Volvo S60 2.4t leaking exhaust manifold rough idle

[Blazerguy1983]

2001 Volvo S60 with 2.4t 5 cylinder. Engine sounds load like an exhaust leak from the back of engine. Miss firing, rough idle and stalls. Accelerates fine though. White smoke travels up from behind the timing belt area and strong smell of exhaust fumes. I haven’t been able to get under and behind the engine yet to investigate but, I took the timing belt cover off and didn’t see anything out of ordinary . Nothing leaking, oil and coolant look clean. I think the exhaust manifold is leaking, cracked or has a bad gasket. Will a leaking exhaust manifold cause rough idle, miss fire and engine to stall at idle? My buddy took it to a non-Volvo mechanic and they told him blow head gasket, coolant in the oil mixed and a blown turbo. I think it is just an exhaust manifold leak. I don’t buy any of that. The oil looks perfect and so does the condition and level of the coolant. Spark plugs looks burn burnt but no oil or coolant on them nor carbon deposits. Their probably due anyway to be change. Once I figure this out going to put a nice set of Volvo plugs instead of Bosch. The engine has about 120,000 miles and the car has almost 190,000 miles. Engine was replaced be another wonderful non-Volvo person with a used motor a year ago because the crank seal was leaking and told my friend needed a whole new engine. Any opinions on this?

Topic

[Ethan]

Misfires on that particular engine are usually caused by cracked coil packs, or split plug boots; not an uncommon problem. A blown head gasket would result in rapid coolant loss, as the cooling system works at a high pressure. Leaking exhaust will cause uneven power delivery, and lots of smoke.

[Blazerguy1983]

Good Morning everyone!

I am super excited to inform everyone that I have fixed the Volvo S60 with the misfire, rough idle, stalling, and exhaust leak with smoke coming up from behind the engine problems. The O2 Sensor on the rear of the engine that screws into the corresponding pipe to the flex pipe on the side of the Turbo was missing. Yep, Missing! It was dangling from it’s wire off to the side leaving the threaded hole it screws into wide open. Apparently last summer when the “Non-Volvo” mechanic installed this engine, he must have hand tightened the sensor into the exhaust and forgot to go back with a wrench to snug it down. Over the past year my buddy has been complaining about an exhaust smell under the hood and inside the car that is now gone. It must have worked it’s way lose from engine vibration and finally came completely out. We pulled the car up onto the ramps last night and I rolled under the car and in less that a minute I discovered the issue. We cleared the check engine codes with our fancy Volvo diagnostics tool he bought on eBay that can read ALL the Volvo codes and reset them. The car is running perfect now with no misfire, rough idle or exhaust leak.

I will admit that I am very angry at the garage he took it to that quoted him $2,000 to replace the “blown turbo” and a “blown head gasket”! How can someone miss something so stupid like this?? I’m not a mechanic and just work on cars in my driveway for fun and i figured it out. Well no more of my complaining. I just wanted to update all my EricTheCarGuy friends out there! Thanks again everyone!

[Bill]

That is a nice find blazerguy. I guess the technician was too lazy to look for the real problem or really didn’t want to work on it anyway. Not everyone wants to work on Volvo’s.

[kei]

the engine stalls after rough idle + found white smoke from the exhaust manifold. Do not drive the car, get it towed to a muffler shop to check the exhaust system. Very likely it is a broken catalytic converter. The little piece of the ceramic blocked the resonator. If you insit to drive before fixing it, it may cause cylinder head gasket, immature piston rings and engine block damages. Good luck.

[Author]

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