front right passenger underside damaged by median, what is that fluid?

greenrongreen · Post by **greenrongreen** » 04 Apr 2020, 18:38

I toggled the bozo bit this this morning: I was in a rush, distracted, and turned into what I thought was a normal entry leading into my bank. What I didn't see was this entrance had a concrete median/divider for incoming and outgoing traffic. I smacked it hard with right side of the car and the car jumped. the plastic under-fairing broke on the right side. But more importantly, there is a black cylinder low in the front right near the radiators - looks like a long oil filter, it appears to screw in?? It was exposed and it got slammed hard dented, and is leaking. Is something to do with the transmission? Power steering?

I managed to get the car home 2 miles. Is this something that I can replace? I don't see any other damage but the fluid did get onto the belts. Suspension, miraculously, seems intact. I didn't blow out the tire either, and the wheel looks OK. I did notice a torn outer CV boot but it could have been there before.

Should I try to replace the mystery black cylinder or just have it towed to my mechanic for a thorough going over?

Post by **amblerman** » 04 Apr 2020, 18:54

If you're 100% sure it is NOT your oil filter (which I bet it isn't) then I bet it's this thing
yellow arrow points to front of car
orange arrow is passenger side tire.

: ac.png (231.35 KiB) Viewed 751 times

If that matches what you are taking about, then it's your AC accumulator/dryer.

Here's another picture but this one is silver. This one shows all the pipes on the top of it so you can confirm it's the AC accumulator.
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/volvo- ... 3r#fitment

If it's broken/punctured, you probably don't have AC at all right now. (ie puncture released all your refrigerant).

If this happened on my car i'd have it repaired as I don't have the proper tools to replace this and inject refrigerant into the system.

Read this thread.
viewtopic.php?t=41084

-A

Post by **abscate** » 05 Apr 2020, 04:45

If the weather is dry in AZ you have some time (week, month?) before damaging more AC components with moisture getting in.

I have rejuvenated AC that has been open for months and been lucky, your ACmay vary

If you decide you want AC inyour car back, fix as soon as you can

greenrongreen · Post by **greenrongreen** » 05 Apr 2020, 09:06

Thank you both. This is indeed what it is, the AC is not working and it was blowing cold just last week. I'll get it in immediately!