1997 850 wagon bad oil leak

Tobers · Post by **Tobers** » 08 Apr 2015, 17:41

my daughter's 850 wagon is leaking a lot of oil from the bottom of the engine, driver's side. it is all over the cross member, and has soaked the driver's side most of the way back to the rear of the car. She lost 1.5 quarts since I did the last oil change at 2,200 miles.

so i read around the site. it looks like it needs PCV service: smokes billows out of the dip stick and if I remove the oil filler cap, smoke billows out of there, too. we've only had it 5,000 miles and it definitely wasn't maintained.

so two easy (I think) questions:

1. i need to purchase a volvo kit and replace all of the pcv components, right? link?

2. will this fix much of the oil leak, or will it still be this bad?

any other comments welcome. Thank you! Rick

Post by **misha** » 08 Apr 2015, 17:56

First...you will need to determine where exactly is an oil leak.Driver's side big leak can only be rear main seal(rms).In that case,it's too late for pcv replacement.

Check flame trap.Maybe it's clogged.Clean everything and before doing any repair,make sure from where is that oil leak.

Tobers · Post by **Tobers** » 08 Apr 2015, 19:13

I think i've found the flame trap. And if I did, it is solidly plugged.

I removed the 1 1/4? inch plastic piece from the rear of the 4 inch line. the O ring came off. is the plastic piece that is connected to the hose that runs back under the intake manifold supposed to be open? Mine is hardened full of crap. Even degreaser won't touch it. Drill it with little holes? How do I get that thing unplugged? I'm guessing I need a new hose. I don't see a screen or anything, but maybe it is under all of that hardened stuff. hope this makes sense. rick

Post by **dosbricks** » 08 Apr 2015, 19:40

It sounds like you just need to do the whole PCV system. If you have that much clogged up top, the oil separator and associated hoses are likely gunked up too.

Check the camshaft position sensor (at top rear driver's side of engine) to see if it is leaking oil from it's weep hole down the engine to the bottom. The end of the engine would be very wet with fresh oil. They can leak quite a bit of oil, and that would be lucky because they are easy to repair.

But from the amount of oil loss you describe it sounds like the dreaded RMS leak. Fixing the PCV will only marginally improve an RMS leak. But as soon as the PCV is repaired, switching the motor oil to 10W40 can substantially help. As old as these cars are, they should be using 10W40 in the warm southern states anyway. Also, a seal conditioning additive can soften hardened seals and help somewhat.