Volvo noob here.

My wife and I bought a '96 850 turbo wagon back in April. 84K miles at the time. We bought it from a friend that had bought it at an auction and "rescued" it. It had been abused under previous ownership. When he got it, he said it ran poorly and was smoking. He took it to a volvo tech, who rebuilt the turbo, and that did the trick. It runs great.

I checked the oil once or twice between April and July and it was full. I did occasionally notice some smoke out of the exhaust at startup.

Two weeks ago, after driving the car and then letting it idle for awhile, there was excessive smoke coming out of the exhaust. Drove it and the smoke stopped, or at least decreased to a non-noticeable level. Checked the oil later and it was 1.5 qts low. I topped it off.

That weekend, I changed the oil (it was due). Took the car on a long road trip and checked the oil along the way. Added about a 1/2 qt over a 750-mile round trip. Noticed moderate smoke during extended periods of idling (waiting in line at a ferry, etc.)

I know normally smoke out of the exhaust indicates that it's time for a rebuild. In this case, could it be the turbo again? Maybe it wasn't rebuilt properly?

Not afraid to work on it myself - I've done a lot of work on a lot of different cars. If I end up having to get the engine rebuilt I'll swap it out myself.

Any thoughts?

 

Bump.

Any thoughts?

 

Sounds like the rebuild didn't work very well.

That is the typical signs of a bad turbo.