When I popped the hood on my 850 wagon for a pre-purchase inspection at the end of September, there was a top-engine oil leak. Since the car had been serviced by the dealer where I was buying it, I was able to talk to the service dept about the car's history. Recently, the oil filler seal had been replaced. Since I asked about the leak, they looked a bit closer, and replaced the rear cam seal as well as another oil fill cap gasket. No more leaks.

The other posts are all good tips. But I urge you to look closer at what's going on. It may be two things marquerading (sp?) as one: oil cap o ring, and oil return o ring/gasket. From what I've read, you'd be in the vast minority if your oil cap o ring DIDN'T leak and fill the top of the engine with little pools of oil - happend to me.

Then, also from what I've read (here), the oil return line o ring/gasket is an EXTREMELY common oil leak - happended to me. And yes it got on part of the exos and smelled bad. And as one of the previous posters said, volvospeed.com does have very good instructions for a fix. It's not a very difficult operation either. Parts cost ~$7 U.S. Sorry if this is long, good luck.

I was at a dealership about a weekago. They would not sell me a flame trap as they are not reccommened anymore. I did buy a new o ring $1.37. The removal with directions from bay 13 took about 15 minutes The o ring was still soft but compressed so I changed it. At the same time I cleaned the throttle body. Good luck but do it today before you blow a main seal.

In addition to replacing the oil cover seal I would make sure

the flame-trap has been serviced. Failure to do this can

cause pressure build-up in the engine and might lead to

oil leaks. Note that turbo models do not have a flame-trap

and this does not apply to turbos.

Bay 13 has instructions for this, too. See:

http://volvospeed.com/bay13.htm

you might want to replace the oil cap sealer, too if you have not done thatt recently. if the oil is on thee top side, then most probably, you need a new oil cap sealer. $2-3 at your dealership.

regards

francis

Could be the oil cap rubber washer or the turbo return oil line's gaskets, Bay 13 has instructions on how to replace the turbo line gaskets.