rspi wrote:Here is an observation that I have... I can top off the oil in my car in Cincinnati OH, drive 1,600 miles home and loose zero oil. Then drive around town here over a 45 day span, 1,200 miles and loose an entire quart of oil. So, these short cold start trips is causing my car to loose oil much faster than a constant long drive.
Her last day was on 3 cylinders. There's more to the story than you know. My daughter has been the driver of this car for 6 years. During that time I only saw it for a short time when she was home from school. I checked the level as often as I could and she did not put much mileage on the car (like 3500 miles each year). She lived two blocks from her school and the the town is so small she could get anywhere in less than 5 miles. Now she is a commuter student and she drives a round trip of about 110 miles every day. The volvo is a little too old to let her drive it that far every day so we swapped cars. I now drive the volvo 75 miles each day. So the consumption rate per mile may not have changed but daily mileage has increased dramatically. I just didn't expect the drop because in the past when I checked it it was always a little low but not too bad.rspi wrote:I really don't mean to be rude but why do you let the oil level get more than a quart low between changes? Oil level should be checked weekly or at the least monthly. They sell oil by the quart so you don't have to wait till the oil change time to add some??? Especially if you think or know that the vehicle is loosing oil between changes???98v70dad wrote:The last few oil changes I've noticed the oil level is always about 1.5 to 1.75 quarts low.
Also, it is a good idea to check the level before you do the change, prior to draining the oil.
I usually use 10w-40, it has cut down on oil blowing by the valve stem seals. Other than destroying the cat, I don't see the need to tear the motor down to replace the valve stem seals.
As for the car smoking at start up, a puff at start should be the extent of it. If it is smoking oil longer than 3 seconds at start there is some other issue.
I promise you, it's a lot cheaper and less stressful to check and top off the oil monthly (or bi-weekly) than deal with replacing a car or dealing with a major repair decision. I have been milking a steering rack leak since I purchased my car 4 years ago. I add about 8 ozs of fluid to the system every 2 weeks. Has not gotten worse in 4 years but I keep it topped off.
That's true. Properly maintained is the key. I bought this car used with about 94000 miles on it 6 years ago. It now has 124000 miles. The previous owners didn't beat it to death but they were not proactive in maintaining the car. They fixed some of the problems when they came up but many problems were not taken care of. I bought the car for about $4000 less than it was worth due to all of the broken items that required repair. I paid so little for it I am well satisfied, but normally I would have passed on a car in the condition it was in.misha wrote:I would say that Volvo would be the best solution for your daughter since she makes that longer trips.
It would make her's every trip more safely than every other car and it would keep her safely more than every other brand of car.
About it's age...T-5R from '95 in U.S is worth more than 7000$$$ ...yes...more than 7k$.It's 20years old car.I guess ''old" doesn't affect our Volvos that much.It's all in how well they are maintained.If properly maintained and cared,they can last forever.
Her last day was on 3 cylinders. No I don't remember that post. Maybe I missed it or maybe it was someone else. I'm planning a thorough inspection this weekend with a flashlight a mirror and several hours to search. I've done this before on a 96 Camry. If the oil is leaking I'll eventually figure it out. The more I've investigated this the more I think it's a leak. One of the symptoms is the smell of oil when running the fan with fresh air. Another is the smell of hot oil in the engine bay. The odd thing is that so far I haven't found the source, but I will admit that I haven't looked that hard.obayha wrote:Didn't someone mention a valve stem seal test to you once before? They didn't want to post it on the site, but said "call me"? I can't remember the post, but think that would be a good call. If my 98 hadn't of had as many miles on it, it would of been good to do the seals and get a few more miles out of it.
At 163,00 miles on my new to me '99 V70, I would do a valve stem replacement, maybe even as a preventive maintenance, as stated earlier, rubber just gets old.
Watch it for a while. All oil will collect somewhere and find it's way to the driveway.
Shane
