High Mileage oil for a Saab

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wbalogh

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Hello everyone!

I own a Saab 9-5 Aero that has a 2.3Litre turbocharged engine, with 240.000kms on the clock. I have an oil consumption that's about 1L/1000km. It has been inspected by multiple mechanics, all of them said that i need to replace the rings if i want to eliminate the oil consumption.
I'm currently running Mobil 1 5w40 fully synthetic, i tried Mobil 1 5w50 last summer, but it didn't make any difference. Before i make up my mind about replacing the rings (which for me would also mean a smaller engine rebuild) i would like to try a high mileage oil, if it could make any sense.

I tried to look around in the subject, but i still couldn't decide. Could you help me and recommend either oils with some explanation, or a good source of information?

Thank you in advance!
Cheers!
BI
 
Originally Posted by wbalogh
Hello everyone!

I own a Saab 9-5 Aero that has a 2.3Litre turbocharged engine, with 240.000kms on the clock. I have an oil consumption that's about 1L/1000km. It has been inspected by multiple mechanics, all of them said that i need to replace the rings if i want to eliminate the oil consumption.
I'm currently running Mobil 1 5w40 fully synthetic, i tried Mobil 1 5w50 last summer, but it didn't make any difference. Before i make up my mind about replacing the rings (which for me would also mean a smaller engine rebuild) i would like to try a high mileage oil, if it could make any sense.

I tried to look around in the subject, but i still couldn't decide. Could you help me and recommend either oils with some explanation, or a good source of information?

Thank you in advance!
Cheers!
BI

Take the Saab to a good jeweler. He will fix those rings for you.
 
Originally Posted by Triple_Se7en

Take the Saab to a good jeweler. He will fix those rings for you.


You must be fun at parties.
 
Originally Posted by kschachn
If you used 5W-50 and it still consumed that amount of oil then no high mileage oil is going to change a thing.



Originally Posted by JLTD
I would have to agree - if it is the rings a high mileage oil cannot repair worn metal parts.



Thank you for your opinions, guys!
 
Worth a shot to try something though, and i thought some additives take a few runs? A few of my customers ran maxlife high mileage will good results, although that was to cure a valve stem seal issue and not rings.
 
+1 on the piston soak...if only due to the ease of doing so on the 2.3L.
Had a bunch of Saabs in the family...selling the 1999 at the moment.
We never experienced big oil consumption....like 7 Saabs

What year is yours? Were you the original owner?

Could the old PCV system be clogged? Cheap oil + "Hungarian goulash".

After checking, installing revised PCV hardware isn't hard. IF your Saab is a 2005 and on...all the PCV is the new design.
Still, a previous owner could've made sludge....also, the cat cooks the oil.
Has the oil light ever flashed? bad
 
Originally Posted by Kira
+1 on the piston soak...if only due to the ease of doing so on the 2.3L.
Had a bunch of Saabs in the family...selling the 1999 at the moment.
We never experienced big oil consumption....like 7 Saabs

What year is yours? Were you the original owner?

Could the old PCV system be clogged? Cheap oil + "Hungarian goulash".

After checking, installing revised PCV hardware isn't hard. IF your Saab is a 2005 and on...all the PCV is the new design.
Still, a previous owner could've made sludge....also, the cat cooks the oil.
Has the oil light ever flashed? bad



I'm the third owner, the first one had it for the longest yet, the second one had it for 1,5 years, but couldn't drive it for a whole year, becouse he had an accident (not with this car
smile.gif
) I own it since the end of last May.
It's a 2005 model, so it has the latest PCV system, but i did check it, i had a bad pcv valve, but i have replaced it. Regarding to it's service book (which was maintained by a Saab specific garage) it only saw 0w30, 5w30 and 5w40 oils. I dropped the valve cover gasket, it was super clean under it, and i also saw the oil pan dropped, and it was also clean. I only used fully synthetic Mobil1. The oil light flashed once, when i was taking a fast corner and it didn't have enough oil in it (that's when i discovered the oil consumption) Turbo was checked, i can't see any major leaks.
 
Saab states the use of Mobil 1 5W-30. It's a sticker right on the fan cowling. Why are you experimenting with thicker oils with a turbocharged engine? Granted, 0W-30 had yet to be formulated when Saab made the car and is quite acceptable . Using thicker oil to reduce consumption is at the expense of blowing the turbo. Good luck with that plan.
 
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Originally Posted by kschachn
A xW-40 oil risks "blowing the turbo"? You've got to be kidding.


It's so hard to tell anymore if people are joking or if the viscosity paranoia runs that deep.
 
There would be two options causing ring issues - ring wear or stuck rings.
No way to see if a ring is out of spec (worn) without taking it out, at least what I heard.
As you are the third owner and cannot verify a good OCI schedule, I would go for the cheapest possible fix. That should fix stuck rings due to oil burning/sludging.
And then pay the big bucks for engine tear-down/ring replacement if it doesn't work.
Try two 1-2000 mile OCI's with a cheap in spec oil. Then run a high mileage oil with a high moly/boron content or use regular oil with Molykote, Slick 50, Engine restore ect.
 
Originally Posted by Nickdfresh
Um, what? 0W-40 was one of the recommended weights IIRC...

Wrong. Saab specifies 5W-30 Mobil 1...period. End of story. I own one. I know this. I have used only full syn 5W30 and have had zero oil related issues on my 04 9-5 Aero in 12 years and 104K miles of owning it.
 
Originally Posted by Toros
Saab states the use of Mobil 1 5W-30. It's a sticker right on the fan cowling. Why are you experimenting with thicker oils with a turbocharged engine? Granted, 0W-30 had yet to be formulated when Saab made the car and is quite acceptable . Using thicker oil to reduce consumption is at the expense of blowing the turbo. Good luck with that plan.

Umm, I used M1 0w-30 in my V-6 Camry in the winter of 2003-04. . .
 
A suggestion I've seen a few times here recently for suspected ring-related consumption is to try running a fill of Valvoline Premium Blue RESTORE. This is an oil specially designed by Valvoline for Cummins to remove heavy carbon deposits from the rings in a Cummins truck engine that is apparently plagued by this issue. It's very expensive ($75-80) per gallon, but apparently its "exotic" mix of largely ester base oils and other additives make it effective in removing the offending carbon, thereby reducing severe oil consumption problems.

Despite the expense, it might be worth a try if you are reasonably convinced the consumption issue is with the rings. Also, of course, the best clean-up in the world isn't going to repair worn out or damaged hardware, so consider this too. On the other hand, it sure would be cool to solve the problem with a jug or two of expensive oil, versus tearing your engine totally apart and spending thousands. Oh yeah, be sure to follow the usage instructions carefully. Also, make sure the jug says RESTORE on it, the "regular" "BLUE" stuff is not the same.

EDIT: Valvoline Premium Blue RESTORE is a 10w-30.
 
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