Volvo flame trap

[rainman49]

Finally finished replacing the PCV flame trap on daughter's Volvo S70. It was stopped up with carbon and gunk. Made the mistake of putting a new gasket on the oil filler cap when it was stopped up and it started puking oil out of the cam seals. Put in PCV kit from ipdusa, which involves pulling the intake manifold. Haven't run it much, but it appears the seals may not be pouring oil any more. I hope that continues.

 

[oggb]

Volvos sound fun.

 

[Astro14]

If it's still pouring, you'll need to be certain that you got the flame trap box to block passages clean...a flexible wire brush (like a rifle brush) helps with that.

It's possible to damage the seals from excess crankcase pressure. Perhaps you got lucky...I didn't..and had to replace the seals. You'll need a tool that allows you to lock the cams from the rear (driver side) of the engine. The tool should include the crank locating pin that installs through the starter hole. It's a long job, but it can't be done without that tool, because there is no other way to hold/lock the exhaust cam while you remove the cam phaser.

 

[horse123]

They might not be so expensive initially, but the lack of being able to do anything yourself will make them cost as much as any German luxury car in the long run.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Of all the cars I bought the last 20-25+ years, the 2006 Volvo V70 I bought for my daughter 2 years ago is the worst in term of reliability and serviceability. I regretted buying that Volvo within a month of driving/maintain it.

The only good about Volvo is the body is very solid, no visible damage in light to moderate accidents, other than this nothing else in a Volvo is better than a Honda.

 

[bdcardinal]

I did that on my S60R, and it was lame. I swear every fastener had a different size head on it mixing metric, tamper torx and 5pt tamper torx. The job took a lot longer than it should have taken.

I still miss that car though.

 

[Astro14]

There is quite a bit in a Volvo that is superior to a Honda.

The body is more durable. Volvos don't rust the way that other cars do. In the rust belt (which is not where you live), Subarus and Hondas are completely rusted through, while Volvos of the same vintage look good as new.

The body is, as you said, more solid...and not only does that prevent minor damage, it saves your life in a severe crash. My brother, the EMT, has had quite a few "fatals"..but some remarkable instances of survival in a Volvo...not one "fatal" in a Volvo in over a decade of responding to calls.

The interior materials are more durable. Better, thicker, leather and so forth.

They have a few quirks...but in the end, there is no other wagon out there, so Volvo it is.

 

[geeman789]

Originally Posted By: Astro14
There is quite a bit in a Volvo that is superior to a Honda...

The body is more durable. Volvos don't rust the way that other cars do. In the rust belt (which is not where you live), Subarus and Hondas are completely rusted through, while Volvos of the same vintage look good as new.



Right...

My 1993 Acura Integra finally succumbed to rust ... AFTER 19 YEARS... in a winter climate with generous salt useage...

330 000 miles...

My Honda Odyssey, almost 8 years old, driven in the same conditions, has ZERO rust as well.

Good enough for me...

And Volvo is now a chinese brand, purchased by GEELY AUTOMOBILE OF CHINA, in 2010, if that kind of stuff matters to you...

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: Astro14
There is quite a bit in a Volvo that is superior to a Honda.

The body is more durable. Volvos don't rust the way that other cars do. In the rust belt (which is not where you live), Subarus and Hondas are completely rusted through, while Volvos of the same vintage look good as new.

The body is, as you said, more solid...and not only does that prevent minor damage, it saves your life in a severe crash. My brother, the EMT, has had quite a few "fatals"..but some remarkable instances of survival in a Volvo...not one "fatal" in a Volvo in over a decade of responding to calls.

The interior materials are more durable. Better, thicker, leather and so forth.

They have a few quirks...but in the end, there is no other wagon out there, so Volvo it is.

The quirks in a Volvo is far more annoying than the superiors over the Honda.

The low beam in 2006 V70 is used as DRL at full intensity, also the instrument light is on all the time, day and night, so that at night a driver may forget to turn headlight, so that all rear lights are off.

The low beam bulbs are extremely difficult and time consuming to replace, because it is used as DRL at full power so it is need to be replaced very often.

The AFT dipstick tube is way down low behind some hoses/tubes and very difficult to reach and to refill ATF.

The A/C low pressure port in down low under several hoses and very little room to get your hand down there to connect the charger.

All these things are easy to reach in a Honda, Honda engineers seem to think and design these parts better/easier for maintenance. Looking under the hood of V70 and Accord, I can clearly see that Honda engineers do better job in designing all those parts and especially organizing it such that most maintenance items can easily be done without removing other parts.

Why do Volvo engineer decide to go with complicate flame trap, while no one else do it. Why not just use a simple PCV valve like may other cars ? Do the flame trap makes the engine lasted longer or better performance ?

If Volvo is as good as Honda they didn't bought out by Chinese. Same for Saab, if Saab and Volvo are as good as Toyota and/or Honda they didn't bought out by a foreign country.

 

[rainman49]

Quick update:
Although I haven't run the Volvo but a few times on 8-mile trips to get the engine up to operating temp,the cam seals are not leaking. I parked it in the carport and there wasn't a drop of oil on the concrete when I moved it several hours later. Hard to believe changing out the PCV system would have such a dramatic effect.

 

[CBR.worm]

I went through that on an Audi turbo. Bad PCV parts pressurized the crankcase and damaged seals. It kind of surprised me at 2 years old and 40k miles on the car.

 

[mdocod]

Quote:
but the lack of being able to do anything yourself will make them cost as much as any German luxury car in the long run.


If you can't work on a Volvo yourself, then you can't work on a CAR yourself.

If you can work on cars, then you can work on Volvo's.

Aside from the added complexity of a turbo system (which is well worth it if you live at elevation), there is almost no difference in parts cost between similar vintage and configured volvo's and toyotas and hondas and fords and GMs. If you let a volvo cost you more than these other brands to maintain when compared apples to apples, then that's your own fault.

 

[Brad_C]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR

If Volvo is as good as Honda they didn't bought out by Chinese. Same for Saab, if Saab and Volvo are as good as Toyota and/or Honda they didn't bought out by a foreign country.


Volvo and Saab both had car divisions but were/are much larger companies. They both wanted to simplify, concentrate on their core business and therefore divest their car divisions. Those European companies were acquired by Ford & GM respectively. So the Americans bought the European car companies, and then went bankrupt needing to get bailed out in a hurry and sold them to the Chinese in a fire-sale. I don't actually think that's so much Volvo or Saab's fault actually.

As for the flame trap, provided you clean it at every service you'll never have a problem with it. I don't necessarily think it's much different than an American PCV system, but it does a similar job in a much simpler configuration (no valves, just a screen that requires periodic cleaning).

Volvo are no more complex than any other modern vehicle really.