That 96 Volvo 850 Turbo...

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Ok, well my in-laws gave us that Volvo like they were going to. It is a very clean car for having 185,000 miles on it. It also came with all the paper work showing all the records of everything done on the car which is everything. My in-laws had the oil changed every 5,000 with castrol gtx 10w30, but looking in the oil fill hole everything has a reddish color to it. I'm guessing varnish but not real sure. I ordered some red line 10w30 for the car, mainly because I have wanted to try it for a long time and for the turbo and all. I had the car up on ramps looking at it the other day and everything is clean except two beads of oil hanging from the bottom of the turbo. When they gave us the car it was about a quart or quart and a half low with about 4,000 miles on the oil. I added 1 and a half or so quarts of 15w40 royal purple I had laying around. After the car sat in the garage for a few days i noticed two small puddles of oil on the ground. Today I left the car running for a few minutes while and noticed a couple of drops of oil on the ground. After driving the car 200 miles after adding the oil the dip oil on the dip stick hasn't gone down anymore.

So now what. If I use the red line will I open a running hose? Should i use dino, or a heavier weight dino? The only problem area i can see is around the turbo. What do you all think? I live away from everything so my driving is a lot of highway and at least 30 mins. to an hour one way.

Thanks
 
The in-laws didn't think it leaks, so i'm wondering if that little bit of rp opened it up. They didn't drive it much lately either, but always garage kept.

And what is a flame trap? I guess i need to clean it every once and awhile. Do you either have a flame trap or pcv valve?
 
Yeah, Pablo is most likely correct with the turbo hose leak, a friend of mine has a SRT4 neon with the same problem what a leaky [censored] a real mess the entire car was bathed in an oil mist.
 
That oil drop on the bottom of the turbo is normal. There isn't much you can do about it. Even cars with only 20K miles come in for services have that oil on the turbo.

My personal recommendation, pull out the fuel pump relay (it's behind the fuse box on the cowl panel, remove the 4 T25 torx to expose the relay box) the relay is pink. There will be a date printed on the side. If it is from 1996, replace it with a new relay. These relays are problematic and will cause random stalling from bad solder joints.

Other than that, those cars are awesome vehicles and they will last a long LONG time.
 
You don't have a PCV valve, but you do have a PCV system. It is some type of canister that catches all the oil. It clogs up over time and can cause crank case pressure which will eventually ruin seals. The turbo cars use a ptc valve that needs to be cleaned. I believe it will be on one of the air cleaner hoses.
 
Update, the car started leaking from the rear main seal too. The car started leaking more as the days went on, so I changed the oil to Castrol GTX High Mileage because it's been ran on GTX for a long time. I can't believe it. The leak almost stopped on the spot. Can a quart and a half of RP start that or is it more likely I had a little too much oil in there. Probably a 1/8 to 1/4 high on the dip stick.

It bothers me running dino oil for 5000 miles in a car with a turbo, but that's what they call for. That car warms up quick. During my oil change I just ran down the street and back to warm the car up, and I couldn't hold the drain plug with latex gloves. It was too hot. Just lying under the car everything seemed hotter than other cars i've been around. This is just what is running around in my head. All that heat and dino oil.
 
My 98 T5 is slightly different than yours, but these cars have PVC systems that require maintaince or else they will create too much crankcase pressure and blow out the rear main seal. Mine does not have a flame trap, but an oil collection box. I did all the hoses and the box at 80,000 miles. Theres a turbo oil return line that eventually gets wet too. (common). I've been running Mobil 1 in the last 3 changes and will switch back to regular Pennzoil 10/30 summer and 5/30 winter. http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=4a070cabe2742f435e29687e971c1cae
 
Originally Posted By: Ignatz
My 98 T5 is slightly different than yours, but these cars have PVC systems that require maintaince or else they will create too much crankcase pressure and blow out the rear main seal. Mine does not have a flame trap, but an oil collection box. I did all the hoses and the box at 80,000 miles. Theres a turbo oil return line that eventually gets wet too. (common). I've been running Mobil 1 in the last 3 changes and will switch back to regular Pennzoil 10/30 summer and 5/30 winter. http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=4a070cabe2742f435e29687e971c1cae


If you take care of the service (oil changes) on a regular basis, these boxes do not clog up.

My 850 with over 260K miles on it has never had the PCV box replaced or cleaned. No leaks.

When the rear main seal on an 850 leaks, replace it. There is a new one that seals better. I did have to replace it on mine at 220K miles.
 
A good way to check your 850 PCV is by removing the dipstick while its running. If you see a good amount of smoke being pushed out, your PCV is most likely clogged. I started seeing this around 150k and pushed it till about 175k. Cam seal, dipstick seals and oil cap seal started leaking oil big time. I replaced the PCV system last month and found the lower hole to be 90% blocked off by sludge. Since replacement, no more smoking dipstick. I replaced the leaky seals too at the same time.
 
This hasn't missed a service, and there are several showing where they cleaned the "flame trap". I found that box behind the intake. What's the best way to get to it to clean?
 
Originally Posted By: iunderpressure
This hasn't missed a service, and there are several showing where they cleaned the "flame trap". I found that box behind the intake. What's the best way to get to it to clean?


You basically have to remove the intake manifold to get to it. Its not too bad of a job if you're somewhat handy.

Good writeup here: http://lakesidedp.com/uploadpics/pcv/
 
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