2007 D5 (185)....Excessive Oil Consumption & Soot Filter Ful
 

After months of excessive oil consumption, but with no obvious leaks or smoke, my wife has just messaged me to say the Soot Filter Full light is on. I've done some checking, and she should be ok to drive it, but might go into limp mode. I've also advised a blast down the dual carriageway if she can. Of course, I'm about to disappear for 4 days with work...

At the last service, the mechanic didn't seem unduly concerned by the oil consumption, but it has increased since then. I'm guessing there's a connection though...

If a good blast doesn't clear it, can the DPF be regenerated with VIDA? If so, anyone in the east Devon area who might be able to help?

Ugh. I'm having exactly the same oil consumption woes with my '07 185. Not had the soot filter full issue yet but I'm sure its coming. I notice my fuel consumption going up and down a lot now so I'm sure the car is trying to regenerate the filter quite frequently. Mostly after a motorway run the fuel consumption improves dramatically and after a couple of weeks of A and B roads it drops again.
I would say take it for a long blast (make sure it has enough oil!) as a first attempt to sort the filter.

It's going into a well-respected specialist here in the southwest tomorrow. I'll post back with any light they throw on the issue.

Did you have any joy from the garage?

Nope. Soot filter only had 19 grams(?) in it, so a good run down the motorway required. No obvious leaks. Feels it's just burning oil due to its mileage. Could start changing stuff on spec (turbo etc), but best just to keep topping it up...

I have precisely the same issue, since I bought the car it has been using copious amounts of oil, I replaced the Turbo cartridge and this helped but soon settled down to using litterly gallons of oil, and blocking up the soot filter.

I bit the bullet last month and bought a brand new original turbo fitted it, ( I was surprised that the one I was removing was clean and showed no sign of oil leakage. I had the dpf cleaned and car was like new full power and reasonably economy for 250miles until the Oil Low message came back. (this was after filling her to half way up the stick before I left,)

So last night I went investigating and found oil in the pipes going into the intake,( these were all washed clean last weekend) The only source for this oil must be the PCV system so I intercepted this and have fitted a catch can just after the oil separator, if this catches oil I will know in a few days.....

I do have a lot of smoke out of the oil filler so there must be an amount of blow-by and possibly burnt oil directly in the cylinders but realistically there can only be oil in the intake air if it is being blown out of the turbo seals or into the air stream through the Crank case ventilation outlet....

Am I wrong.....

has anyone replaced the oil separator, (I did once remove and clean it but it looked fine with no sludge etc so I had discounted it)

Certainly be interested to hear how this pans out. I had resigned myself to a new turbo, but your post may defer that particular course of action for now! I can't imagine it was cheap and must be particularly galling to find it hasn't worked.

Much as we love the car, I'm beginning to wish I'd bought something else.

If you have oil in the inlet and the Turbo is definitely good then yes it must be carrying over from the breather system. I would guess that there is probably nothing wrong with the breather and the reason for the carry over is high blow-by.

It could also be the valve guides and stem seals. Does your car smoke a lot when started after being sat for a while?


I'm in the same boat and I'm resigned to the fact I probably need a new engine.

I'm probably going to get roasted for this but the only way to cure this once and for all is to remove the DPF and all software related to it. That is what I have reluctantly had to do.

Three years of trying to get the reason for high oil levels, limp mode, missing/stuttering at low speeds and general crap running have forced me to this point.

My own very experienced mechanic couldn't find a problem. His diagnostics showed nothing related to the DPF.
VIDA gave no fault codes related to the DPF.
A DPF specialist could find no problems.
Volvo hadn't got a clue and suggested it was a faulty injector. I got the very strong impression that they have washed their hands of this issue. There was also no software updates available.
No soot filter full messages or any other messages at all even when in limp mode. It only showed the filter full message once, shortly after I bought the car and having read up on DPF's beforehand I took the car for a run until the message cleared.

