Cars and Bikes

Up date on my Volvo s40T
Yesterday when I back home using my Volvo s40T, I saw the oil pressure light came on, and flickering, I slow down the car then continue to home. At home I hear a hard ticking noise from the top of the engine, the oil pressure light was off while idle, however it come on if I run the engine up to 2500 rpm.

This morning I checked the oil dip stick, wow...... I saw a white brown color in the stick. That mean the coolant already mix with the engine oil. My oil cooler has completely damage (see my previous post), the engine sound rough. I immediately turn off the engine and went to the Volvo workshop by other car.

Still no news for my oil cooler, I have been ordered this 4 weeks ago. The mechanic suggest me to drain my oil and coolant while waiting the parts ready and he said most likely the part will available next week, I crossed my finger for that. Drain the fluid to prevent rust starting in the engine because of water content in engine oil. Even though the volvo engine dominated build by aluminium but there is some minor part made by iron cast.

Is the mixture of oil and coolant can ignite the oil pressure light? maybe yes, however I suspect there still some oil sludge in the engine, this sludge block the oil reaching top of the engine and increase pressure at the bottom where the oil cooler placed. I also need to check and clean my oil pan. ....will continue when the oil cooler available.

CONTINUE...

After waiting for 10 days, the oil cooler available at the volvo workshop (32 days since I ordered), so I called the volvo emergency to towed my car from my house to the workshop.



Spend 3 days in workshop for changed the oil cooler, put new engine oil, cleaning oil pan, flush the radiator several times (there was oil remain in the radiator, the radiator almost clean after flushed 5 times), and changed the idle speed air valve hose, totally cost me Rp. 7.5M (around US$ 800). According to the volvo mechanic, there are some parts to be replace in the future:
- Radiator expansion tank, very small leaking, will be change after I use the car for 1-2 weeks, by that time
hopefully all remaining oil have been clean out.
- They suspect my car oil pump performance have been decreasing, they did pressure test and gave me
number 0.2 ...., its not clear 0.2 what? Mpa? if the unit is Mpa, 0.2 is a good number for idle speed, and
maximum is 0.7 Mpa at 4500 rpm. I'll find out this problem later. And again the parts was not available.
However they gave me a clue, the volvo s40 oil pump is exactly the same with volvo 960 royal (3.0) oil
pump, and I can find this part in local shop with much cheaper price.
- The mechanic also suspect the ticking tapped noise partially caused by low oil pressure/supply. It's may be
right, or maybe the hydraulic tapped have been damaged partially.
- The oil pressure light have turn off, however the check engine light remain on.
- the mechanic found an oil leaking from camshaft seal, needs more inspection.

And today, when I ready to went back to workshop to change my expansion tank, the battery just died ........, so I bought a new battery, a cheap G Force (US$ 110) instead of Varta (US$ 200). I postpone my visit to workshop, may be tomorrow.

CONTINUE .... 20 NOVEMBER
Back to volvo workshop for changing the radiator expansion tank, and reported that I found oil leaking under the car, I suspected came from oil cooler or oil pan plug. I asked the mechanic about the pressure test unit, he said 'Mpa', that mean my car give 0.2 Mpa when idle, its a good pressure, so the oil pump still in good condition (minimum 0.1 Mpa). And the engine check light gave ECM 62 code, according to the mechanic because of not nough oil pressure in camshaft valve sensor, however after I read the manual, ECM 62 code caused of off timing or camshaft pulley offset.
After inspection the mechanic told me that the oil leaking from camshaft seal, and its worst than previous inspection. Oh my god....., but I drove the car back to my home and plan to repair by the end of this month after receive my monthly salary.

21 November
Found the oil leak under my car, quite a lot. I can't wait, bring back to workshop and fixed ......

Beside fixed the camshaft pully and seal, the volvo's mechanic suggest to open the top engine cover to inspect the tappets condition and probably also can inspect oil sludge deposit on the top.

22 November

The volvo's mechanic called me, he invited me to inspect the top of engine. Wow the ***** oil sludge and residue covering the top engine cover, so I decided to overhoul the top part of the engine.



After 8 days in workshop, my S40 return home with very smooth engine.

Up date on May 2008
Six month after the top engine overhaul, the S40 running without any problem. The engine feel smooth, quite powerful and surprisingly very efficiencies fuel consumption, approximately 8 ltr for 100 km for city driving and down to 5.9 ltr per 100 km for extra urban driving.