2011 xc 60 Oil Consumption

vernersan · Post by **vernersan** » 16 Jul 2015, 23:10

Car has 35k miles with mostly City driving.

The low Oil Light has come on numerous times since around 20k miles. The car, still under warranty, had the Dipstick and reprogramming fix applied at 32k by the dealership and a fresh oil change.

Was taking the car in for the badge recall this week and the low oil light came on again, 3k miles later.

Dealership now has the car torn apart and are evaluating with VNA whether to replace the pistons, the big fix mentioned in the technical bulletin. We anxiously await their response. We were apparently the first car to have the dipstick fix to then have the low oil light come back on.

The dealership stated that VNA really does not know the cause of the problem, if they perform the fix, it may not work....only time will tell. Since our warranty expires next year, I am concerned.

My question to anyone who has had the piston repair performed, have you had any new oil related issues? How many miles since repair?

I have owned several Volvos past 25 years, this is the first one I am considering selling before reaching 150k miles.

Lastly, do I have grounds here to request and expect an extended warranty from VNA?

Any words of wisdom or advice on this would be appreciated.

Post by **jimmy57** » 17 Jul 2015, 07:06

Have any of your other Volvos used one quart per 3000 miles?

Post by **oragex** » 17 Jul 2015, 20:31

I don't know if it's related, but Audi and perhaps other brands had issues with a PCV design around the same years as your car.

Long story short, the Audi dealer has a recall, depending on the oil consumption. If it's not too much, they just replace the PCV with a redesigned part. Not a big job, the part was located on the top of the engine, under the plastic cover. However, if not corrected in time, the oil consumption would increase up to 1l every 600km, and they will also replace the pistons under the recall. This can happen even on low mileage, such as 20000 miles or less.

Aegius · Post by **Aegius** » 18 Jul 2015, 09:13

My 2011 XC60 T6 also had the oil loss problem at 45,000 miles. After the ECU and dipstick change, I lost confidence in Volvo to fix the problem, since it was apparent they were trying to mask the symptoms. There are an awful lot of people who have had their engines replaced after all other fix actions have failed. I just traded it in for something Japanese while the SUV was still worth something.

Post by **jimmy57** » 18 Jul 2015, 13:16

I do some consulting work with car dealers. Oil consumption more than one quart in 4000 miles but less than one quart in 2500 miles is affecting many makes. Some are having oil consumption of one quart per 1000 or less miles. Low tension narrow piston rings that reduce friction in engine are allowing some oil consumption. The worst culprit is low oil level warning systems. A whole lot of cars show up for service with crankcase two quarts down but no light came on to tell you about it. If you trde cars due to oil consumption you might be trading for one that uses just as much.

vernersan · Post by **vernersan** » 24 Jul 2015, 23:54

Thank you all for your replies.

Previous Volvos, we had oil changed every 3-5k. '98 xc70, '85d something. So it was never noted.

As for the PCV valve, the dealer did mention that a new "fix" was being considered which involved the PCV valve. Since this is all greek to me, I did not ask what, when or if this would happen.

The dealer called me this week to say Volvo had just now authorized them to tear open the engine and inspect the cylinders for scoring. If scoring = new engine, no scoring = then piston and rings.

We await our fate. Will likely request a new engine. OR a trade in.
THanks

Post by **abscate** » 10 Aug 2015, 04:24

Looking at my fleet, my two VWs use no oil over annual oil changes but they are lightly driven, under 5000 per year .

The BMW has 130k on it and uses about one liter every 5000-6000 miles

My 1999 T5 uses 1 liter per 3500 miles at 170k miles

The P2 V70 is using perhaps 500 ml per 7500 miles or less

Everything is running full synthetic

vernersan · Post by **vernersan** » 01 Sep 2015, 09:49

As a follow up on this post...

The dealer kept the car for one month. Lots of discussion with Volvo North America about the repair. In the end, they opened up cylinders, found no scoring and therefore performed the "piston job" in lieu of engine replacement. This all happened without consenting with me. I wanted a new engine. This repair cost VNA over 9k.

At any rate, we got the car back, all seemed well. That same evening, the car died on my wife. All the lights came on, the car would not start. The car was towed back to dealership by the surly Roadside Asst.

Apparently during the engine re-build, one of the alternator wires was bent and the alternator fried. This repair cost VNA over 4k.

At this point, I not only had a poorly manufactured car, the dealership was performing shoddy maintenance. The one bright star thru all this was the Service Manager. I either wanted to sell the vehicle or get a full warranty.

The service manager made the latter happen. He obtained an extended Volvo Warranty, 5yrs/100k miles with low deductible and fully transferrable, at no cost to me.

I hope this is the end of our saga....but we will wait and see.