Unknown Oil Leak ?

[jackal2513]

hiya folks and merry Xmas !


ive had a slow oil leak for some time now
has certainly made a mess of my driveway

i took a look underneath and the whole sump just seems covered in oil
above that, like towards the underside of the turbo everything seems dry

anyone have any ideas what the likely culprit might be ?


here a couple of large pics:

[ikp_77]

it looks like oil return pipe from the turbo the rubber seal has gone it is at the top edge of the sump a pipe on the lip if this helps

[Alan M]

In the top pic the return is the pipe that returns into the block from the bottom of the turbo. It will need the gasket for the top and bottom of the pipe from a dealer and they are only pennies. Two 5mm allen head bolts on the turbo and a 10mm bolt and nut for the clamp and pull the pipe out of the block, fit new seals and enjoy. HTH.

[kinkersaab]

I have had 2 volvo with this now. 1st a v70 2.5t 220k and 2nd a 01 s60 with 155k, both times the location of the oil threw me off the problem. It was worse after a thrash or higher revs. It turned out to be the seal where the dipstick tube enters the block on the front off the engine, the airflow had blown all the oil up the back off the engine. The dipstick tube is not easy to see but on both occations this has fixed the problem, certainly worth a look.

[jackal2513]

thanks guys

gave it a full degrease today then ran the engien for 5 mins

sure enough a tiny drop of oil just below the turbo return pipe

its always amazing how small amounts of oil can get everywhere end up covering the whole of the underside of your car ! I remember blowing a gearbox seal on circuit once.. only a small bit came out but boy, the whole car was soaked in the stuff !

shall order the bits tomorrow and fix

[Dangerous Dave]

Think yourself lucky mate, at least you can see you return hose. Because mine is the all wheel drive, I have a huge angle gearbox which is more or less the size of the red box in the pic below....

Attachment 5746

And so obstructs everything in view, and its all virtually unreachable.

[jackal2513]

crikey.... do you have to remove that first then for access ?

[Dangerous Dave]

Erm, unfortunately to remove it, I need to remove the O/S driveshaft, propshaft and steering rack pipes to get it out.

Fortunately though I changed my return pipe seals when I changed my clutch (engine out job)