Root cause of high oil consumption in VEA diesel engines?

[GijsB]

Originally Posted by Sotosound

It turned out that my V70 D4 wasn't burning oil. Instead, it had a leaking valve cover gasket.

Phew!

Hope that will work for you... My D4 car was using and leaking oil as well. Leaking out of the valve covers... Got them replaced. But it's still consuming about 0.5l/1000km.

This resulted in the EGR valve, cooler and sooth filter to be clogged up after being replaced 1 year ago.

For me, i think it will be time to move on... Unfortunately

[nunovgato]

Is there a list of all affected engines with the piston ring issue?

It's only 4 cylinder engines or also 5 cylinder?

[Lancee]

Originally Posted by nunovgato

Is there a list of all affected engines with the piston ring issue?

It's only 4 cylinder engines or also 5 cylinder?

I believe D3 and D4 are 5 cylinder.

[griston64]

Originally Posted by Lancee

I believe D3 and D4 are 5 cylinder.

It's the later D4 that was 4 cylinder VEA engine

[Adndy]

I remember reading somewhere, I'm sure in this forum that the piston oil ring issue was caused by the well documented VEA engine EGR issue.
For what it's worth my 2014 S60 D4 VEA has now done nearly 180 000mls and uses very little oil but I have completely ignored Volvos service interval recommendations and change the oil every 8 to 10 000mls.

Andy

[Sotosound]

Originally Posted by Adndy

I remember reading somewhere, I'm sure in this forum that the piston oil ring issue was caused by the well documented VEA engine EGR issue.
For what it's worth my 2014 S60 D4 VEA has now done nearly 180 000mls and uses very little oil but I have completely ignored Volvos service interval recommendations and change the oil every 8 to 10 000mls.

Andy

Your frequent oil changes and loadsa mileage might well have staved the issue off.

My 2014 V70 D4 was fine until recently. It has 152,000 miles on the clock but I've dropped from 25,000 annual miles to 10,000 with more short journeys and less motorway miles, and it's possible that this is allowing the overly small drain holes in the oil control rings to clog up. Now it needs 0.5l ever 2,000 miles. Not huge, but going in the wrong direction.

The question is whether anything other than expensive major surgery can retrieve the situation.

[GrahamBrown1]

Once the carbon is there it’s very hard to remove it without major surgery. In all honesty the actual job of correcting the fault wouldn’t be to bad, a set of updated piston and rings, head off, sump off and you can knock the pistons out the top with the con rods, no need to touch the crank and leave the engine in the car. It’s the parts to put the engine back together that’s the stinger, head gasket, belt kit all the other seals and gaskets all add up. But not actually to bad a job to do for those who are familiar with this sort of thing or even if you fancied a project. Gets to the point where adding more and more oil just naffs you off

[Sotosound]

Originally Posted by GrahamBrown1

Once the carbon is there it’s very hard to remove it without major surgery. In all honesty the actual job of correcting the fault wouldn’t be to bad, a set of updated piston and rings, head off, sump off and you can knock the pistons out the top with the con rods, no need to touch the crank and leave the engine in the car. It’s the parts to put the engine back together that’s the stinger, head gasket, belt kit all the other seals and gaskets all add up. But not actually to bad a job to do for those who are familiar with this sort of thing or even if you fancied a project. Gets to the point where adding more and more oil just naffs you off

My V70 attracts annual VED of £30. A 5-cylinder D4 attracts £135. That's £105 per year for oil, and I'll probably spend £50.

The thought of the oil consumption is annoying, but it's the cheapest option as far as I can see.

[GrahamBrown1]

Yeah you’re right it is, but the oil burning will surely come to a head. The dpf will only take so much? We had a 2015 V60 VEA. Great car but then the oil consumption started. To the point every week it needed at least half a litre if not more. The EGR valve kept blocking despite it having had Volvo replace it several times in its past. In the end got sick of cleaning it out and the fuel consumption was getting worse so went to trade it in at a local Volvo specialist who we have bought many Volvos from. They wouldn’t touch it because straight away new of the issues, of course he did he’d been stung before. Bought another 5 cylinder Volvo from him and it went to we buy any car.

I suppose the point I was making was if you like your car but you have this issue It could be sorted without it been the end of the world in my eyes. We’d just had enough of ours.

[Sotosound]

Originally Posted by GrahamBrown1

Yeah you’re right it is, but the oil burning will surely come to a head. The dpf will only take so much? We had a 2015 V60 VEA. Great car but then the oil consumption started. To the point every week it needed at least half a litre if not more. The EGR valve kept blocking despite it having had Volvo replace it several times in its past. In the end got sick of cleaning it out and the fuel consumption was getting worse so went to trade it in at a local Volvo specialist who we have bought many Volvos from. They wouldn’t touch it because straight away new of the issues, of course he did he’d been stung before. Bought another 5 cylinder Volvo from him and it went to we buy any car.

I suppose the point I was making was if you like your car but you have this issue It could be sorted without it been the end of the world in my eyes. We’d just had enough of ours.

I'm depressed.

It's been suggested that £3k-ish will get it sorted, but that's a lot of money, and it assumes what the cause of the high oil consumption is.

A lottery win would sort it, however.