850 Rear main seal leaking BAD

it appears

at 100k or

The rear seals on the 850 are notoriously bad. My 97 850 with less than 60K miles on it leaks.

If the oil pan were damaged. it would be easily visible. I suspect the seal itself. Furthermore, since the underside of the engine is described as "super super clean" I suspect that the dealer cleaned everything including the evidence of a seal leak in preparation for selling it (standard procedure).

Prepare for a fight but stand your ground. It sure sounds like the rear seal and they won't want to replace it since they have to remove the transmission and all. Not low labor.

Chuck Fiedler Nothing but Volvos since 1973.

Thanks for the reply.

A small leak would be somewhat acceptable.

This is what ended up when we parked it in the garage (one day).

These are pics of the wet underside, the gasket maker is a sign that this tranny has been removed before, I doubt Volvo uses orange gasket maker?!?

(its not leaking fromthe front sensor, it is just soaked towards it, it appears to be coming from the bleeder hole in the bellhousing.

?!?!?

My '87 760 GLE leaks too, but not like this, this is severe!! It would take a year for my Volvo to leak as much oil from the rear main seal as this 850 did in one day!!!!!!!!

For what its worth, the rear main seal seem to go bad almost instantaneoulsy. Here is an example. I was once interested in buying a used

850. It was a "third car" for the family and it had not been driven for several months since the daughter went off to college. There was NO oil leak when I looked at it sitting in the driveway. No oil under the car and the bottom of the motor was normally dirty but not oily. By the time I got it to the mechanic for a buyers check it was pouring oil from the rear main seal.

Just another example of that legendary volvo reliability. Also another reason our next car will be a new Subaru. Hopefully our VolvlemonO will keep running till the 94 1/4 models hit the dealers.

transmission, it appears

replaced at 100k or

driven over a speed

If a car sits for several months without being started the seals will start to dry up, sitting not being driven for months at a time is hard on any car. Still the Volvo reputation was built on the older RWD models, the newer cars are a lot more high tech, but long term reliability is still largely unproven.

asian and sweedish cars are a world apart...duhhhh...fix the rear seal, get your new 850 to a good volvo mechanic and see what kind if condition the car is in...if you find other %$#@ , take the car back for a full refund...(unless you bought it "as is")...if there are the usual things... < 1k to make it perfect.. you are all set...you may have to put some $$ into it...

]

Hi,

I had the same thing happen with my 1996 Volvo 850 within a week of buying it in june 2000, almost immediately after changing the oil (from whatever it came with to Castrol GTX-2). A very bad rear main oil seal leak. It was fixed under warranty by the Volvo dealer I bought it from without any argument. It took 3 days to have done as the mechanic said "he didn't like" the first two seals Volvo spares sent him! It hasn't leaked a drop since the seal was replaced.

This item has cropped up regularly on this news group since then - you tend to follow something like that.

You shouldn't have any future problems if its repaired properly.

Regards Barry

transmission, it appears

replaced at 100k or

driven over a speed

I have 2 Volvos and 1 Subaru in the garage. There is a world of difference between them.

I have to sweep up rust from under the Subaru every month. No problem with the Volvos.

The Volvos are worth repairing since they hold their resale value. The Subaru is worthless on the used car market. My old Volvos sold the first day they were advertised in the newspaper to the first person that looked at them. I wouldn't dream of selling my Subaru to anyone, they deserve better.

The Volvos go to the dealer for routine maintenance and state inspections. The Subaru goes to the dealer for that but also to have parts replaced because they have rusted out. The last part to rust out is the transmission linkage. It takes two hands to move the shifter for the automatic transmission. Subaru has tried to fix it for several years and but only fixes it for a couple days. The tailgate and lower body parts were replaced once and are rusting out again.

New Subarus are nice, but if you want a car you can keep on using get a Volvo. They last.

The Volvo reputation was built on a solid and safe car. Reliability was never Volvo's strength. I used to carry spare fuel pumps in my 240's and needed the spare several times. Volvos were always worth fixing and held their resale value.

