I have a 1987 740 with 215,000 Miles. My Oil Pressure Sensor is leaking oil. I can see where it is coming from. I am sure it is 16 years old like my car. I may have accidentally damaged it when during my last oil change I had to use a pry bar and a two pound hammer to knock off a frozen oil filter. (This was my first such experience in forty years of self oil changes.) Regardless, I can not see exactly where the lead is at or if there is any damage I inflicted. That background aside, here is my question:

I have heard that Volvo oil sensors may break off in trying to remove them. I now am concerned that this may happen to me. Anyone experience or hear of this before. I hate to think about drilling out the remnants and retapping if this happens. There doesn't seem to be much room to work there. Any knowledge or tips would be appreciated.

Thanks for posting. It gave me confidence. I was able to remove the unti without incident an replace it with a new one. While I have plugged this hole, it appears I still have yet another. First I will have to fix a Power Steering leak. I am posting a help note on that today 6/13. After I get that mess cleaned up, I will see if I do still have an engine oil leak or if the power steering fluid is just washing old oil & dirt down to the ground and making it look like some engine oil. Always seems to be another leak to take care of on this one.

Thanks again.

Euclidian

The oil pressure sensor on my B230FT was the source of an extremely aggravating leak when I first bought the car. It had a minor leak that steadily worsened. The problem was that the leak was coming from the sensor, not the threaded connection to the engine block.

The sensor is a metal threaded body with a plastic, crimped on top that houses the actual sensor. The crimp was failing, but it would only leak at higher engine rpm than idle. So I would look and look but couldn't find an active leak. It got so bad I was losing the equivalent of a quart per 500 miles, so I stopped driving it. I finally figured out the problem by cleaning the engine (again) and laying under the car whilst my wife revved the engine. Then I was able to see the point of origin before the whole side of the engine was covered.

You shouldn't have any problem removing the sensor if you have a good deep well socket (I forget the size).

HTH,

someguyfromMaryland

Yeah. I just broke the brass elbow off in my wagon. Since I'm not too
enamored with the engine anyways, I just patched it up with JB Weld. But
I was plenty upset.

The problem I ran into was that I knocked the oil pressure sender with the
alternator (gotta love how the 240 accessories are laid out). I could
tighten it to stop the leak, but it would interfere with the alternator.
I couldn't remove the whole thing because the sender itself would smack
the oil filter housing.

It *is* soft brass, so you should be able to extract it with some ease.
I've never done that sort of thing, ever, and didn't want to end up with a
broken ez-out in the block or possibly shavings in the oil passages... so
I took the stupid way out.

YMMV.

- alex

'85 244 Turbo
'84 245 Turbo

In the awful case that you do break one off, which I doubt will happen, you should be able to remove the remains with an easy-out or extractor. Fortunately the part does have a hole in the center already, so half the battle is won- you won't need to drill.
Hey it's a good excuse to buy tools. I have a nice quality set of square extractors (4-straight flutes) in small sizes that have served me very well for over 10 years. Never had this problem but fixed many broken off pipe nipples and such.
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 220K, 87 244DL- 230K, 88 744GLE- 198K, 91 244 180K, 88 244GL 145K