been looking at a Volvo is there a common problem with them seen a few of them including the one I was looking at with an oil leak from the n/s back of the top end of the engine and it runs off down the n/s rear of the engine seen it on fh fm and on a magnum in exactly the same place
Yes. Assuming it is the 12 litre engine you’re looking at the seal where the wiring loom goes into the head (the injector wiring) starts to leak into the inside of the wiring conduit, which runs down to the junction box for the wiring just below, this fills with oil then drips down the block.
Not a big problem, parked up for an hour you may get a couple of drips, certainly not pg9 material. Over a weekend you can end up with a fair size puddle of oil on the floor.
Cure is to reveal the injector wiring in the head, Volvo main dealers normally use the Volvo grey silicone sealant, then clean all the wiring loom out with brake cleaner.
It will still leak for about a week or so after as all the oil finds it’s way out of the conduits, then stop.
Think all my 12 litre engines have done it.
Yes, common fault, mine is the same, it is a very slight weep rather than a leak, I have an oil change once a year and I need to top up with five litres of oil in between services.
There’s also a common issue with a leaking engine side plate with these engines which causes coolant loss. It’s a horrendously expensive job to remedy, a minimum of 12 hours labour as the turbo, exhaust has to come off to reach it. Being a cheapskate I just top it up with a litre of coolant every week. 
Neither of these faults show any signs of getting any worse, and I’ve had the truck for nearly two years now.
thanks was told that by the seller what you’ve wrote but other than driving them I no next to nowt about Volvo engine and didn’t no whether to believe him or not its a 56 reg 440
Got a fleet of volvo’s there all the same shows more as if its leaking from bell housing but its the injector wiring . Our spanner monkeys just say commen problem but not pg9 . Presuming 56 no add blue neither better pullers 480 with no add blue pulls away from all our 520’s with add blue i
Got a fleet of volvo’s there all the same shows more as if its leaking from bell housing but its the injector wiring . Our spanner monkeys just say commen problem but not pg9 . Presuming 56 no add blue neither better pullers 480 with no add blue pulls away from all our 520’s with add blue i
lee mat:
thanks was told that by the seller what you’ve wrote but other than driving them I no next to nowt about Volvo engine and didn’t no whether to believe him or not its a 56 reg 440
Ok, if it’s a 56 plate 440 engine it will be the 13 litre. That engine does not have this wiring loom leak problem. But it does have the engine side plate coolant weeping problem as Harry said. If the side plate is leaking you will see crumbly bits of greeny yellow dried coolant at the bottom corners of the side plate (the big plate on the o/s of the engine behind the exhaust manifold.
Harry, I have been told if it is not rectified the block gets pitted around the side plate opening and it’s a problem to get it to seal then.
Volvo should charge about 8 hours to change the plate and the seal. Don’t assume it’s just a seal as it’s generally the plate itself that warps. I personally get Volvo to do them so it has a 2 year warranty, but to be fair the latest type plate we’ve not had problems with.
It’s the 12 litre engine that has the n/s/r wiring loom oil leak (420, 460, 500 engines)
The 13 litre from 06 onwards has the coolant leak (440, 480, 520 engines)
Hope this makes it a bit clearer for you. A 56 plate 440 would have the 13 litre engine and I’ve not really seen any common oil leak problems on those. On this truck if it’s an I shift I would ask if the clutch has been changed at all as they are prone to release bearing failures.
are volvos as expensive as people make out when they go wrong ? need to have a closer look at it again they wont even look at it themselves to see where its coming from til I chuck a deposit down on it ,they say they’ll sort it but tfr brake cleaner and a steamer will sort any oil leak out with a gate way warranty
Harry Monk:
Yes, common fault, mine is the same, it is a very slight weep rather than a leak, I have an oil change once a year and I need to top up with five litres of oil in between services.There’s also a common issue with a leaking engine side plate with these engines which causes coolant loss. It’s a horrendously expensive job to remedy, a minimum of 12 hours labour as the turbo, exhaust has to come off to reach it. Being a cheapskate I just top it up with a litre of coolant every week.
