Hello!

My 95 850 had been bone dry for 150,000 miles, much to the chagrin of my domestic car owner neighbors, whose cars routinely leave deposits even when nearly new. I suddenly noticed oil under the driver's side of the engine and thought - not the rear main seal! I brought the car into my independent volvo repair shop, who did say that the rear main seal was leaking, but that the oil cap gasket was leaking a lot, and the oil was running under the spark plug cover and down the side of the engine. They replaced it (2.00 part) and now the amount of leaking oil has dropped dramatically. I took the oil cap off and couldn't believe how much more I had to push it on to compress the new cap seal.

Anyway, I wanted to post this in case others may have overlooked this simple and cheap item, which a garage might miss and replace the rear main seal anyway.