Intermittent White Smoke S60 D5 185 Engine

[Bernard333]

I agree the funeral march would be appropriate in these circumstances , an apparently innocuous problem turning out to be as bad as it could possibly be. As Matt says a foreign object would need to have come through the induction system , so how has it got past the air filter then the turbo and through the intercooler pipes , difficult to imagine whats happened here or could it be a manufacturing defect of the cylinder head casting ?

[definethelight]

Sorry about the pictures. I used the paperclip icon... could not find anything in the Forum Help about attaching pics. I'll try again Bare with me... If this fails, if someone would like to PM me an email address, I'll forward them on to you.
I note the 'insert image button' simply want's a URL for the image file... I could upload to my website I guess... If all else fails.

[definethelight]

Just ordered up new engine (Ouch!) having had a pretty restless night thinking about it. I feel it's the best way to go. Spending £3.5 on the top end could be money down the drain if the lower parts pack up! I asked Volvo about diagnosing the cause of the problem. I am disappointed to report that they cannot afford the time to look. They said that as this will be an exchange engine, they have to return it intact to Volvo in Sweden. Shame. They also said, given the mileage of the car (148k) there is no chance I can get any kind of additional discount from Volvo. Looks like I just have to accept it - and pay.

[definethelight]

A brief update... The independent phoned today - just out of courtesy to see if the smoking issue had gone. I explained to him the current state of affairs - and that an exchange engine had been ordered through Volvo. He suggested that the rocker had become 'displaced' and had worn through the injector housing. This makes sense. As I mentioned earlier, Volvo have refused (without my funding) to investigate the cause of the problem. They are more than happy to crack on and fit the new engine next week though! The independent has experienced this issue before on a D5 engine. He seemed to think that Volvo were aware of rocker displacement on a number of D5 engines. Wondering about an email to Volvo UK might be in order? I called the dealer strait away. They were very quick to dismiss this. That said - I spoke to the same chap who insisted my car was not fitted with the dreaded DPF! (How wrong he turned out to be).

[Bill_56]

If you have had the car for more than a year or two ago, i.e. your purchase dates back to the time when Volvo had a reputation for long-lived diesel engines, I'd have thought you would be able to argue that you bought the car on the basis of that earlier reputation, and so it has clearly proven unfit for purpose?

If you do email Volvo then perhaps you'd want to eliminate any suggestion of sarcasm that might have crept in as I composed in the above paragraph, but you get my drift. You probably did buy the car based on Volvo's reputation after all?

If you're nice to them, they might reciprocate, so it's worth a try. Otherwise, I'd be tempted to be nasty to them, but that's up to you.

[definethelight]

A further update: I called into Volvo today - to pick up a courtesy car. I was a little taken back by how 'little' you get with a 'NEW' engine!

I went into the workshop and saw my old engine removed from the car in it's entirety. The replacement is merely the block... Perhaps I'm ignorant in these matters, but I imagined for my 6.2k I'd at least have new injectors/turbo??? Apparently not. All those components are stripped from my old engine and installed on the replacement. So... the guarantee (12 months) won't really cover very much! So much for a year's guaranteed 'trouble free motoring'. What if my Turbo packs up? that's another grand or more to spend. I think I've been given the run-around a little on all this.

[definethelight]

As if things couldn't get any worst... The dealer called again today to inform me that the flywheel has excessive play in it. A further £600 required to fix that... do I wish to go ahead with a new flywheel? How can I say no? They pretty much have me over a barrel now! It appears that the flywheel is yet another component NOT fitted to a new engine.

[Bill_56]

I, too, would have hoped a new engine would come with the basics like flywheel & injectors. Or at least, I think I'd expect somebody to have made it clear that it didn't, before I ordered the engine.

Moreover, I may have been dreaming, but didn't you say you'd recently had a new clutch fitted? These cars have a sophisticated Dual Mass Flywheel (known as DMFs), they're a well-known weakness, and I was under the impression replacement of the flywheel was meant to be strongly encouraged whenever a clutch was changed, unless the DMF was 101% definitely in perfect health.

Not sure who you could turn to here. You could try a call to your local Trading Standards. They won't know anything about fuel injectors, DPF's or DMFs, but - especially if there's been any other contact about the same dealer, they may be able to advise on whether they think you're getting fair treatment...

[VVTi]

That’s a bit of a kick to the groin!!
My lesson taught me to always get everything in witting of what actually you are getting and not getting when outlaying large sums. Might be worth still doing this and do some negotiation when they’ve compiled the list to include some items.
Ideally get them to agree to “all items necessary excluding …….” Rather the things they do include for – tends to end up in your favour.
And/or get a maximum price to undertake all works necessary to complete the job. You have to be quite forceful on that one though.

Best of luck!

[Bill_56]

+1 on points made by VVTi, especially the negotiation.

I don't want to elaborate too much, but I recently discovered that the Volvo parts depts, just like the new car sales, seem to be authorised to offer significant discounts (e.g. 25%) for parts of significant value.

You probably do have to ask, but the 'need to ask' might just be a rule from Volvo HQ. If the customer/dealer relationship's good, as mine was (I hope, still is) before I started ranting about DPFs, they may be more than happy to agree to the earth for the most timid of requests...

- Bill