Is bad valve connected to oil consumption issue?

[jlindse1]

While driving our 2016 XC70 recently, heard a loud noise from under the hood and the engine suddenly began to run roughly. Hoping for something minor like a bad coil, took it to our independent Volvo mechanic who found no compression in cylinder #1, likely due to a bad valve or blown piston ring. The car has 91,616 miles on it.

This was the same mechanic who, a couple years ago, helped us become aware of the high engine oil consumption issue after our low oil pressure warning light came on. At the time, he checked and changed the oil and provided us with a copy of Technical Journal 34588.4.0. We have engine 61 (B5254T12) I5T as indicated in the TJ. Our mechanic recommended that we closely monitor oil consumption in the engine and, if it continued to be an issue, the car should be taken to the dealer. We subsequently (in July 2022) took the car to the dealer from whom we purchased the car when the low oil pressure warning light came on again. The dealer performed an oil consumption test at 59,791 miles, which indicated the consumption value was within the normal range (0.3 liters/1000km; normal is considered any value below 0.5 liters/1000km) but that was more than 30,000 miles ago.

Had the car towed to the dealer to confirm the issue and help to further diagnose the problem. With the use of a borescope, they confirmed a blown valve. See photos. At this point, I need thoughts about whether the valve issue is related to the high engine oil consumption issue (i.e., bad piston ring design). If the two are connected, perhaps I can argue for goodwill to assist with the repair or replacement, given my ownership history. While the car is more than 9 years old, it only has just shy of 92,000 miles on it. My last XC70 (2008) had 255,000 miles when I traded it in and I have driven several of the six Volvos I’ve owned in the last 23 years just short of 200,000 miles. In my experience, most Volvo engines are just getting broken in at this point. I was planning to drive this car a lot longer but am now stuck with having to replace the engine or buy another car. Any/all thoughts are welcome. Thank you.

[scot850]

I'm no expert on these newer engines, but have heard of the oil consumption issues with the 2015/6 engines.

I'm not sure what relationship there is between the failure of a valve and the high consumption of oil. If there are valve stem issues with leaking valves, then possibly oil could be an issue, but again, not sure how the high consumption issue would relate. As I understood it the issue with oil consumption was from badly fitted piston rings where the gaps were too close together. I believe Volvo had a 'kit' to fix that issue with new pistons and rings with install instructions. I may have that slightly wrong but heard via a friend who was a Volvo mechanic.

I cannot really see clearly on the pictures of the valves, but there does look like a lot of gunk in the engine which may be related to the oil consumption.

Neil.