Hello, I have an 05 s40 t5 with low compression. While trying to diagnose a multiple cylinder misfire and shaking at startup, I discovered that this car has low compression 130,130,60,140,90. I added oil to the 2 low cylinders and both read 150-160 which tells me the rings are bad which corresponds to the excessive oil consumption. My question is, is this common with this kind of mileage (180,000) and is the low compression due to bad rings or stuck rings.

Thanks, Ed

 

My experience is that the Volvo motors can go a LOT of miles without bottom end problems (my 2001 V70 T5 had 240,000 miles IIRC, and ran like a new car). I don't know there's much of a way to tell if it's bad rings or stuck rings without pulling something apart - I guess you could use a borescope to see if there is any scoring on the jugs.

If this is one of those "not worth fixing" vehicles, you might try one of the snake oil products that's supposed to fix things like this. I wouldn't hold out much hope, but if it's that or the boneyard, it might be worth rolling the (low-$) dice. And of course, we'd need to know how it comes out. ;-)

Otherwise, you have some fairly ugly options to make (boneyard engine, bottom end rebuild).