Today I power washed the bottom of the 850 engine to zero in on a little oil leak.
It seems to be weeping a little at the junction of the engine and tranny and dripping
a little from the middle of 3 fore and aft 10MM hex head bolts, just in back of where the oil dip stick goes but not the dipstick seal.
plus more weeping from what looks like the passenger side drive shaft at the gear box.

It was leaking more when I first got this car in July, and had to unplug the EGR valve and intake manifold port. That slowed down the leaks, but still it's dripping slowly.

Is there any additive to swell the oil seals to stop this kind of leak?

Or do I have to replace some seals.

Bill

You do not seem to specify what year your car is. Before you get into any project of replacing major items, I suggest you use fluids that take care of small leaks; they are available in many auto stores. I have use them for small leaks, including a rear main oil leak, and 10 months later they seem to have been working much better than expected. If your leak is more substantial, then more involved action may be needed.

1995 850 turbo sedan, a really great car (for the last 16.2 years)
2006 S60 2.5T, a really nice car (for the last 5.1 years)

Its a 95 850NA
My Volvo guru here thinks it's the rear main seal oozing.
He says forget it if it's a minor leak because fixing it requires pulling
the engine and splitting off the tranny @ abt $600 labor
And I dont want to do that in my driveway.

The leaking slowed down after clearing the plugged EGR but it's still
weeping.

I'm a skeptic about additives doing much other than relieving you of
a few bucks at the store.

Bill

PS: Maybe the used car salesmen fix that with jello in the oil? :-)

I understand your caution; I have been there. When my rear main seal started leaking last January (at ~182k miles), it got as bad as 1 quart every 700 miles. On this forum, there was a suggestion to check for overpressure at the point where engine oil is added (which is indicative of a serious RMS problem; please check this forum). My car apparently did not have such an overpressure. Somebody else suggested an RMS fluid for small leaks and I thought I would try it, before I spent $650+ at my indy mechanic or $1100+ at the dealer. When I tried that fluid (~ $5), my indy indicated that "a few prayers might be in order too"! Now at over 190k miles, my RMS oil leak rate is about 1/2 quart for every 2,500k miles (the mile interval in between my oil changes). In the worst case I would have lost $5 that I can afford much more easily than the $650+ (or more). Good luck.

Interesting. What is that stuff exactly? RMS?
It's worth a try if there's no ratty downside problems.

What oil are you using? I switched to synthetic Mobil 1
I'm told that the engine doesn't block up so bad with it.

Bill

If you haven't done it, you might want to give AutoRx a try. There seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions about synthetic oil and leaky seals, but if the car has been running on dino oil, it may take awhile for deposits to get cleaned out enough to restore the seal, AutoRx may help with the process.

--
'96 850T and '83 244 DL both at about 200K, '97 850T5; gone but not forgotten '81 245 and '64 Amazon

Thanks for the reply,
I'm trying the BARS stuff for the rear main seal yada yada.
They're the people that cure old age and malaria I think.

Bill

Here is the one I used: Bars Leak Rear Main Seal Repair (32 fl. oz.).

I have been using pennzoil conventional oil from day one with oil and oil filter changes every 2,500 miles. After about 135k miles, I tried synthetic oil, but my engine started consuming that oil. I went back to conventional oil and my car has never consumed any motor oil again.

I have read that many people don't give synthetic oil a long enough go when they first start. The oil consumption will go way up for ~5k miles but then settle back down again.

You're spending way more money on oil than you need to. There have been some studies (by Ford and Sunoco I think) that showed that changing your oil before 6000 miles is a real waste. Based on their studies the oil rapidly degrades over the first ~5000k miles but then barely changes at all until sometime well after 6000k miles. There were some folks who saw similar results from their own extensive test which they posted online:
http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/stories/oil-life.html

results:
http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/stories/mobil1.html

Their test was with Mobil 1 but I'm pretty sure the Ford test was with conventional. A quick search didn't turn up and links to the Ford test. Either way most people are changing their oil much too early and wasting money and precious environmental resources, and polluting needlessly.
--
1998 V70 AWD->FWD Turbo 200k+

I beg to differ with you on the frequency of changing conventional (dino?) motor oil. My research lab has done extensive research on these and I have been a consultant with some of the big oil companies for more than 15 years. Changing conventional oil often and recycling the used oil is good for the cars and the environment. If you have a single refereed scientific reference that suggests otherwise, please provide its full citation in here.

Companies with rental cars wait longer in between oil changes because (a) it costs them (i.e., the companies) less, and (b) someone else is going to be driving their cars when they get old with many miles. (These are my preliminary guesses.)

Car manufacturers suggest less frequent oil changes because (1) newer oils are of higher quality, (b) newer cars are built better, and (c) it may not hurt them (the car manufacturers) if our cars need replacement a bit more often.

Having said the above, synthetic motor oils are a bit of a different animal. It really depends on how they are made, what they contain, and what kind of testing has been done with them. I know less about them, and as I said my 1995 850 turbo sedan did not like Mobil 1 synthetic; perhaps, I did not stick with it for too long at that time.

Of course the way we drive affects the life of our motor oil. My car has been driven in the 130 mph range too many times. At 16.2 years old, my car is rarely pushed over 100 mph these days.

1995 850 turbo sedan, a great car with a great mileage
2006 S60 2.5.T, a really nice car for my other half

I took a shot and tried the Quart of BARS additive.
There was quite a section of stuff at Advance Auto.
They say 200 miles maybe and it might work.
I'm a skeptical optomist eh?
Ill report what happens, since the passenger drive axle seal and maybe the rear main is weeping oil sometime next week weather permitting, I'll pressure wash
the bottom of the engine and tranny again and see what happens.

The car has been on Mobil 1 since i got it late this summer.
My local Volvo guru said that ordinary oil really gunks up, and I found that mess inthe EGR valve and intake manifold passages.
Maybe Mobil 1 wont be so ugly?

Bill

It is all true: synthetic causes oil leaks. What happens is that the gunk deposited by conventional oil and ill care, covers the seals. The seals eventually dry out because they are no longer getting liquid oil, and when someone switches to synthetic, the gunk gets cleand out and the seals leak.

BUT, the seals will then begin to swell with the oil and the leaks will stop.

The EGR is contaminated by garbage gasoline deposits, and oil pushed oit of seals and sucked into the intake manifold.

The best thing to do is to switch to 10W30 synthetic and RUN the engine. Do not coast around town at 1500 rpm doing 5-10 minute trips. The oil will never get hot to burn off impurities, like water.

If you suspect there is a lot of sludge, take off the oil filler cap and take a look at the cam, then get a can of AutoRx, add it to the oil, and run it for a 1,000 miles. This is a 1 time treatment, not a preventative thing. It will remove sludge everywhere oil fumes go.

Klaus
--
Always willing to listen, just not able to take direction.