Just when I thought I had finally secured peace of mind with this Volvo, a grinding noise in late 2022 reminded me that nothing mechanical lasts forever. What followed was one of the longest and most expensive down-times of my career.
Back in 2015, when I purchased this Volvo, I asked the shop manager at the Seymour Mack/Volvo dealership how long I could expect the D16 engine to last. He told me that if I was lucky, I might see 1,200,000 miles. That statement stuck in my mind during the 10 years I worked this truck harder than any I’d ever owned.
My best friend, Ernie Lipperd, suggested it might be wise to have the oil pan dropped and the rods and main bearings inspected. I wasn’t worried about the pistons, rings, or injectors—oil use was minimal, and the Volvo didn’t smoke at all, even after the permanent fix of the regen issue I described earlier. Ernie recommended an exceptional mechanic he trusted in Versailles, named Mike Lunsford.
Mike gave me his estimate, and I let him do the job. The truck was in his shop about a week, and when I got it back, it gave me peace of mind knowing I’d done everything possible to prolong the life of the engine. Mike told me everything looked good, with no problem wear whatsoever. With full confidence, I put the Volvo back to work.
That brings me to December of 2022. I was headed to Georgetown to deliver a load when I heard, for the first time, a low grinding noise. At first, I feared the transmission was starting to wear thin. When I got to Toyota, I pulled the hood, and the noise was clearly coming from the general area of the air compressor. Air compressor failure can mean a towed vehicle, and that didn’t appeal to me one bit, so I decided to head back to my home shop in Columbus for a better diagnosis.
The shop there confirmed it was in the air compressor, but they wouldn’t attempt the repair, fearing the problem went deeper into the engine. Volvo engines were like a foreign language to them. So I called Mike Lunsford, who by then was working at the shop that fixed my regen issue. He told me to bring it in, and they’d look at it and give me an estimate.
On December 22, 2022, I drove it to Versailles. They said it would be after the New Year before they could even get it into the shop. I had no choice—driving it risked further damage—so I left it there and waited.
Three weeks later came the diagnosis: the bull drive retaining nut on the gear that runs the air compressor had backed off and was grinding against the cover separating the engine from the transmission. The grinding produced aluminum shavings that fell into the oil pan. Fixing it meant a bottom-engine overhaul and a major cleaning of the drive system. The estimate: $10,000.
I knew that day would come eventually, so I pulled together every resource—borrowed money and all—and got the repairs done. The hardest part: I didn’t get back in the truck for nine full weeks. I finally hit the road again on March 4, 2023.
As you’ll see in the next chapter, that was far from the last of my struggles.
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