willow green, 212k
'99 Camry V6 :shock: 153k
gone: '96 NA 850 210k, '98 NA V70 182k, '98 S70 NA 225k, '96 855 NA 169k

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