SwedeSpeed - Volvo Performance Forum banner

Repairing High Oil Consumption with Fuel and Oil Additives - 6 month update - it works!

5027 Views 67 Replies 23 Participants Last post by  Fooj
Six months ago I shared that using Liqui-Moly ProLine Engine Flush helped with my oil consumption issue on my 5 cylinder Volvo. Well, now that some time has passed, I can give an update.

Around 1 quart got consumed after 2500 miles. After adding Liqui-Moly ViscoPlus, I have not burned any oil after driving 1500 more miles.

I now have an improved procedure for fixing this issue:
  1. Lift the car with a jack and jack stands or ramps.
  2. Next, add a bottle of Liqui-Moly ProLine Engine Flush to the engine oil and idle the engine for 15 minutes.
  3. Drain the engine oil. Be careful as the oil will be hot!
  4. Remove the oil filter. A low profile 36mm socket and a flex head ratchet or a regular ratchet with universal joint and extension is required.
  5. Reinstall the drain plug and belly pan with a new aluminum crush washer.
  6. Install the new oil filter.
  7. Add a 300ml can of Liqui-Moly Viscoplus for Oil.
  8. Add new oil of your choice. I have had good results with both Castrol and Liqui Moly oil.
  9. Add a can of fuel system cleaner and top up the tank with gasoline. Any cleaner with a lot of PEA in it will work. RedLine and Techron are popular.
  10. Drive around. Recycle used oil properly!
A lower oil change interval is also useful to preventing oil consumption. An extractor pump will leave 100ml or so of old oil in the crankcase, but extracting oil halfway between Volvo's recommended 10k oil changes should be enough.

This works because Volvo did not design their oil control ring correctly. The oil control ring becomes fouled with carbon deposits, and oil ends up in the combustion chamber instead of being scraped down the cylinder wall. Engine flush will remove years of built-up deposits from the oil control ring.

The fuel system cleaner contains PEA, a detergent which can break up carbon deposits in the combustion chamber which result from oil consumption. These deposits can cause spark plug fouling, clogged injectors and other issues.

Since some oil is burnt and sent through the exhaust, it is essential that any oil or additives used are labeled as safe for catalytic converters!
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: 2
61 - 68 of 68 Posts
May finally have made headway with additives…

last 3 flushes with liqui moly did nothing, tried BG EPR + ~120 miles holding 4k rpm mostly highway split 60 miles before and 60 after the flush/change. 600 miles later, oil's only down 2 croshatches/~2/5 quart in 600 miles, vs the 1/5 quart every ~200 miles im used to. Bit early to celebrate, but it's been quite consistent up until now. Other thing is, if anything I should be seeing more consumption running 4k rpm even if only for 60 miles after. Not using any viscosity modifiers, castrol edge 5w-30 euro.
I think I will try BG EPR next time!
  • Like
Reactions: 1
Greetings! I'm having trouble keeping up w/ all of the threads so, I'm re-;)posting this update here as I believe this is where my oil consumption adventure actually started out. At the risk of being repetitive here's my update:

Volvo Oil Consumption Update: Backgrounder... we've had a 2015.5 S60 T5 AWD Platinum since new, still in perfect condition, never any kids inside, could eat your dinner off the engine, oil changed every 5,000 miles. Circa the 65 - 70,000 mile oil changes I noticed visibly increased consumption. That's when I googled "Volvo Oil Consumption" and got lots of hits and, coming to Swedespeed, lots of suggestions. I did try the Liqui Moly engine flush and that changed nothing; I considered doing a second one, with a Berryman B-12 treatment but as one member suggested, bandaids to a real problem. My feelers out to Volvo at the local level yielded nothing and so I emailed Volvo NA where they told me I had to at least submit to their Oil Consumption Test to get registered in the system. Unlike what some others here have experienced at the dealer level, I was told that Volvo Corporate would pay for the test! Bravo! I scheduled the test with a different dealer than the one where we'd purchased the car from as they had a history of ambivalence with our car. Volvo NA called the morning I was scheduled for the test to A. Confirm that I was still on schedule and B. to advise that our warranty was extended to 100,000 miles! Now that's a nice way to start the day! I arrived at the dealer and waited in their comfortable lobby for 2 hrs, instructed to return in 1,200 kilometers for a weigh in. Yes, they weigh the oil going in and weigh in coming out at the 1,200 kilometer mark. Ours is equipped w/ a dipstick but I suppose w/ digital scenarios, that's the only route. It's my wife's commuter car so it took about 3 weeks to achieve the requested distance which happened this past Tuesday. And the winner is... we "failed the test" which, possibly ambiguous at first meant we're in for new rings! The dealer will replace any other incidentals for cost of parts only, labor etc. already on Volvo. If they determine any further damage, they'll give us a ring but otherwise at 76,500 or so miles we're getting new rings. This dealer does about 2 of these per week and had all the parts on hand, should be ready by Monday. They ubered me home (30 miles) on their dime and they'll either deliver the car to us or pick me up sometime Monday. Koons Volvo in White Marsh, Maryland, well worth the extra drive (the other is just 8 miles away). Best wishes and thanks to all for the banter, lots of great racing this weekend... F1, IndyCar...sorry, nothing Swedish that I'm aware of ;)
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: 2
It's too late for my car unfortunately, it's 9 years old.
IMO, I think they went with 8 years because it's a better than even bet that a lot of these vehicles just miss that 8 year cutoff instead of the 100k miles. This one has a June service date and 97k, so it just squeaks under that bar.