The newer FWD Volvos have been on the market 12 years.* Their reliability is proven. The reliability is not the best, but the basic safety, strength and durability of the car is well documented. I would challenge anyone to find a more reliable 12 year old car than the Volvo. Most other makes are very reliable when new but fail to withstand the test of time.

*The 850 was introduced in Europe in the fall of 1991 and the USA in fall of 1992.

Why would you carry a spare fuel pump? Do you mean a spare relay? I've never even heard of a pump failing with less than 150k miles on it.

My big problem is who should be on the hook for it?

Its been a week and 250 kms since I've picked up the car. I called the dealer. Why should I pay $1000 Canadian to have this fixed when really, the car was misrepresented. I asked, any problems with the car? leaks? (this is a Volvo dealer). The answer was "no no, it goes through a thourough inspection". yeah, well, they missed the big leak.

No, the car didn't sit on the lot for months, it was there for about 3 weeks, and has

122kms on it. This car was cleaner than 2000 S70s that the same dealer had.

If it were a month down the road, I'd expect to pay, but a week? 5 freakin' days?!?! no. If the dealer doesn't make good on the repair, well, I'm not gonna be happy about it. If it were a fly by night little dealership, I'd certainly feel screwed at this point.

I'll find out what happens tomorrow when I take it in.

So far, 1.5 litres have leaked. Not happening, 1.5 litres for 250 kms. that is a HIGH pressure oil leak, I'm sure the back of the flywheel is soaked. (thrust bearings are right there, this is basically the end of the line for the main bearings).

I had an identical problem with my 96 850. Turned out it was the rear camshaft seal, located near the top of the engine on the right hand side, as you're looking at it. I cleaned the flame trap, which was completely clogged, with a drill and the correct diameter drill bit in it. Once the flame trap was clear and I replaced the seal, everything was just fine.

Not completely cleaning the flame trap means that internal pressure builds up within the engine, blowing seals.

I originally thought it was the rear main bearing seal, but upon closer inspection, I saw that the oil was dripping down the engine itself and exiting around the area you discovered the oil, leading me to initially and erroneously conclude it was the main bearing seal.

Take another look at it; the cover to access the camshaft bearing seal is perhaps 2 - 3" in diameter and is held in by three screws.

Good luck.

Myr> My big problem is who should be on the hook for it?

misrepresented. I

days?!?! no.

about it. If

Change the oil and stop a quart short. Replace that quarts with Bars Leak from your local autorepair shop. That stops a lot of leaks. I used it on a rear main seal on a 740 turbo successfully.

tranny has been

take a year for my

super super clean.

the engine while

that was left on

replaced at 100k

the struts hitting

The dealer should take care of it on such a recent purchase.

John

You must not have driven many 240s. In the 70's, the Volvo outside the tank fuel pumps would start humming. If you didn't replace them when they started humming, they would completely fail.

The inside the tank fuel pumps never failed for me, but the rubber hose could come off and have to be put back on.

Thanks all,

The dealer decided without me getting upset that they will repair the rear main seal, it is bad.

The PCV system was recently replaced, and this could have caused the leak in the first place. The car will be repaired this week, and I'm happy.

Volvo dealers are top notch in my books. You might pay a little more, but its worth it.

What dealership is this?

I've driven 240's since I started driving, there's 7 of them in the family, one of which was bought new in '86. Virtually all of them have more than

200k miles, I've had one fuel pump failure at 174k miles, one loose connection at the pump on the '86 when it was 12 years old, and the in-tank pump died on the '82 Turbo at right around 200k. Had a few relays that needed resoldering but the pumps have all outlasted my expectations, maybe it's the climate?

Depends on the dealership, your experience sounds very good, generally the dealership is the downside of the Volvo.

Similar story - though not quite as many 240's! Ours was a 1978/1979 240DL. We had it from 1983 to 1993, and in that time the fuel pump went once. Given we did in the region of 250,000 miles in it, I'd say that's not half bad - hardly any other cars at that time could get close to making half that mileage. Okay, it had an annoying habit like it really didn't feel like starting sometimes in very hot weather, but we can't have everything! :o)

Mark