1994 850 Excessive Oil Consumption Topic is solved

Stphen · Post by **Stphen** » 25 Nov 2002, 14:03

I purchased a 1994 850 Wagon from a local dealer in June. The 850 had about 114,000 miles and had just been traded by the original owner on a CC. The owner had brought it in for the 115K checkup. The dealer did the 125K maintenance and put it on the used auto lot. The maintenance records showed the original owner had every service done by the dealer at the specified intervals. I talked to the service manager and he said the car was a great buy. He showed me the mainenance file and the 125K service invoice. I bought the car to use for long distance trips. Its in great shape and an ideal traveling car. However, it is using an unbelievable amount of oil but there is no evidence as to where its going. After about 2000 miles I checked the oil while getting gas and it regestered dry. I added 2 quarts. I have been monitoring it now and it looks like about a quart for every 800 miles. The dealer gave me the previous owners number. He said he just added oil when he got gas and gave up trying to see where it was going. There are no obvious leaks except the front seals were replaced twice by the dealer. As with the previous owner there is no oil under the car or white smoke coming out the tail pipe.

One suggestion from a mechanic friend was that a piston ring spacer was allowing oil to escape and the catalectic converter was buring the residue beyond smoke. Any ideas or similar experence. Thanks.

Stephen

mazbol · Post by **mazbol** » 25 Nov 2002, 14:37

I got the exact same problem with 1996 volvo 850
Talking to mechanics, it seems that this is common on the 850 model. Not to say its good but a lot of people have this problem

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 06 Mar 2003, 08:42

It could be that you have an oil leak. Perhaps the rear main is the source of the oil loss? This seems to be a common problem due to high oil pressure.

saevolvo · Post by **saevolvo** » 10 Mar 2003, 11:47

I work at an independent Volvo repair shop. We see a few of these a year. Generally it turns out that the valve guide seals are bad, allowing the oil to be burned internally. Often there is an oily residue at the tailpipe, in addition to the normal soot. It is also normal not to see excessive smoking. In the past we have replaced the cylider head, which is very expensive, (3-3500), you can also replace the valve guide seals. Either way it's not cheap, so be sure to have a tech verify that this is the problem. Have you asked the selling dealer to help out with this since it clearly was a pre-existing problem? In fact, if they were also the servicer it seems hard to believe that it's not in the records somewhere.