They could have made it 10 years and less than 100k. It's not that unreasonable.

I specifically bought Kia because of the 10 year/100k powertrain warranty. Yeah, I know people will trash talk the Kia to hell and back, but it's not burning oil at 75k, either. I never would have expected a properly maintained Volvo to burn oil at 75k, yet here we are. At least she can get it repaired, but this has left a sour taste in her mouth for Volvo, and she's owned 3.
IMO, I think they went with 8 years because it's a better than even bet that a lot of these vehicles just miss that 8 year cutoff instead of the 100k miles. This one has a June service date and 97k, so it just squeaks under that bar.

They could have made it 10 years and less than 100k. It's not that unreasonable.

I specifically bought Kia because of the 10 year/100k powertrain warranty. Yeah, I know people will trash talk the Kia to hell and back, but it's not burning oil at 75k, either. I never would have expected a properly maintained Volvo to burn oil at 75k, yet here we are. At least she can get it repaired, but this has left a sour taste in her mouth for Volvo, and she's owned 3.
Other than that, my car has been quite reliable. I like Volvo's safety record and I just wouldn't trust a Kia or Toyota to keep me safe from bad drivers. Plus, you can't get swedishness anywhere else unless you have the $$$ for a Koenigsegg.
I think the type of oil is more crucial than the change interval. I don't think we would have seen as many cases, at least with the 2012 5 cylinder, if Volvo had used and specified a full synthetic from the start. Case in point, my engine started burning oil pretty bad by 40,000 miles. Volvo's change interval for this MY was 7500 miles. Still being a bit old school I was changing the oil myself in-between, so every 3750 using the proper Volvo speced oil at the time. The scoring was bad they actually replaced the engine thankfully all under warranty. But I'm really glad this has worked for you.
Wait, that second part just registered for me. Your 2012 5 cyl had scoring? I thought that was only really a problem on the 4 cyls with the bad rings and pistons, so the 5 cyls were “safe”?
I think I will try BG EPR next time!
Seems to be the deciding factor at least for me… or maybe a cumulative effect although it didn’t seem that way. Holding 4k maybe helped get rid of some of the loosened junk… can’t say. It’s holding up though -


Engine replaced ~60k mi, unknown cause of failure
@72,187 mi 8/15/20 oil changed (shop)
@75,881 mi 9/24/20 oil changed (shop)
@81,580 mi 1/20/21 oil changed (shop)
@90,050 mi 11/2/21 oil changed
@98,767 mi 01/28/22 oil changed
@102,363 mi 04/01/22 oil changed
@103,832 mi oil at bottom of last crosshatch from top, added 1 qt.
@104,872 mi 05/23/22 oil changed
@108,107 mi 07/29/22 oil changed + flushed (Liquimoly).
@109,639 mi cold dipstick below minimum, added 1/2 qt. Added further 1/2 qt. due to low read. New read third crosshatch at temp after 15m
@110,049 mi 09/2/22 oil changed + flushed (Liquimoly)
@112,685 mi 10/28/22 oil changed + flushed (Liquimoly)
@113,228 mi 11/10/22 oil level dropped 3 crosshatches, ⅗ qt consumed in 543 mi, added ⅗ qt
@113,340 mi 11/15/22 note radiator leaking slowly, coolant reservoir topped off.
@113,352 mi 11/16/22 oil dropped 1 crosshatch, ⅕ qt consumed in 122 mi, added ¼ qt.
@114,020 mi 11/25/22 oil dropped 4 crosshatches, ⅘ qt consumed in 668 mi, added ⅘ qt.
@114,613 mi 12/4/22 oil dropped 3 crosshatches ⅗ qt. consumed in 593 mi, added ⅗ qt.
@114,925 mi 12/11/22 oil dropped 2 crosshatches ⅖ qt. consumed in 312 mi, added ⅖ qt.
@115,480 mi 1/14/23 oil dropped 3 crosshatches ⅗ qt consumed in 555 mi, added ⅗ qt.
@116,307 mi 2/2/23 oil dropped 4 crosshatches, ⅘ qt consumed in 827 mi, added ⅘ qt.
@116,630 mi 2/10/23 oil changed + flushed (bg109)
@117,606 mi 3/10/23 oil dropped 3 crosshatches, ⅗ qt consumed in 976 mi. (Cold read)