I changed the DPF temperature sensor just to see if it would make a difference. It didn't. Faced with changing both pressure sensors and then going down the road of changing parts out at random if that didn't work I took the decision that a 2008 car simply was not worth the expense of trying to fix properly and went with the DPF/software removal route.

My car has been transformed. It is actually a pleasure to drive now.

I was very happy when I bought the car that it had a DPF. Proud of the fact that I was driving an extremely clean diesel. But the three times a year oil changes, the blowing of a hole through the sump (at the end of a 300 mile high speed drive) because of the high oil pressure and the constant fear of blowing the engine because of a runaway led me to this point not to mention the sheer cost of trying to find the problem.

Funnily enough when I left the car off to have the software removed there was another D5 Volvo sitting there about to have the same work done. One of the smaller newer models, not sure which one. It was in permanent limp mode and the owner had gone through the same experience as me. Trying to get it fixed and then resigning himself to the fact that it couldn't be fixed.

Volvo know there is a problem with these cars, not just a physical problem with the DPF and the related parts but with the software as well. My local Volvo dealer was simply not interested mainly I assume because they themselves don't know what the problem is as their diagnostics told them nothing.

When the DPF itself was removed it was incredibly clean. Not surprising as all it ever did was regenerate!

Turbo was most of €1,000, plus bits and pieces plus sweat tears blood changing it again.....

Now I no longer need the car and will be selling as soon as it is 100% I have already spent fortune on it, brand new tryes, Oxegen sensors, Maf tappets, rockers, brake disks, etc etc...

what I now need is a land rover or the like for building sites and towing plant trailer....

I will know in a few days as the car must make a journey to see if the oil is arriving into the catch can,

I will post as soon as I know....

Has anyone done a compression test, is it easy.... that is probably my next move as the existence of one problem does not rule out the possibility of another.....

Why would high levels of blow-by cause carry over, strangely enough my car hardly smokes at all....

I wonder how hard it would be to change the rings with the engine in place, seems good access to take off sump....

what would it entail Head Bolts, Gasket, set of rings, re-hone cylinders,,, lots of oil in the face.....

The DPF does a good job of hiding any smoke. Mine barely smokes at all despite burning through 2 litres/1000 miles, last week it went straight through the MOT with only emissions readings.

High blow-by means more case getting into the crankcases therefore more gas passing through the breather back into the inlet. As the gas speed increases oil more oil gets carried with it as it doesn't have time to be separated and drop back into the pan.

JRL - I get the woes with the DPF, but I'm sure they're symptomatic of the oil leak/consumption?

It may well be symptomatic. Does your oil level rise or is the car just using excessive amounts of oil. If the latter then I may well have interpreted your initial post wrongly. If I see any mention of DPF I tend to lose all sense of reason!

No rise, just consumption! We had no issues with the DPF until about a month ago, but the oil consumption has been steadily increasing for about the last 6 months.

that makes some sense but it amounts to a major overhaul? or is there an alternative.

I have a scrap s60 which I maight swop the oil separator off and chance that....


what about one of these there must be a reason why these are made, does the valve wear out thus allowing the gases and oil to bypass the separator....http://www.skandix.de/en/spare-parts...ather/1033347/

Would a compression test show rings to be an issue?

A compression test might show it up but it could be worn/blocked oil control rings which wouldn't affect compression but would let oil into the chamber.

When an engine burns that much oil a rebuild is inevitable!

Would worn rings not reduce compression, is the blow by not passing down around the worn rings, Have I got this wrong?

The thing is that the engine is not burning oil in the conventional manner ie by having it drip down past the valve seals or bypass the oil rings, it seems that it is blowing it from the crankcase into the air intake and burning it almost as part of the fuel/air mix..

The piston will probably have 4 rings (not sure exactly how many on this engine), 3 compression rings and an oil scraper ring. The job of the compression rings is to seal the piston to the bore. The oil scraper ring as its name suggests, scrapes oil from the wall of the bore and insures that the correct amount of lubrication is applied to the piston/rings without allowing too much into the bore.