Neither of these faults show any signs of getting any worse, and I’ve had the truck for nearly two years now.
You’re out of luck if your side plate goes. I’ve been on breakdowns where the oil cooler has swelled up like a balloon, forcing the side plate out. Not exactly something I’m inclined to replace on the side of the road.
With the oil leak. It’s easy enough to fix yourself, just clean up the conduit and plugs to your engine ECU and pack some silicon around the rubber bung that goes into the cylinder head. Be careful though because the 12 litre engines literally fill the rocker cover with oil at the back, so let it stand for a while before you take the rocker cover off or you’re going to have a very expensive shower.
Harry, an oil change once a year 
newmercman:
Harry, an oil change once a year
Slightly less than a year, 100,000 is the recommended interval for oil changes.
bloody hell, I always found good oil to be cheaper than repairing an engine, used to change the oil every 60 000kms in my scania, as required by scania…
That’s Renault’s recommended interval, Daf give an interval of up to 150,000 km for their 13 litre euro 5 engine with synthetic oil. daf.eu/UK/Trucks/Model-range … gines.aspx
Change oil ,filter and fuel filters and pre - filters also brake water filters and air filter every 60,000 km and you will have no problems,also use the best quality oil available cheap stuff carbons up too much.I only did the job for 50 yrs and only lost 1 engine.
I would be wary of that length of interval Harry, wear metal build up could turn that oil into grinding paste. I’ve seen research showing that iron particles over 60 parts per million can cause premature wear and the accepted accumulation rate for that is 1 part per 1000 miles, so at 62,000 miles you’re getting close. Although close is not the wrong side of the line, but still, if you want it to last, oil will be cheaper than parts, that’s for sure 
bmw for example doesn’t recommend changing the ATF in the automatic transmission - it’s a “lifetime” oil they say. lasts as long as the gearbox, which, coincidentally, will have a much longer lifetime if you change the oil every 100 000km or so at least. it’s just an advertising gimmick - look how little you’ll be paying for servicing your truck once you bought it! of course, it will not give you any problems during the warranty period, but maybe if you keep your lorry longer than that, changing the oil every 50-60 thousand km would definitely be on the “to do” list. I know if I was shopping around for a lorry, I’d steer clear of units with “extended oilchange interval”
Curiously enough, I know somebody who drives for a firm which recently bought new Mercedes Benz tractor units, and when they tried to get the oil changed before the specified mileage, MB refused to do it and said it would invalidate the warranty.
Now, I have no proof that this is true, although the person who told me this isn’t generally considered to be a BS merchant, and I personally can’t see why changing oil early could be harmful to an engine.
shirtbox2003:
Change oil ,filter and fuel filters and pre - filters also brake water filters and air filter every 60,000 km and you will have no problems,also use the best quality oil available cheap stuff carbons up too much.I only did the job for 50 yrs and only lost 1 engine.
150% Correct.
Some of the extended oil change figures are scary, we thought it wrong when ■■■■■■■ stated changing oil at 25.000 miles! At Tilcon we changed engine oil, filter and both fuel filter’s on all vehicles (trucks, cars, Land Rover’s and vans etc) on a monthly basis which was perhaps a little OTT I suppose, but that was company policy 30 years ago. Of course since then oils have improved however, as has been said, oil is cheaper than metal in the long run.
Pete.
Harry if that’s the running in oil then that could be true. Volvo use a specific oil to break an engine in, it’s either very light or very heavy (I’ll find out which, unless someone beats me to it) so if you drop it sooner than recommended, there could be issues, so it would give them grounds to invalidate the warranty.
The service department bods can get a little bit mixed up about lubes, when the Actros first came out it was recommended that you ran full synthetic oils, a lot of scaremongering started up, crap like mixing it with mineral would cause problems as you couldn’t nix the two, that the tolerances were so tight that only a full synthetic would work. All ■■■■■■■■, you can blend them and you can get a 15W40 synthetic oil and a 5W30 mineral oil, the mineral oil is a lighter oil in that case, so mineral/synthetic or a blend, it’s the grade that makes a difference and unless Merc are building engines to F1 tolerances, you ain’t got to worry about it.