Oil leaking from somewhere down by the belts? It might be your fill cap gasket.

TheMrFailz · Post by **TheMrFailz** » 16 Oct 2018, 15:53

Long story short I thought either one of my cam seals / main crank seal went or my turbo oil return was leaking on my 2002 V70 2.4T because there was a lot of oil down in the bottom of the belt area. Went to the mechanic because I currently can't get down in there to inspect the leak. $80 (1/hr) labor and $10 worth of materials (degreaser mainly) it just turns out that the fill cap seal is basically a rock now and it's causing oil to leak out onto the top of the block where it would slowly spill down the back corner of the block.

Mind you I knew about the oil on the top of the block but I always figured it was from spillage while filling and didn't realize it was slowly filling itself (although immediately spilling off so that it looked the same). I'm a bit annoyed that I'm out $80 labor but it's better to know than not check it and find out it was something more serious further down the line.

Post by **abscate** » 16 Oct 2018, 18:17

$80 for a lesson is cheap. I almost lost one of the kids in a poker game once. Imagine that phone call home,

Luckily I had twins

TheMrFailz · Post by **TheMrFailz** » 31 Oct 2018, 14:34

RIP.

Turns out my intuition was correct and the mechanic was wrong. Blew a major seal on the front side of the engine (haven't gotten to look into it yet) while I was in town today. Stocked up on oil at the nearest shop so I could get it home. Was losing a quart every 1.5 miles.

Based on the amount of oil spilling I'm gonna go ahead and say it was the front crank seal.

dj_v70 · Post by **dj_v70** » 31 Oct 2018, 17:17

Hmm, sounds like it was leaking from top and front seals. Recommend checking PCV valve service also, that might be root cause.

TheMrFailz · Post by **TheMrFailz** » 31 Oct 2018, 17:18

dj_v70 wrote: ↑31 Oct 2018, 17:17 Hmm, sounds like it was leaking from top and front seals. Recommend checking PCV valve service also, that might be root cause.

Btw by "front of the engine" I mean the belt area.

dj_v70 · Post by **dj_v70** » 31 Oct 2018, 17:36

TheMrFailz wrote: ↑31 Oct 2018, 17:18 Btw by "front of the engine" I mean the belt area.

Understood, front rank seal is a front seal. I’ll clarify since this might not be obvious ... these engines require PCV service every 100k miles with good maintenance. More so, if not. If PCV is not in good working order, the internal engine pressure blows out seals, etc.

TheMrFailz · Post by **TheMrFailz** » 31 Oct 2018, 17:38

dj_v70 wrote: ↑31 Oct 2018, 17:36
TheMrFailz wrote: ↑31 Oct 2018, 17:18 Btw by "front of the engine" I mean the belt area.
Understood, crank seal is a front seal. I’ll clarify since you are relatively new to the forum so you might not know this yet ... these engines require PCV service every 100k miles with good maintenance. More so, if not. If PCV is not in good working order, the internal engine pressure blows out seals, etc.

Oh trust me I'm well acquainted at this point with the fun of the PCV system. Did the glove test a few months ago and all was good with negative pressure but that must have changed.

dj_v70 · Post by **dj_v70** » 31 Oct 2018, 17:39

Ah, ok, my bad. I doubt it would have gone that far south in a few months.

dj_v70 · Post by **dj_v70** » 31 Oct 2018, 17:47

... by the way, it isn’t strong negative pressure is it? I had this on 03, it means pcv service required also. One poster (on this site?) said that it can ruin seals also. Personally, not sure.

TheMrFailz · Post by **TheMrFailz** » 31 Oct 2018, 17:48

dj_v70 wrote: ↑31 Oct 2018, 17:47 ... by the way, it isn’t strong negative pressure is it? I had this on 03, it means pcv service required also. One poster (on this site?) said that it can ruin seals also. Personally, not sure.

Wasn't too terribly strong iirc. Just enough to keep it somewhat sucked inside the initial filler area right under the cap.