V40 1.6 L engine oil consumption

[conedia]

I wonder if anyone can offer some advice or thoughts here. I bought from a Volvo main dealer a 9 month old V40 with the 1.6 L diesel engine, that was originally a Volvo company car, and therefore I felt that it would have been maintained to full factory standards. It had around 14 500 miles on it, and I collected the car last Friday, just 5 days ago. I have since done under 100 miles in it.

Today I took it on a 40 mile journey. As I got near to completing that journey, the oil pressure warning light started flashing as I went round corners. I stopped, checked the oil level, and found that it didn't even show on the dipstick (it seems that my car has no automatic oil level reading feature on it - yet another shortcoming compared with my old C5 I traded in). Now either the dealer sold me a car that was already all but empty as regards the amount of oil in the sump, or else my car has a horrendous oil consumption problem.

Does this engine have an oil consumption problem? Or did the dealer just not check it over? Even then, I cannot believe (again comparing with my old Citroen) that a modern diesel engine would need to have oil added at such a low mileage - I never once added oil to the C5, even with 20 000 mile service intervals. Any advice gratefully received before I go storming in to the dealer.

[volvorocks]

There is a possibility you car has had a hard first year, bearing in mind the mileage and the fact it was a Volvo 'company' car. Some of these are ex rentals in 'disguise'. Check your log book. Who was the previous owner? If a rental, may not necessarily bear the name of the rental company.

Regards

[conedia]

Thanks volvorocks. I just checked the service book, and it shows Volvo as being the registered owner, and that the car was serviced 2000 miles ago.

[chiptivo]

I would say it has been underfilled. There are a lot of threads around about overfilling the autodipsticked D4. Causes loads of issues.

Maybe the garage were very cautious.

For reference, I have done 3-4k miles roughly in my D2 (1.6) and my dip stick remains unaltered, not more or less.

[bowz]

I currently own 3 fords with this engine & loose no oil between changes & never have in the last 7 years. So, I would agree that it may have either been under filled, or it has the turbo failure issue related to this particular engine. My advice, top it up & do regular checks before anything bad happens.

[Marc01]

My advice is take it back to the dealer asap, explain to them the situation and ask for an assessment. As its new to your hands and you bought it in good faith you want it inspected and have a record of it, just in case something happens down the road so to speak.
Chances are it's just an oversight, my V40 had an issue where it showed low oil after a service, a Volvo service engineer took another look agreed it was low and topped it up, turns out it was not low, although the the onboard dipstick showed it was empty and he actually overfilled it considerably.

You may be having a similar situation, your V40 may actually be at the correct level but the sensor is reading incorrectly so topping up may overfill it. Get it into a dealer and let them look at it!

[conedia]

Thanks to all for your very helpful advice, especially regarding the overfilling issue (which is a concern for most cars these days), as well as a possible turbo issue - I hadn't thought of that. Armed with all this knowledge, at least now I can go into the dealership and get answers that make sense without being fobbed off.

[conedia]

Originally Posted by Marc01

My advice is take it back to the dealer asap, explain to them the situation and ask for an assessment. As its new to your hands and you bought it in good faith you want it inspected and have a record of it, just in case something happens down the road so to speak.
Chances are it's just an oversight, my V40 had an issue where it showed low oil after a service, a Volvo service engineer took another look agreed it was low and topped it up, turns out it was not low, although the the onboard dipstick showed it was empty and he actually overfilled it considerably.

You may be having a similar situation, your V40 may actually be at the correct level but the sensor is reading incorrectly so topping up may overfill it. Get it into a dealer and let them look at it!

Thanks Marc01. But is the oil pressure warning light (oil can symbol) showing oil level or oil pressure? if oil pressure, then it would appear that the oil level truly is well below minimum, and that the oil scavenge system is not supplying sufficient oil to the pump when going round a corner.

[conedia]

Update:

Dealer service dept came to my house (nearly 2 hours after promising 30 minutes) with two 1 L cans of oil, and couldn't believe no oil on dipstick. Put in the oil, which brought it up to the bottom of the dipstick. He then took the car away for checking. Three hours later he returned (without phoning after promising to phone - good job I was in), full of apologies, and saying that before selling the car to me they had given it a full oil and filter change. The problem was that they didn't seat the filter properly on its seal (apparently this engine has a separate internal filter and outer casing), and thus the car was slowly losing its oil as I drove, until there was less than 1 L left. I'm just glad I wasn't embarking on a late night very long distance trip.

There was a little oil on my garage floor - the first time since the 1970s that I've owned a car that did this! On return they told me that they had put in a brand new filter and given it a full oil change. I hope this is the only problem, but it does leave me with something less than full confidence in both car and dealer at this point.

[RoyMacDonald]

Originally Posted by conedia

Update:

Dealer service dept came to my house (nearly 2 hours after promising 30 minutes) with two 1 L cans of oil, and couldn't believe no oil on dipstick. Put in the oil, which brought it up to the bottom of the dipstick. He then took the car away for checking. Three hours later he returned (without phoning after promising to phone - good job I was in), full of apologies, and saying that before selling the car to me they had given it a full oil and filter change. The problem was that they didn't seat the filter properly on its seal (apparently this engine has a separate internal filter and outer casing), and thus the car was slowly losing its oil as I drove, until there was less than 1 L left. I'm just glad I wasn't embarking on a late night very long distance trip.

There was a little oil on my garage floor - the first time since the 1970s that I've owned a car that did this! On return they told me that they had put in a brand new filter and given it a full oil change. I hope this is the only problem, but it does leave me with something less than full confidence in both car and dealer at this point.

Mistakes can happen, but on a new purchase like yours I'd either reject the car or ask for some kind of warranty to cover you for wear and tear caused by the problem. (or a brand new engine) To be fair though modern oils are so good that as long as nothing overheated I doubt much harm was done. It would have not been driven the full 100 miles without the oil and you can probably work out the distance driven below the minimum level from the amount put in. I would guess about 60 miles from your figures.

I think the way to go would be to ask for a technical report from Volvo UK on the probable effect of running without the correct amount of oil in it and their attitude to any warranty claims, if they still do that kind of thing. (That is if you don't want to reject the car out of hand)