oil everywhere help!

[Logan]

I have a 2006 volvo penta 3.0 L gl-d. Everything all year has been going fine except I always thought that there was a slow oil leak somewhere under the filter. I took it in (for the carb recall) and mentioned the leak to them and the dealer said that there was "oil seapping from the pcv valve and air intake.Unless customer is useing excess oil would not worry about it." (that is a verbatum quote from the service invoice.

That was about 2 weeks ago. today just as I was dropping off my skiier the warrning buzzer chirped for 2 seconds then stopped. I dropped off the skiier and docked the boat. After that I put the boat away and just as I was pulling into the slip the buzzer chriped again. I shut down and checked the motor to find lots of oil all over the left side of the motor and lots in the bilge. I drained the remaing oil through the dipstick and removed the filter which looked fine.

The temperature gauge nevery when above normal.

My questios are:
what is the most likely places for the oil to be leaking from?
Is it likely that there was significant damage done while running the motor after the initial warrning chirp for 2 min or less?
What should my next step be?

 

[sea wolf]

Re: oil everywhere help!

If it's still under warranty, take it back to the dealer & make 'em find out what's wrong. Make sure there's oil in it & save the invoice where they tried to blow you off. By the way, whenever you hear that warning buzzer, make sure you check the oil level. If you run it low & blow the engine, it's your fault & the warranty will not cover neglect.

 

[Logan]

Re: oil everywhere help!

Stupid question I'm sure but 'blow the engine' sounds ominous like you would know immediately if that happed? or would it be more subtle?

Also how long would it take with low oil pressure to damage the engine?

 

[THE BEEF]

Re: oil everywhere help!

Stupid question I'm sure but 'blow the engine' sounds ominous like you would know immediately if that happed? or would it be more subtle?

Also how long would it take with low oil pressure to damage the engine?

ABOUT AS LONG AS IT TAKES TO READ THIS. MOTOR GOES BYE BYE!
So does your wallet.

Beef

 

[Logan]

Re: oil everywhere help!

ABOUT AS LONG AS IT TAKES TO READ THIS. MOTOR GOES BYE BYE!
So does your wallet.

Beef

I'm glad to hear that insofar as the motor never seized or anything. So I hope it is ok.

 

[KJSmitty]

Re: oil everywhere help!

If you are under warranty, as others have mentioned you should do nothing other than transport your boat to your dealer. You have documentation from your dealer that this issue was brought up before and basically down played.

- Take the boat back, tell them the alarm sounded, you shut down the engine - found the oil mess and trailered the boat there. End of story


As for the engine - once all is fixed, your oil pressure gauge will tell you "most" of what your questioning. If you have the same oil pressure as you did "pre-alarm", most likely all is OK. Then again, this could be due to your dealer replacing the engine for you.....

 

[Five O'Clock]

Re: oil everywhere help!

i have an volvo penta 5.7GXi, was cruising back from a day on the water, and the alarm sounded, oil pressure dropped. shut down, got towed in, oil all over the place.

one of the two high pressure hoses, coming off of the oil filter blew. one hose goes sends oil into the filter from the reserve, one hose sends oil out to the engine. took the hose off, went to the volvo dealer, the hoses had actually been recalled and i wasn't aware. gave me an adaptor kit for $40 and said so long. replaced and running fine now.

most important thing was that I shut down almost immediately and got towed in. good luck.

post back with what the dealer said, or conclusion, i'm curious to see what happened.

 

[Don S]

Re: oil everywhere help!

I'm a Volvo certified tech, and I can give you details on how a VP tech will check out the problem.
We will clean the oil mess up, then we will put oil in the engine, and start it up and see what is leaking. We also look at everything, not just the most popular (usually the easiest) places.
Every engine is different, so front seal , rear seal, pan gasket, hole in the pan, front cover, valve cover gasket, who knows. That's why we run them till we can identify the leak. I can't see the engine, so that doesn't help either.

 

[Logan]

Re: oil everywhere help!

My dad suggested that if the oil dipstick wasnt in all the way that oil could come out of the dipstick tube. Does that sound possible?

 

[tommays]

Re: oil everywhere help!

It is a bit pointless to guess as there are so many places than can leak

If your not going to take it to the dealer than the only thing you can do is clean up the mess and see were it is leaking