Use of oil D4

[Bendolfc]

Nonsense like this is why I ended up keeping the money in the bank and not buying a VEA Xc60. My old S40 2.0D might sound rough as old boots and at 15 years old be well past its best, but even with 217K on the clock, it doesn't use a drop of oil. Hopefully I'll get another. Couple of years out of it before going BEV.

The VEA isn't a bad engine, but outside of the SPA and CMA platform cars, it is like a ticking time bomb.

[Zebster]

My VEA D4 runs fine but needs a few top-ups between services. It's hardly a big deal.

[spottedhaggis]

So Volvo Specially formulated their oil to disappear. Its a great engine, great MPG, car is pretty good, bit basic, but good enough, but jesus I really did not expect to have to spend the money I save on not having to pay road tax on oil for the years driving.

Its on 145k miles, just passed MOT with not one single issue, yet I need to keep at least a litre of oil in the car at all times.

[spottedhaggis]

Originally Posted by Zebster

My VEA D4 runs fine but needs a few top-ups between services. It's hardly a big deal.

I agree its not difficult to add a half litre now and again, and Ive no issue with that but 5 litres of this stuff is around £50, and my my calculations I will need around 15 litres a year based on the miles I am doing, yet in the older 2005 D5 I used to use I never had to top it up ever, and did the same miles with an older higher mileage car.

It just does not really add up

[GrahamBrown1]

Our v60 D3 tho same VEA engine is drinking oil. I know it has a leak on the cam cover but it’s only minor but at the rate it’s using it it seems pointless doing an oil change at service! It gets the correct spec but easy couple of litres a month. It’s out of warranty just running it to see what happens. Runs well enough.

[Tannaton]

I had a 2016 XC60 VEA D4 (FWD) from new and did over 50k in it, never topped the oil up once.

[Zebster]

Originally Posted by spottedhaggis

I agree its not difficult to add a half litre now and again, and Ive no issue with that but 5 litres of this stuff is around £50, and my my calculations I will need around 15 litres a year based on the miles I am doing, yet in the older 2005 D5 I used to use I never had to top it up ever, and did the same miles with an older higher mileage car...

I only need a couple of litres for my inter-service topping up, so I'm happy to use this relatively cheap oil that meets the required spec... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5L-0W20-F...-/122740556779

Quite a few Volvo owners report the opposite problem of RISING oil level, so maybe we should set up a sharing scheme? Seriously, I have wondered if the oil consumption issue is sometimes masked by the addition of fuel into the sump from aborted regens?

[TeamG]

My first car, Mk5 Cortina 2.0 Ghia used this much oil and only cost me £48.50 to buy in 1992. Ford must have been ahead of their time when compared to Volvo, as their engines have been burning oil for decades!

[Sotosound]

I just posted the following in the General forum.


High oil consumption in Volvos is largely restricted to those with VEA 4-cylinder diesel engines that were built before a specific point in 2016.

The affected engines have poorly designed oil control rings that fail to allow engine oil to drain back from the combustion chambers into the sump because the rings’ drain holes are too small and get blocked very easily.

The oil in the combustion chamber then gets burned but (to my imperfect understanding) doesn’t make lots of blue smoke because it’s low ash oil, and also (to my imperfect understanding) any residue gets cleaned up by the DPF.

My wife’s 2015 65-reg V60 D3 Geartronic is, sadly, an example of a Volvo with the problem. It consumes half a litre of oil every 900 miles or so but flew through its MOT last November, including emissions.

Strangely, my 2014 64-reg V70 D4 has a VEA diesel but hardly uses any oil at all. Not sure why it doesn’t but not complaining either!

[Dash300]

Only had to add 3 lots of 500ml in 120k so far and engine used to do a lot of towing during that time.