Oil Leak around my ignition coils

chewy · Post by **chewy** » 06 Apr 2011, 08:57

My 1999 V70 w/ 198000 miles starting losing oil. Found a leak under my ignition coil cover and after removing cover found oil in each of my plugs. The car funs great with no codes. I suspect a head gasket but could it be something else? No evidence of coolant in the oil..yet.

Post by **kcodyjr** » 06 Apr 2011, 09:08

Guessing somewhat since I have 850's, that's probably being blown up through the PCV system. There a hose coming up from under the intake, attached to a nipple between two of your coils? Someone more familiar with the 99 please confirm?

If you want to rule out a head gasket, pull the plugs and shine a flashlight into 'em. If they're black, your gasket is fine.

Post by **jblackburn** » 06 Apr 2011, 09:09

Nope, not a head gasket! Just replace the rubber seal around your oil cap.

Check to make first that your PCV system isn't in need of cleaning. Warm the motor up to operating temp, then pull out the dipstick with the car idling. Do you see smoke puffing out of the opening?

If the PCV system needs to be cleaned, don't replace that seal until you take care of it, or it will find other seals (that are much harder to replace) to start venting excess crankcase pressure out of.

Post by **precopster** » 06 Apr 2011, 10:08

Other potentials here are incorrectly torqued cam cover bolts (there are 42 of them) or stripped threads.

If this is the case you may need to reseal the cam cover (big job) but first as ja said check your PCV system for excess pressure and change oil cap seal first.

hanzbe420 · Post by **hanzbe420** » 06 Apr 2011, 10:53

yea i had this problem with my 94 Volvo 850 turbo wagon i cleaned the ptc nipple and rerouted a new hose under the manifold and i replaced the whole oil filler cap, because the seal was broke and i broke the cap trien to fix it but after i got a new cap there were no more oil leaking into my cylinders.

chewy · Post by **chewy** » 06 Apr 2011, 11:40

The "Autozone" guys computer could not find a PCV valve part for this volvo..the advice ranged from bad rings to ignition cover seal. I did replace the oil cap and bought some oil additive to clean it up some...

Post by **jblackburn** » 06 Apr 2011, 11:45

See this for what's involved in the PCV system:

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... =1&t=28487

There's no PCV "valve" on these engines; instead, it's a huge system involving an oil separator box and lots of tubes. Several of our parts vendors at the top of the page have put together kits for replacing the system.

It's not bad rings. Soak the oil up with a rag, make sure the top black hose connected to the port on the top of the engine near the spark plugs is fastened down, and check to see if your PCV system needs to be cleaned.

Post by **tjts1** » 06 Apr 2011, 11:49

chewy wrote:My 1999 V70 w/ 198000 miles starting losing oil. Found a leak under my ignition coil cover and after removing cover found oil in each of my plugs. The car funs great with no codes. I suspect a head gasket but could it be something else? No evidence of coolant in the oil..yet.

I had a similar problem on my 960. The oil was coming up around the threads of the 6 torx screws holding down the plastic cover. Apparently those holes were drilled all the way through to the inside of the valve cover. I reinstalled the torx screws with some teflon tape around the threads and it never happened again. The valve cover vent hose is also a possibility as previously mentioned.