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98 S70 T5 Oil in Coolant

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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volvo_bruh
Posts: 11
Joined: 19 February 2015
Year and Model: S70 T5 1998
Location: East Syracuse, NY

98 S70 T5 Oil in Coolant

Post by volvo_bruh »

I've been having a slight coolant leak from under the car and I noticed the coolant in my coolant resevoir is pretty dirty and maybe some coolant in my oil on my last oil change which was about 300-400 miles ago. My oil wasn't milky and isn't now. My low coolant light came on today so I topped it off and checked under the car for the possible problem. I found what i believe to be a cooling hose leaking. It appers to run from the radiator to the block. I don't think I have a bad head. No white smoke and the car runs fine. Just wondering if this could be a possible cause to my oil+coolant problem. Thank you for any feedback.

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rspi
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Post by rspi »

Just fix the coolant leak and keep rolling. "Stop Coolant Roulette".





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j-dawg
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Post by j-dawg »

Pre-'99 turbo cars have an oil cooler in the radiator. It's basically a series of tubes carrying oil through the coolant. That is prone to cracking, and the oil seeps through the cracks into the coolant.
1999 V70 T5 5-SPD | ~277k mi | sold

volvo_bruh
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Year and Model: S70 T5 1998
Location: East Syracuse, NY

Post by volvo_bruh »

So replace the radiator and the leaky oil cooler line?

j-dawg
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Post by j-dawg »

Yes, the oil cooler is integrated, so just replace the radiator. Read up on the oil line fittings before starting the repair. And yeah, like Robert said, it's never a good idea to let leaky hoses leak.

A caveat: I have a 99 and don't have the oil cooler, so I've never experienced this. But on older turbo cars, a leaky oil cooler is a pretty common problem.
1999 V70 T5 5-SPD | ~277k mi | sold

Azik09
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Post by Azik09 »

Post-'99 turbo cars have an oil cooler too. It's mounted on the oil sump.
If my English is bad, please correct me :oops:

j-dawg
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Post by j-dawg »

Azik09 wrote:Post-'99 turbo cars have an oil cooler too. It's mounted on the oil sump.
Right, yeah. And the automatics still have a heat exchanger in the radiator. But we lucky children don't have to deal with the oil lines or cracked oil cooler. Not that it matters, because the plastic radiator tanks crack and we end up having to replace our radiators anyway.
1999 V70 T5 5-SPD | ~277k mi | sold

mecheng
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Post by mecheng »

Usually you will get a leaky rad before any oil or trans cooler breach.... At least from my reading and personnel experience
1998 Volvo S70 T5 - SE - 240km - Sold July 2018
1997 Volvo 850 GLT - 190km
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