all others except for last and the below min reads were done level, at temp, after 15 min. I would’ve had the last one done regularly but it’s 2 am and I got a flight today, so it’ll have to wait. Will get it to near min before adding to see what it comes out to.

I would’ve preferred only adding in that way but I’m not the only driver, so I have to keep it at max constantly since she doesn’t check or add it.. is when it went below min. Hopefully I can reduce it further, will have to see. Was your reduction pretty gradual or sudden?
See less See more
Seems to be the deciding factor at least for me… or maybe a cumulative effect although it didn’t seem that way. Holding 4k maybe helped get rid of some of the loosened junk… can’t say. It’s holding up though -


Engine replaced ~60k mi, unknown cause of failure
@72,187 mi 8/15/20 oil changed (shop)
@75,881 mi 9/24/20 oil changed (shop)
@81,580 mi 1/20/21 oil changed (shop)
@90,050 mi 11/2/21 oil changed
@98,767 mi 01/28/22 oil changed
@102,363 mi 04/01/22 oil changed
@103,832 mi oil at bottom of last crosshatch from top, added 1 qt.
@104,872 mi 05/23/22 oil changed
@108,107 mi 07/29/22 oil changed + flushed (Liquimoly).
@109,639 mi cold dipstick below minimum, added 1/2 qt. Added further 1/2 qt. due to low read. New read third crosshatch at temp after 15m
@110,049 mi 09/2/22 oil changed + flushed (Liquimoly)
@112,685 mi 10/28/22 oil changed + flushed (Liquimoly)
@113,228 mi 11/10/22 oil level dropped 3 crosshatches, ⅗ qt consumed in 543 mi, added ⅗ qt
@113,340 mi 11/15/22 note radiator leaking slowly, coolant reservoir topped off.
@113,352 mi 11/16/22 oil dropped 1 crosshatch, ⅕ qt consumed in 122 mi, added ¼ qt.
@114,020 mi 11/25/22 oil dropped 4 crosshatches, ⅘ qt consumed in 668 mi, added ⅘ qt.
@114,613 mi 12/4/22 oil dropped 3 crosshatches ⅗ qt. consumed in 593 mi, added ⅗ qt.
@114,925 mi 12/11/22 oil dropped 2 crosshatches ⅖ qt. consumed in 312 mi, added ⅖ qt.
@115,480 mi 1/14/23 oil dropped 3 crosshatches ⅗ qt consumed in 555 mi, added ⅗ qt.
@116,307 mi 2/2/23 oil dropped 4 crosshatches, ⅘ qt consumed in 827 mi, added ⅘ qt.
@116,630 mi 2/10/23 oil changed + flushed (bg109)
@117,606 mi 3/10/23 oil dropped 3 crosshatches, ⅗ qt consumed in 976 mi. (Cold read)

all others except for last and the below min reads were done level, at temp, after 15 min. I would’ve had the last one done regularly but it’s 2 am and I got a flight today, so it’ll have to wait. Will get it to near min before adding to see what it comes out to.

I would’ve preferred only adding in that way but I’m not the only driver, so I have to keep it at max constantly since she doesn’t check or add it.. is when it went below min. Hopefully I can reduce it further, will have to see. Was your reduction pretty gradual or sudden?
Was it a new engine at 60k?
Was it a new engine at 60k?
Used, /w unknown to me miles since records weren’t kept and the shop it was done at closed since.
61 - 68 of 68 Posts
Top