Hello all.

I just had some work done recently on my wagon. 190,xxx. It was leaking oil from the front of the engine onto the timing belt. The timing belt was changed, as well as the front cam seals, front crank seal (kit) and the oil changed while they had the car.

When I got the car back and drove off I noticed high amount of clicking coming from the engine. I got gas at a station and revved the car while sitting still to try and get rid of the clicking to no avail. The oil level was perfect on the dipstick.
I drove home (low and third gear) revving the car pretty high (3k-4k) to try and get what I guess was a valve un-stuck. At one point, when I manually down shifted, a good bit of what looked like oil came flying out of my tailpipe. After this the clicking went away but now I fear I'm burning oil.

I can't reason out why it would burn oil now, but that plume of smoke scared me. It hasn't noticeably smoked since, though it smells like oil now after I drive it. That could be due to them cleaning the engine and spreading some of the spilled oil from the engine onto the muffler or something. I dunno.

Was the clicking normal after a job like this? My mechanic told me she couldn't test drive it after the job because it had no gas and she had no cash at the moment to fill it up and such. I don't know if she ever did test drive it.

Thanks all.
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-Hector

Just changing the timing belt should not create any new valve clicking sounds provided they weren't there beforehand. Unless maybe the car sat for a week or so while the work was done. That story about not having enough gas to do a test drive seems pretty lame to me. You don't have to "fill it up" to do a test drive. A couple dollars would do the trick. Were any of the belt tensioners also replaced or are you still using the old ones? Just hope the clicking is not the valve(s) kissing the pistons due to a missaligned belt!

Just changing the timing belt should not create any new valve clicking sounds provided they weren't there beforehand. Unless maybe the car sat for a week or so while the work was done. That story about not having enough gas to do a test drive seems pretty lame to me. You don't have to "fill it up" to do a test drive. A couple dollars would do the trick. Were any of the belt tensioners also replaced or are you still using the old ones? Just hope the clicking is not the valves kissing the pistons due to a missaligned belt!

Thank you for the response.

The clicking went away after I did my little down shift maneuver and the plume of smoke came out. It would click before I had this job done but not as intensely and constantly as it did that day I picked it up. There hasn't been any clicking since the smoke issue.

It says here on my work order/estimate that when they replaced the timing belt, they also replaced the tensioner pulley and the idler pulley. I hope those are the belt tensioners you're talking about.
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-Hector

considering the age and mileage of your car, you may have 2 additional problems.
The oil pickup tubes may have lost their O rings at the bottom of the oil pan. This is quite common and causes a loss of oil pressure at start up, which causes the lifters to not "lift" enough because they require oil pressure.

The other could be a clogged oil separator or breather line clogged. This would have explained the sudden cloud of smoke behind the car, if the high rpms dislodged the clog and that was fed into the intake manifold. Also, a clogged breather system will force oil past the cam seals or the rear main seal.
Check the crankcase pressure by removing the dipstick at idle and hold a piece of paper over it. If the air blows out, there is a problem. If the paper gets sucked onto the pipe, all is good.

Klaus
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The 164 has a new home, all I am left with are a 95 854T and a 98 V70R :)

The rear main was done over 2 years ago. I replaced the PCV and some related hoses almost a year ago. When I had to do the PCV, I was on vacation and the car leaked 3 quarts oil through the filler cap on the interstate. Only when I turned the car back on after a food stop to get back on the interstate did it begin smelling like oil. That was also when I noticed that the rear windshield was covered in oil.

I tried the paper over the oil filler tube test today and while it didn't push the paper away, it didn't suck it in either. It just stayed over the oil filler tube without being moved. When I put my hand over the filler tube could feel the air coming out with every 'putt' or stroke of the engine. Suffice to say I couldn't tell if it was blowing out or sucking in. I could however, see a bit of smoke finding its way out of the that filler tube.

I looked in my Chilton manual with regards to the oil separator but couldn't find anything. Is there a different name for it? I did fine this site: http://lakesidedp.com/uploadpics/pcv/#ptc and it talks about the oil separator but that appears to be for turbo engines?

I know it isn't easy trying to diagnose these issues based on what I feel and see here on my end, but thank you for your help Klaus.

-H
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-Hector

The rear main was done over 2 years ago. I replaced the PCV and some related hoses almost a year ago. When I had to do the PCV, I was on vacation and the car leaked 3 quarts oil through the filler cap on the interstate. Only when I turned the car back on after a food stop to get back on the interstate did it begin smelling like oil. That was also when I noticed that the rear windshield was covered in oil.

You also said that you could feel the air pulsing at the dipstick hole, and that does not sound good at all.
Have your mechanic pour a tablespoon of oil in each cylinder and do an immediate compression test. If the values rise considerably, then your rings may be shot. Lets hope not.

The oil separator is a black box hidden under the intake manifold. The only way to replace that is to remove the manifold, about 3 hours of shop time.

Klaus


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The 164 has a new home, all I am left with are a 95 854T and a 98 V70R :)

I will perform the compression test this week after my finals at school are done. I can't afford to take the car to the volvo mechanic anymore. If there's something I can do myself, I will. If I have absolutely no recourse but to take the car in, I guess I'll have to.

I've done some research into the compression test and can get a gauge at harbor freight tools store for $15.00. I'll do it once without putting oil in, then I'll repeat the procedure on each cylinder with the tablespoon of oil and see if the numbers change dramatically. I will report back with the results. Is there anything else I have to do to the car procedurally to do this compression test? I'm following these instruction: http://volvospeed.com/Repair/compression_test.html


Before I contemplate setting about taking the intake manifold off of this thing to change the oil separator/oil trap, are there any more ways of making sure that my 'smoke out of the dipstick' symptom is due to the oil separator? Are there any more 'easy' things to check before I do this?

Also, is this: http://www.eeuroparts.com/productdetail.aspx?searchResults=1&code=7855
the oil separator?

Thanks for all the help.

-H
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-Hector

Obviously, final exams come first! Right after food and rest :)
After finals are over, PARTY!! Sleep off hangover. Then go buy a compression tester, a wire brush to clean off the spark plugs, and a turkey baster to dribble oil into each cylinder.

Correct, always take baseline readings first. The procedure from Volvospeed is a good one.

If we are correct and the rings/block have suffered overheating due to low oil, don't bother changing out the oil separator. Your engine will die soon. If the compression stays the same after the leakdown test, then it could be a bad head gasket, but I doubt it.

Start another thread after the compression readings titled "Blown rings???" and see what kind of help you get. I will be very curious.

Remember, not too much oil in the spark plug holes, all you want the oil to do is cover the rings. And your engine will smoke like crazy trying to burn off the oil inside a hot exhaust, so you might want to do this with a cold engine?

Klaus
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The 164 has a new home, all I am left with are a 95 854T and a 98 V70R :)