1998 V70 glt with engine sludge and smoke...help

It depends on what's wrong. I've seen oil pans on these cars so full of sludge that they have oil pressure problems. Once you've interrupted the flow of oil, there's no telling what will fail, and usually very quickly. My guess is that the oil pan should have been removed and cleaned, but that's easy to say in hindsight.

"pbcamp" wrote: > Last summer, we took a long trip in our 1998 V70 and did not > change the oil before or after...To make a long story short, > about a month after we returned we noticed heavy smoking from > the exhaust and were told we had sludge in the engine...Our > dealer scolded us for not being more asiduous with oil > changes, flushed out the engine and sent us on our way. > > It is important to note that the engine is about 4 years > younger than the car due to an accident that caused us to need > to replace it. Similarly, the turbo went shortly thereafter, > so the turbo is also around 3 years old. > > Since then (78,000 miles) we have changed the oil about every > 3 months. We had the smoke problem again at 104,000 miles and > again had the engine flushed by the dealer. > > The car now has 120,000 miles (the engine about 60,000) and > we started having very severe smoke issues. We tried having > the engine flushed again. albeit at a quick lube not the > dealer...but to no avail. We took it to the dealer who said > that we need to replace both the engine (with a used engine) > AND the turbo...close to $7000! He said that he might be able > to just replace the turbo, but the concern is since the engine > is so sludged up, and has a few oil leaks, a new turbo might > "blow it out"... Is there really no way to clean out the > engine and simply replace the turbo (which will be the 2nd on > the car)...or is this just wishful thinking?

Do you think it is too late to clean the oil pan? The car still drives--albeit belching smoke (as long as I keep my foot off the accelorator as much as possible when I drive it is manageable)

No doubt the Turbo will fail soon, though...

Actually in these cases there's doubt about everything. Removing and cleaning the pan may fix everything, or possibly bearings are already too far gone and it will be a waste of time.

This is what I'd do at this point: Remove and clean the oil pan and oil pickup tube. Remove and clean or replace (they may be too hard to clean) the oil delivery and return lines for the turbo. Replace the oil trap (aka PCV box) and hoses. (They are too hard to clean.)