In your case if there is oil in the intake due to high blow-by causing carry over from the breather, then yes it will be likely due to worn compression rings which would be more likely to show up on a compression test.

You could try a compression test on each cylinder and then repeat it with a drop or two of oil in the bore. The oil will help the compression rings to seal if they are leaking and in this case you will see an improved figure when you repeat the test.

If the oil is passing the scraper ring into the chamber then its possible you will still have a good compression figure anyway.

Clogged DPF can be a reason of high engine oil consumption and it is most likely in many cases.
What happens...
when DPF is reasonably clogged but still operative and everytime regeneration is activated engine oil is diluted with diesel becomes thinner and thinner and thinner. It goes through the piston rings and especially turbo seals to the engine combustion chambers and burns. When that oil burns DPF clogs much quicker hence you all guys have a message - DPF is Full.

DPF issues is the first reason of the turbo seals failure.
Even DPF is not full, it gets regenerated randomly and you change engine oil within intervals but still have high oil consumption - suspect turbo.

1st step - sort out DPF untill its not too late

I don't have a soot filter full message, just really high oil consumption. My car had a new DPF before I purchased it so possible I just haven't filled it with soot yet.
In 5 months I have covered about 5000 miles and used near 10 litres of oil. Initially I had no signs of smoke. Now I am getting smoke when accelerating after slowing down.

My turbo is brand new, dpf claened, 2 liters of oil in 500miles, cannot see that it can be related to dpf,

also cannot see that there is any connection from DPF/CAT to oil system for this magical dilution of oil that I have seen, perhaps this is only in the newer version....

going to try a compression test, wet and dry....

What is a mileage of your car mate?
And what grade of engine oil do you use?

It can be. Cleaned DPF is not the same as brand new. When DPF is reasonably clogged but still in operational regeneration condition the exhaust gases reach much higher temperatures nearly up to the limits where the engine itself have to work at higher temperatures too. Especially oil which gets thinner at those temperatures and you have high oil consumption. Besides burn oil debris accumulate and burn on the cylinder walls, piston rings, valves etc. Even a brand new turbo can burn engine oil dramatically because of the DPF.
Compression test is recommended and is a low cost procedure. Low compression can be a consequences of the DPF issues
For the higher mileage cars it would be better to use 5w30 engine oil instead of 0w50 which is thin.
5w30 will not do any harm to the engine. It even can be better. I have noticed a huge better difference to the engine performance, engine noise when switched from 0w30 to 5w30 for cars which made 80-100k miles and above.
There is no very low subzero temperatures in the UK so 0w30 is not essential.

Not sure who that's directed at, but I use the recommended 0w30 in ours. So would a DPF delete potentially sort the issue?

I very much doubt it. The DPF is getting blocked because you are burning oil not the other way around. Also with the amount you are topping up the oil in the crankcase won't be thinned down from diesel dilution during re-generations.

Well, that's what I figured, but your man there seems to say otherwise (not a dig; all advice welcomed!). I'm just exploring all options before I leave it at the side of the road and go back to Mercs...

Every case can be different...
We are discussing options what it can be. In most cases dpf is a reason.
Personally I would monitor live data but not everyone is capable to that
Critical data in such scenarios is dpf differential pressure readings, exhaust temperatures, oil pressure, status of dpf filter.
Very important figure is exhaust temperature which is about 150 - 200C. Sometimes a little higher. It depends on the driving style.
having even a little dpf clogging exhaust temperatures will be higher and it may cause high oil consumption. Condition of the engine and its components matters.
Thinner oil can be a factor too.
If you are a Greenpeace member - ignore my advice to delete dpf

As I mentioned before previous DPF issues could be a reason car has oil consumption problems now. With DPF fitted is more guessing than seeing an obvious fault.
A massive oil consumption also very likely is a consequences of the previous DPF issues when the harm to the engine been done

In my opinion to start solving such problems you need to delete DPF (it also has to be gutted). Than it will be more clear what comes out from the exhaust how car's performance changes etc.

