Curious case of Oil

[Marc01]

Good morning all, I am after some advice.

Ok I'll start from the beginning I have a V40 D4 VEA owned since October last year covered 11,000 miles average commute 60 miles a day minimum along A roads or motorways, rarely any short trips and always used Shell v power. I drive a mix of relaxed or sometimes enjoy the power on offer, I would not consider myself conservative.
In all I consider this to be acceptable use of a diesel.

On Wednesday the 3rd on the way home on the M4 my V40 went into limp mode, I got home late and thought I'll call the service centre the next day. They next morning no limp mode, in the evening limp mode was back along with check engine lamp. Called the my local service dealer explained the situation after a short conversation he said it's probably the EGR and the soonest they could look at it was around the 20th of June, he said I should be fine until then and any problems call Volvo assist.

Anyway come the 9th I was sick of limp mode and check engine I was right by the service dealer and offered to drop it in right away, they told me to call Volvo assist, so I did they came to my home and run a diagnosis and he informed me it was my EGR and booked it in with the dealer the next day and arranged a hire car to meet me there, so I drove the car myself to the dealer on the 10th.

My car was ready on the 13th so collected it in the morning, spoke to the service manage about the works carried out, he told me the fault was caused by oil level to high and not the EGR, and all they did was drain some oil out.
So I drove it home about 20miles I was I mile away when the oil level low warning came on, I parked it up called Volvo assist I check the oil after 30mins and it registers completely empty.

Volvo assist came out it was the same guy, he seemed confused as to why they found no issue with the EGR, and surprised at the oil level, he topped it up with 1.5l of oil making a point that it only registers half full but should rise to 3/4 and that you do not want to fill to max with these engines as he knows the issues this cause.

So set off on my way from Oxford to Birmingham half way into my journey I get a warning message oil service required and check engine.

I arrive at my destination call Volvo assist, and then check the oil level myself, it reads overfilled, I check under the bonnet and to my surprise oil has forced it way out of the filler cap (which is firmly and correctly seated) and sprayed oil inside the engine bay and the lower part of my windscreen, a very fine splatter I should add.

The car has been recovered to secure storage to be delivered to another local dealer here in Birmingham, which is actually the dealer I bought the car from.

My concern now is what damage has been done to the engine? The exhaust which is normally clean is now black with soot, not sure what relevance that has just an observation from me. My concerns are obvious oil frothing, poor lubrication, diesel getting past piston and filling crankcase?

I have to add car drove beautifully all the way here.

I am looking to reject the car now, as I am not confident long term damage has not been done to the engine and exhaust system.

Any advice or thoughts?

[XcOM]

If you recently bought the car you could of rejected it on the spot, but due to how long you have had it you need to give the garage a chance to repair it if there is any warranty on the car.

But if the oil pressure was high enough to force it's way out of the filler cap you could of blown any number of seals including the rear main seal which if that goes it's a real PITA because you need to remove the engine and dismantle the entire thing to get to it.

I would suggest they give it a full check over and put it though a real test rather than a 5 min rolling road with a computer connected to it.

[Rossi-fan]

Sorry to hear about your problem, it sounds pretty major reading your description. I would be thinking along the same lines as you, and giving the car back. Is there not a 6 month window in the Sales Of Goods Act to return it though, that would be my worry for you. Hope I'm wrong, because i wouldn't want to keep it either.

[Marc01]

I have given the garage one attempt at repairing my V40 and they gave it back to me with low oil, the Volvo assist man who came to my house topped it up to below full with 1.5litres of oil. I have a record of this an am awaiting the garage report of repairs undertaken there, I was told over the phone along the lines of drained to correct level reset fault codes and tested, not given an amount that was drained.

In my opinion the repairs undertaken have caused potentially significant damage to my car, the list of problems that can be caused by both a low oil state and overfilled state are many, the excess soot in the tailpipes (in my opinion excess as I hand washed the car last weekend and the exhaust was clean) could of also damaged or shortend the life span of the DPF.

Do I have a right to insist on DPF replacement and professional cleaning of the engine bay to remove the oil splatter, I would consider my car as exceptional condition with no major marks or flaws and a clean engine bay. I want it back in that state.

I love my car and take pride in it, the thought of hidden damage and potential future problems worries me.

[Dirty Rooster]

The bit where they drained some oil and gave you the car back really rings alarm bells in my head ...

[Marc01]

Originally Posted by Dirty Rooster

The bit where they drained some oil and gave you the car back really rings alarm bells in my head ...

Mine to, at the time I was in a rush and no service engineer was on site so I just had to trust they did right thing. During the 30 minute drive home to a low oil warning light at my doorstep surprised me.
The Volvo assist chap also seemed perplexed as he originally diagnosed the EGR.

Obviously trying to push both the dealer and assist into giving me truthful opinions is hard, they always seem dismissive, vague and secretive. Watching the assist guy pour engine oil into my car for half an hour checking and rechecking the level again has not filled me with confidence, and neither has it now spraying out the top.

But this was a special weekend I had family to visit and birthdays to celebrate.

This is not a dig at Volvo, I love my car, Volvo assist have always been prompt and courteous. These things happen I can accept that what's important now is how it is resolved and my emotional attachment to the car has been massively dented by the thought of damage caused by a mistake during warranty repair.

[960kg]

You don`t say what year your motor is ?.........but my diesel Merc for instance when reading the oil level you cannot take a reading until a 20 minute run has been done and then left to stand for 5mins before taking out the stick for reading.

You may say what a load of tosh but it says this in the owners manual and i did try to dip the oil ignoring what they say and it gave completely different readings until i did it their way and all was ok.

The only reason i mention this is because the people filling or draining the oil were correct in what they were doing but in the first instance may not of been dipping the oil in the correct way in the first place!....hence the irregular readings.

So maybe you will have to get all the correct facts together before an approach!

With the Mercs i believe this comes about as they are designed to have oil sucked out at a service interval and so there are baffle plates in the sump that can interfere with the correct reading!

Have just remembered when i bought my Merc last year the owner dipped the oil and there was no reading on the stick and he panicked as he was selling to me. After a run he checked and it was ok.

Sometimes this different technology comes in and owners don`t know about it as why should one read how to dip the oil after owning motors for years?

[Marc01]

960kg, this probably explains why the Vovlo assist guy took half an hour to top the oil up and yes the engine was running at times he was on site nearly an hour. The car was not driven but was deffiently running and warm as I just drove it back from the dealership. I was not stood there peering over his shoulder the whole time though. So I can only assume him being a trained technician and his time on site that he carried out the work correctly.

The engine is the 4cyl D4 VEA, which has no dipstick.

[jor]

I hope your 'local service dealer' was volvo affiliated, as then 'volvo' in some guise would have to deal with the situation.
If not, there will be problems as the selling dealership will maintain that any damage will be the fault of the 'repair' and vice versa.
If it was all volvo outfits it might be worth making volvo uk aware of what has happened.
Legalmatch and similar will point you in the direction of people specializing in problems after car repair.

jor

[Marc01]

@Jor I called Volvo UK on Tuesday the 9th and spoke to customer services, they informed me to call Volvo assist they came out and diagnosed the EGR and he booked the car in and arranged the hire car, I simply dropped it off and picked it up.

I popped into the Volvo dealer today who will now be looking into my car further and explained the situation to them, now begins the investigation.

I have made it clear I am looking to reject the car.