[Anonymous]

Another issue for Volvo D4/D6 engine owners is the initial use by Volvo of plastic end caps for the charge air cooler. Experience by a member has shown these can leak and when they do salt water falls straight on top of the starter motors. The first symptom could be a non starting engine and Volvo asking for large amounts of money for a new starter motor! Volvo have redesigned part and it is now made of metal. It is worth checking to see if you have the plastic ones ( you may need to scrape a bit of green paint off to see if it metal or plastic). If you want to change the parts are around £100 each.

I emailed Volvo to get their advice and you guessed it they want you to pay for any upgrade to the new part.

“The plastic end caps on the coolers if not leaking are ok, they leak when the seal land becomes distorted, our experience is this happens when the cooler is not fully drained over for the winter and the water freezes, worst case the end cap splits and on relaunch the leak is very evident. however if the cap is only distorted aftertime during the next season the end cap having been weakened develops a leak which only gets worse and as you correctly point out leads to water soaking of the starter motor. Volvo do not have a service campaign to replace the plastic end caps on your D4 engines.”

Anyone else had this problem? It is worth checking your engines or getting an engineer to do so when you have them service.

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