The Great Lakes Tour and Kentucky, 2016

[ssicarman]

Yes the Welland Canal is interesting to see. It used to be a lot easier to get up close and personal. The security is a bit tighter now than it used to be.

[ssicarman]

We did a day trip with the father in law/birthday boy (90)/reason for coming out this way. Headed out from Hamilton to Port Dover on Lake Erie. Nice drive out but we got there and the wind blowing in from the lake made it impossible to walk the beach as the beach was trying to blow away.

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Not many pictures taken that day, just enjoyed it.

Next day started to head south. Left Hamilton going through Detroit to end up in Ohio to visit relatives.

It was interesting in Ontario that they painted road lines orange in construction zones. Have not seen that before.

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Getting close to the Border. Also getting more rain.

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Over the bridge into Detroit and the USA. This picture is the tail end of the worst rain storm that I have had the displeasure of driving through. 60-70MPH traffic that you had a hard time seeing the end of the car's hood never mind the car/truck in front of you. You had to really trust that the traffic was going to keep moving with no issues as you couldn't really move to the side of the highway to wait things out. Bit of a white knuckle drive.

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20 minutes later.

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We got to Defiance where the hotel was and pulled off of the highway and had to look around the car for what was making the very loud high pitched squealing noise. Figured out soon enough that it was us. Checked into the hotel and headed out to visit the relatives and abuse their hospitality to try and figure out what was making the noise from the engine.

That will come tomorrow.

[XCovlov70]

WOW!!! Sounds like you had 'problems' with the rain storm as we had problems of picking up about 50 extra pounds of snow that turned to ice and stuck to the 'TinTent' & 'Flamenco Red' as we went through a snow storm over here!

Great pictures!!!

[ssicarman]

The rain was some thing. Will still take it over your snow storm though.

[ssicarman]

A couple of tomorrow's later.

Potential causes began to filter through what is left of my brain. Worst case failure problems of course popped into my mind first of course. Bearing failure of the components at the rear/accessory end of the engine was at the top of the list. Alternator, power steering, AC compressor, belt pulleys.

Started with simple diagnosis. The noise was only there with the engine running of course. Revving the engine changed the noise. It was loud enough that it was not possible to really find out the exact location of the source.
The car now has enough kilometers (140,000 ish KM) on it that a road trip toolbox and my VIDA and DICE travel on long road trips. Screw driver became a stethoscope. Bearings did not seem to be an issue. Hard to reach some of the components but I was confident the noise was not bearings. No noticeable excessive slack in the belt, not that the noise sounded like a loose belt. Oil level was fine so did not think that anything would be wrong internal in the engine.
Over the course of diagnosing noticed that the noise would endure for a few seconds after the engine was turned off. This began to bug me enough that it became the focus. With the engine running it was nearly impossible to remove the oil fill cap. With it off the noise stopped. Put my hand over the cap hole and felt lots of vacuum from the crankcase. Not normal.

Something was letting excessive engine vacuum into the crankcase. Revving the engine changed the vacuum level and noise. Noise continuing after engine shut down was the vacuum bleeding down.
Reason for the noise now known. Cause not known.

A PM to a Volvo tech on another forum got me the answer in short order.

Oil trap.

The shiney new one installed

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Closer shot. Take notice of the round piece on the right side.

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Due to travel/hotel commitments and Volvo dealerships in the Louisville/Lexington area a quick noise reduction method of drilling holes in the oil fill cap the trip was continued. I drilled the holes I think more to prevent potential damage to engine seals.
A big thanks to my Uncle for his help and the use of his garage and tools.

After getting a new oil trap and filler cap from Volvo of Lexington, cheaper than Volvo of Louisville and they had the cap in stock. Crossed the road and performed parking lot surgery. Took about half an hour start to finish and the noise was gone.

The original oil trap

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View of the inside/bottom of the oil trap.

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The noise making part of the oil trap.

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The reason for the noise. It amazes me that this could make all of the noise that we had.

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[XCovlov70]

WOW! These 'On the road analysis and repair' seem to be popping up all over the place!

But I have to say 'Well done you' for the analysis and finding the root cause of the 'problem'!

I wondered when I saw the 'O' ring if it was fatigue in the rubber that had caused it as the length of the 'failed' part is quite large?

Bet you felt a lot better when it was 'cured' and you could carry on with a much quieter ride?

Referring back to that little 'Snow Storm' we went through on our trip, it was a first for us to travel through something like that while we hopefully will not get a repeat as we go back over the same road in a few days time as the weather is improving nicely!

Hope the rest of your trip goes well.

[ssicarman]

It was not an o ring but a diaphragm on the removed piece. The round piece in the oil trap has a spring in it so the entire round part must be a vacuum regulation system. We now have an ex Volvo tech at work now and he said that the oil traps are fairly common things to go.

[ssicarman]

My apologies to all who were following this. Life got in the way a little bit. Didn't post for a bit because I thought that I had more better pictures and spent some time searching if I actually did, but it seems not. Then other things and and and.....
Back now and want to finish this before we leave for the next trip.


So onward with the journey. Headed south cross country as we had time to see sights. Not to mention no immediate interstates to get on to. Eventually I-75 was the target as we were heading to the Lexington area, not for car parts yet though. Triple D stop--Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.

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Despite the grey sky the temperature was warm and the drive was green. You could see evidence of rain though, lots of water in the ditches.

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Welcome to Kentucky

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Horse country

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After a nice lunch at a restaurant called Wallace station, we stopped there as it is a Triple D restaurant and we enjoy the show and any of the places that we have stopped at from the show.

http://www.wallacestation.com/

Lunch, the burger was mine and the other was my wife's.

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Sorry about the picture orientation. These are from a phone and in flickr they are the right way but not here.

Various pictures from the Lexington and Louisville areas that had us ending up at the Makers Mark Bourbon distillery for a tour there.

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A distilleries warehouses. Not Makers Mark. Makers Mark was far enough from here that I bagan to think very hard that a turn had been missed.

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And we finally get there.

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[XCovlov70]

Seems like we have both been under the same 'cloud and rain band'? You over there and us over here in Poland! Unless you blew it over here for us?
I like the thought of visiting a Distillery but not sure how the driving rules stack up over there?

[ssicarman]

Seems like we have both been under the same 'cloud and rain band'? You over there and us over here in Poland! Unless you blew it over here for us?
I like the thought of visiting a Distillery but not sure how the driving rules stack up over there?

You forget this trip was last September/October.
Right now we are getting hot weather (25-30 C) with evening thunderstorms. Next few days is supposed to be 35ish.