I use 05 w30 mobile a5b5.

The DPF is not causing the oil burning, period.

the oil burning is clogging the DPF.

I agree a compression test but I have the option of swopping the PCV valve so I am going to look at that tomorrow.

really like to know if the rings can be changed without removing engine, I figuew if the sump can come off can you access the ends of the con rods from underneath....

I will not argue anymore about the DPF. Only will mention I deal with DPF and car remaps almost every weekend thats including car diagnostics etc.

You didnt tell what is a mileage of the car?
Maybe injector problem? Its enough 1 injector to overfuel and you have a problem - oil gets diluted with diesel and burns quicker...

Anyway I leave it with you.
Wish you good luck finding a fault and sorting it out. I know its a big pain
You should have access to the piston rings when sump is dropped.

I'd be really interested to hear how you get on with changing the PCV and if it makes any improvement.

I'm absolutely certain the DPF isn't the root cause. Its very unlikely that oil dilution is a problem given how much fresh oil you are having to add.

Deleting the DPF isn't a good solution for anyone, for one thing its illegal and likely to void your MOT. Also in my view aftermarket remains are not a good idea but that's a bit off topic!

I'm now using about 2 litres in 600 miles so this problem is going to have to get sorted one way or another!

Did you manage to have a go at changing the PCV?
I'm about to pick up the phone and book the car into a garage. It's gone from 2 litres for 1100 miles to 2 litres for 500 miles...

There seem to be a lot of people suffering similar problems at the moment. I wonder if there is a problem with these engines at higher mileages.

Likewise. The garage I used last time found nothing. Guess I need to try another...I'm toying with using the main dealer (£££) as they have serviced the car from new, bar the last service which was done by a local indie.

I do not share your faith in main dealers. If you are reconciled to spending some £££ then find a good specialist, even if you have to travel a bit. When I had dpf problems with my bmw I used a specialist who routinely sorts such problems while running the car under power on his rolling road, for example.

I did - Formula Cars in Wellington. They told me they could find nothing particular at fault. Happy for someone to recommend another here in the southwest.

Well I would look for someone who can test the car under load on a rolling road dynamometer - perhaps a tuning firm with experience of Volvo diesels.

Lost all interest in it at the moment,

I put a catch can in the circuit between the oil separator and the pcv connection to the air intake, it did not collect anything,??

on Sunday oil warning came on, followed by soot filter full so that was 5l after less than 1000 miles.

just put my mothers car on the road instead,

I have a compression testing kit on the way from Amazon and I am going to do a compression test first, as this will tell me if the engine is chucked....needs rings etc... if that shows no fault then It must be PCV but there is so much smoke out of the filler and dip stick I am expecting it to be bad piston rings...

Just a thought but before you give up all hope... if it is indeed piston rings, could they just be jammed/stuck. Back in the day people would suggest dribbling some redex into the bore and leaving it stand to help release the rings. Others may have a better approach.

There was another thread in the Diesel engine section where someone had stripped and rebuilt the engine due to excessive oil consumption. He mentioned amongst other things that the oil control rings were blocked.

I might try a can of Seafoam in the oil and pulling the glow plugs out to add some plusgas to the combustion chamber for an overnight soak.

Impossible! If you had stuck/jammed piston rings engine would be a no runner

I doubt its a PCV system either as it works as a breather for crankcase ventilation. Having PCV system blocked engine oil level goes higher because of the gas pressure in the crankcase. The result - oil leak through the oil filler cap, oil dip stick and also through the seals which is quite common.
5l engine oil consumption in 1000 mile - thats massive.
Likely the problem is top end. Not a turbo or DPF as I thought before. Its just too much consumption.

Compression test would show a fault in the cylinders if there are any. Low compression - not only rings problem. It also can be valves.

A further inspection of the top end and valve/camshafts top cover would be recommended. The top cover has inner gasket all the way round. Gasket failure would allow engine oil get into the chambers through the swirl flaps