Oil consuption

[mvferh]

Hello to everyone. I recently bought a 2013 S60 T5. VIN YV161…. Engine # 4598538. Great car. The surprise is not only does it use gas, it uses 1qt of of oil per 600 miles. So far I’ve seen a couple of different explanations.
(a) Poor oil control ring design leading to a lack of tension to clean the cylinder walls or
(b) the ring getting gummed up preventing oil to return through the piston skirt.
(c) the oil separator getting clogged leading to this problem.
I ran a Auto RX sludge cleaning cycle and have been driving with the trans in S mode. This made no difference.
I’ll be putting in a timing belt kit (120,000 mi) and will clean out the oil separator and replace the diaphragm.
Our other two Volvos have passed the 200,000 mile mark with the common problems of the oil separator system. But no oil consumption issues. Based on the VIN and engine # is there a definitive answer to the oil use issue? While I’ve got it apart is there anything else I can do? Thanks for your responses.

[RickHaleParker]

Does it smoke at anytime? First started, long down hill, when you floor it ... ect.

[mvferh]

Not that I can notice. The tail pipes are soot stained though on the bottom. Just to double check I'm going to follow the car for a drive cycle.

[mvferh]

I haven't seen any oil smoke under running conditions. I'm doing the timing belt and will do the flame trap at the same time. Maybe its clogged. I pulled the plugs and one plug has a slight build up of ash on it. However none are oil fouled or black. I will also try dye and see if that points me in any direction.

[mrigmo]

I have noticed that oil consumption on these motors is directly tied to the PCV systems' health. Even if you just replaced the diaphragm, the whole PCV is constantly building up sludge. The worse it gets, the higher the pressure inside the engine, the more blow-by, and the more oil will leak out of the engine. I flush my engine with every oil change and clean the PCV twice a year. I use seafoam in the oil and I use gasoline in a spray bottle under high pressure to clean the PCV housing and let that drain and dry before refilling the oil. It will make the oil almost red, like a red-brown color if your engines are older and never been cleaned before. If that happens I suggest flushing every 1000 miles until the oil is normal. Who knows what that's doing to the pH of the oil but it can't be good. These engines are super sensitive to oil changes, if they are low or the oil is dirty they run like crap.

When you do the timing belt do the water pump, idler, and both tensioners as well. If you are noticing any noise at all coming from your pulleys I would suggest replacing the alternator's pully now too and you can get an AC compressor front bearing for 20 bucks and that's just a snap ring under the AC clutch. The AC clutch.. which is probably causing you problems right now unless you live somewhere it never gets hot. But it's a good time to shim your AC clutch and replace any motor mounts that are damaged. You'll need to remove the upper passenger side mount anyway to do the job. Lastly, if you have more than 80k miles on the engine chances are the TCV has failed or is failing and you should definitely replace that while you have room to double-check your vacuum lines.

You don't need the cam lock tool to do the timing belt, but it's nice to have. A tip though if you don't have the camlock, rotate the engine clockwise to get the marks straight up to the marks on the cover, but go past it a little and then turn the engine back about an 8th of a turn to relieve the tension from the VVT on your cam pulleys. Otherwise, who knows if one or both are engaged. That way before you take off the timing belt they are both at rest. Don't go cranking your engine backward more than just that little bit. If you don't do that, then both of your cams markings won't line up and they definitely won't match the crank. I made a little block of wood that wedged perfectly between the cam gears fit into the teeth I was just careful not to move the crank.

Obviously, by now you know that the 2012 T5 used rings that turned out to be problematic. The main reason so many people lost their motors was running those rings low on oil will be enough to push them past the point of a tailspin of oil fouling related problems. So keep an extra quart or 2 with you at all times. And don't use oil thickening agents like Lucas or engine honey, they make the problem worse, thinner oil is actually preferable for those rings, they can squeegee it off the cylinder wall easier. I hope that made sense...