Quote:
Originally Posted by bananarama
BTW...I hear that some burn oil; how come? Are they prone to this? Or was it a particular batch/year?
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Some VEA engines built prior to mid-2016 get this issue.
It is apparently caused by blocked drain holes in the oil control piston rings that cause engine oil to be left in the cylinder for combustion instead of being allowed to drain back into the oil sump. There are a few threads on the forum about this, including a couple with posts by me. After mid-2016, the pistons and rings were redesigned to prevent the problem from occurring.
Degraded valve stem oil seals can also contribute to the issue.
My wife's V60 D3 has the problem but my own V70 D4 doesn't, although last year I worried that it was starting. Instead, the car needed a new rocker cover and gasket because the old one had a bad leak.
I suspect that cars that have done mainly short journeys will be more prone to this problem, but that's only a suspicion.
It's also the case that the cars that I am aware of having the issue have mileages of over 100k.
With my wife's car, right now we just top up the oil as needed. It doesn't affect emissions, so the car flew through its MOT late last year with no advisories.
The full fix is new pistons and rings plus a rebuild of the cylinder head. Not cheap but probably cheaper and better than replacing the car with an unknown quantity.