1997 850 huge oil consumption no leaks

[Sommerfeldt]

If you're not sure about the color, then it could be a combination of things.

To be honest, I usually smell the exhaust to diagNOSE stuff (hardy-har-har). A sweetish smell usually means you're burning some coolant, while a slight fuel smell means unburned fuel or you're not warmed up yet. A strong fuel smell is a red flag, of course, but then you'd most likely have the black smoke.
Burning oil smells like burning oil.

(Oh, and a "hot" smell like a toaster burning dust after standing around too long, means you've just fixed a years-old vacuum leak to the charcoal canister. So there's that... )

- S

[rspi]

[rspi]

My info was bad from what I read post my comment. Deleted to avoid confusion.

[Sommerfeldt]

Smoke, grrrr, what color is the smoke? Not sure what difference that makes.

The difference between fluids, that's what it makes. Easy way to get an idea of what's burning.

Greyish smoke is likely oil from somewhere. The question is where from.

Any time I've seen oil burn, it's a blueish color. Grey would mean that something else is in there as well.

- PCV system smoke/leak...

He changed PCV 20k ago. Should still be good - though the test you proposed is a good tell.

- Turbo leak... usually happens while driving. May NOT smoke at start up. It will smoke while driving and usually more when you hit the gas. ... Pull the intake tube, stick 2 fingers in there and try to wiggle it around.

There's already some agreement that this should be the next step, since he's done compression test, which seems OK.

+ Usually when turbos wear, they get noisy.

Personally, my turbo makes a lot of noise already. I'm not sure it's very easy to hear something amiss with it - a lot of that due to my K&N, but still. Not very reliable...

Sad to say but it is real important not to play with your oil brand/type/viscosity.

I even have to disagree with you on this one... I've run a couple of Volvos by now, and never once has oil brand or viscosity made any kind of difference. My current 850 is running on 5W40, and hardly uses a drop. I personally switched it to synth at 5w40 after it had been running semi for 15+ years. No issues. A recent 1000 km+ roadtrip confirmed it - came back having used hardly any oil at all. That's been my experience with the other Volvos I've had as well.
This is a lingering thing from earlier days, with less advanced oil.

- S

[misha]

I bought mine from a familly friend back in 2000.Car was almost 3 years old and had 69k km.Practically a new car.
Oil change interval was at 10k km and the car was using around 0.5-1.5l of oil per 10k km,depending on how hard it was driven during that period.Always used semi-synth 10w-40 or 5w-40 fully synth.
Sometimes it use 0.5l,sometimes around liter and sometimes oil level is at min mark on dipstick(around 1.5l) when i take it in for an oil change around 10k km interval.

Now...after 300k km it use around 1l per 3-4 k km and i think it's from valve stem seals.

Maybe it's because i have a heavy foot.

On the other side....Xm is hardly using a drop of oil from change to change....but also,it's not driving as hard as Volvo.
It's driven a bit gentler.

[m491]

Robert, I'm not sure how I missed this video on the turbo replacement. This is super helpful and exactly what I was trying to find. When you did the replacement did your smoking go away?

I got out late to a salvage yard and found an 97 850 with only 91,000 0n the clock. th car actually looked like a true 91,000 mile car and not one with a broken odometer. But I didn't have all the tools and the yard closed early on Saturdays. I'm going to take a half day Monday morning and get that turbo before it gets picked by someone else.

I'm not sure what the proper way to tell if a turbo is good or not. I'll try to get some video up of the new turbo from the salvage yard after I pull the part.

[abscate]

Just pull the induction tube and check for side play ( a bit ok) and axial play ( none)

If those two are good, the only other thing that can do you in is a cracked body, very rare.

Once the turbo is off, rebuilding it with the Mitsubishi kit is really easy too....he says having never done one......but the tutorial in the VRD is great

[m491]

I came up with no luck at the salvage yard. There were two cars with the 13 G turbo and they were bad.

I have a spare 15g from an old 850 PE I had. The plan was to rebuild it so if the original went I'd have the backup ready to go. Could I use that 15g in the same housing as the 13 G?

If not, does anyone know who was rebuilt turbos for sale and I send back my core exchange? I see these on eBay but don't want to take a chance not knowing the folks doing the rebuilds.

After playing around with the salvage cars turbos I might just get the car done at a shop. What amount of time does a turbo replacement require? I'm trying to get a ballpark number on the labor so I can get this done quicker. Waiting for weekends or taking vacation days isn't getting this car back on the road fast enough.

[erikv11]

Yes, that 15g from your 96 will drop right in. The car will be slightly less peppy at low speeds because the 15g is slower to spool up. You can also make the car T5-faster by changing just the tune and/or the injectors, but that is entirely optional.

G-Pop Shop is highly trusted for turbo rebuilds. But they are a little pricey, they quote $350 for a 13g (or a 15g) plus there is a hidden, additional shipping charge of like $40. They rebuilt one of mine and I am very happy with it. I'm not sure if they do core swaps, but you could just send them your 15g now.

I don't know what a shop would charge for a turbo swap, I would speculate 3-4 hours of labor. Whoever does it, be sure to replace the rubber cooling line hoses at the same time.

[m491]

No luck so far getting my hands on a 13g turbo. The car is drinking a bit of oil but still not safe to take more than 100 miles without checking the oil. I have a 15G turbo I'd swap with anyone who'd like to upgrade. PM me if anyone has a decent 13g and you'd like to trade.