850 Oil smoke after idle

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blurp - 02 Jun 2006 17:53 GMT

Hi all,

I would like to ask for some brief advice regarding a curious problem
that has arisen recently in our '95 850GLT Wagon with Synthetic 10W30
oil:

The car doesn't seem to be blowing smoke during regular driving but if
you idle for a while (even a few seconds at an intersection) then you
get a puff of blue oil smoke when you accellerate. If you idle for a
few minutes then you get a big puff of smoke. The amount of smoke
appears proportional to the idle time.

I've also noticed that there seem to be some exhaust-like gasses
coming from under the hood. Could all this be a plugged PCV system
and, if so, might it have caused a hose to split or get disconnected,
or are these two issues likely not connected. Can the PCV system be
easily accessed or do I need a hoist?

Also the car has recently started detonating at about 1800-2000rpm.

All suggestions greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
blurp

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Henry - 02 Jun 2006 18:14 GMT

> Hi all,
>
> I would like to ask for some brief advice regarding a curious problem
> that has arisen recently in our '95 850GLT Wagon...

You gave one of the two crucial details for considering a question such
as yours. The other is, how many miles (/kilometres) are on the engine?

cheers,

Henry

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blurp - 02 Jun 2006 18:34 GMT

Sorry, about 165,000km on the car. I got it at about 158,000km and
I've done one oil change recently.

Thanks,
blurp

>> Hi all,
>>
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
>Henry

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Stephen Henning - 02 Jun 2006 21:54 GMT

> Sorry, about 165,000km on the car. I got it at about 158,000km and
> I've done one oil change recently.

This many mile on a properly maintained 850 should not be a problem.
Changing the type of oil may be a big problem. The seals on these were
problematic. You may have just opened up a seal leak by changing oil.
It is relatively expensive to replace the oil seal, but well worth it if
the rest of the car is solid.

Signature

Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA, USA
Owned '67,'68,'71,'74,'79,'81,'87,'93,'95 & '01 Volvos.
The '67,'74,'79,'87,'95 and '01 through European Delivery.
http://home.earthlink.net/~rotarians/volvo.html

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han_chung@hotmail.com - 05 Jun 2006 05:57 GMT

My '97 850 was showing the exact same symptoms to what you have
described - smoke after idle. Also, when driving at above 60km/h, if I
switched to neutral for about 10 seconds, then back to drive and
stepped on the throttle, the same smoke would be seen. I didn't notice
any smoke coming out of the bonnet, but sometimes I could smell it
coming through the airconditioner.

Is your engine consuming any oil? Mine was consuming about 0.5L per
1000kms and I regularly had to keep topping it up. After about 5000kms
of topping up oil, the smoking got quite bad. After emtpying the oil
and refilling, the smoking stopped. I don't know if this was a
permanent fix as I sold the car shortly after that with only
125,000kms.

Regards,

Han.

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blurp - 05 Jun 2006 15:59 GMT

Thanks for the helpful suggestions. I'm going to have the PCV systems
looked at this week.

Regards,
blurp

>My '97 850 was showing the exact same symptoms to what you have
>described - smoke after idle. Also, when driving at above 60km/h, if I
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>
>Han.

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Michael Pardee - 03 Jun 2006 14:51 GMT

> Hi all,
>
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
> Thanks in advance,
> blurp

I'm not very familiar with the 850 specifically, but I think you are on the
right track with the PCV system. It should be serviced anyway, and the
symptoms are very much what our 765T did when the ventilation plugged up.

Mike

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