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The flame trap is there for a reason.
People smoke three packs-a-day for their entire lives, and don't get lung cancer . . .
. . . but most people who smoke will get lung cancer.
People change the oil on their car every 25,000 miles, and their car lasts until they sell it at 75,000. And they call people who change their oil every 3,000 mile foolish . . .
. . . but most people who change their oil every 25,000 miles never make it to the first oil change.
The same logic applies to the flame trap, except here, the consequences are much more dire. If your engine backfires into a fuel-ladden crankcase, you have the makings of a substantial bomb.
Volvo didn't design the flame trap because they wanted to spend some extra money. They did it because they saw a need, probably borne-out in testing.
It may well be that, in reality, the maintenance required for this item has caused more headaches than the original issue, but that doesn't mean that the original issue doesn't exist.
The flame trap is, just that, a FLAME TRAP. It doesn't sound too good that there should be flames jumping around your engine, but someone at Volvo saw just that as a possibility. And the flame trap is there to take care of that possibility.
Just because someone has gone an oil change, or two, or even 100,000 miles for that matter, without a flame trap and without a problem, doesn't demonstrate that the flame trap is useless. I just reinforces the 3-pack-a-day, 25,000 mile way of thinking.
Ken
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