how much oil in intercoolers
 

hi all
just talking to a friend today i said i get a bit of oil lying in the intercooler pipe on the top of my engine at the joint between the rubber pipe and aluminium intercooler . as the intercooler pipes in and out of the intercooler are in the middle of the intercooler Rad does it mean theres a lot of oil in there below the pipes . my 940 d24 TDI 1995 uses no more than half a 3/4 of a litre oil between services about every 5000 miles for the last 20 years
is that a job i should be looking at after the winter here remove the intercooler
rad and check it .i have never touched this yet .
a diesel engineer once said to me these are good engines but dirty/oily due to there design !

That is an interesting question that you may need to look to a UK or Europe member for an answer on, since we here in the US were not lucky enough to get diesel Volvos with intercoolers. :o

That said, in other diesel vehicles it is very much routine for there to be a little bit of accumulated oil in the bottom of the intercooler and at low spots in the plumbing. Oil is naturally present in the intake charge due to crankcase gas recirculation. I would expect the D24TIC engines to work the same way.

If you are using less than 1L of oil between 5000 mile changes then you have very little oil consumption, and evidently an engine in quite good health. At that rate of oil use, there cannot be much ending up in the intercooler. I wouldn't worry about checking it or draining. What you'll probably find in there will not enough to be worth doing anything about.

The only time you really need to drain oil from an intercooler is if a large bulk volume of oil enters the charge air cooling system. Usually the only time this happens is after a turbocharger failure resulting in oil being forced into the intake stream under pressure. In that situation, the excess oil does need to be evacuated. But a few teaspoons in the IC or pipes from routine operation is nothing to worry about.

I would just continue keeping track of oil consumption and if it ever increases, then maybe think about this again. If not, don't fix what isn't broken. :)

Thank you V8VOLVO for your valued advice i will leave well alone as ive got
plenty of other jobs to get on with and some on the car too !
ive just bought genuine front end suspension bushes 4 off the space ship type
£23 each expensive and no washer with them or bolts , im getting a friend to fit drop links i think they are called he will supply a refurbished set shot blasted and painted there are a few bushes he's doing on the front suspension i will help best i can with the work im told by many over here to use only genuine bushes
i did not want to use the polyurethane bushes as i don't race it im a plodder !
have you any views on front end bushes ?
regards jim

At the other end of the control rod from the spaceship bushes you have to tighten that one when the car is resting on level ground, otherwise it prestresses that bushing if you tighten it with the wheel dangling in the air. Bit of a contortion stretch to reach in there to tighten it with the car on the ground.

thank you NGOMA
for that advice