I have taken my car to a new garage (in my town), he is very skilled with Volvos. He recommended an oil additive when he changed mu oil. Do the additives work and prolong the life of your engine.

He used AutoRx. He has worked on many 850's and 240s, and said that he always uses an additive on Volvos that have higher mileage. I didnt have any sludge or buildup in the crankcase at all.

Okay, Let help you out here.

Oil additives are a bunch of hype and are expressly not recommended by the vehicle manufacturers. They are a secondary market for which people get played on thinking they are a necessary need and a fix, but they are neither.

Get yourself the best quality synthetics in the market and you will have none of these issues. Amsoil is the Market Leader in this technology and can outfit your vehicle from top to bottom with the best stuff. Period!

refer to my site: www.weareoil.com
Should you requre additional information let me know and I will be glad to assist in any way that I can.

http://www.weareoil.com/questions_and_answers.htm

Take a look at the above link. This should help you out. I can also give you a complete printout on your vehicle as well. Should you require further assistance email me at rpiescik@comcast.net

I own a 95 volvo 850 with 283K miles on it and still going strong.

Like KlausC says, it's a treatment.

I have used AutoRx on a 740 Turbo, an 850 Turbo, and an 850 20V. It's been nothing but good. It cleaned up all these cars' engines tremendously. The 740 and NA 850 engines benefitted especially well. The cars feel a lot more powerful and engines smoother after the cleaning cycle.

I have also used AutoRx to clean the auto gearboxes and powersteering on all these cars to good effect as well. The sticky/late shift problem on the 740 Turbo was heaps better after two treatment cycles and flushes.

Apart from using AutoRx, I have also cleaned these engines via the Seafoam process (not using it in the engine oil but through the vacuum intake). The 740 had 190K and the NA 850 had 200K kms on them respectively.

Using a good semi-syn or full syn oil in these engines after the cleaning process helps the engines remain clean for a lot longer, and they run a lot smoother and have better fuel economy with non-dino oils in my experience.

The other oil thing you'd want to do with 850s is an annual transmission drain/flush. Too many people don't flush the auto trans until its too late.

AutoRx is a treatment, not an additive. The directions on the bottle says to add and run the engine for a 100 miles or so and then flush the oil and replace the filter. AutoRx is used to remove sludge build up. Not as something you would want to keep adding to the oil at every oil change.
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My name is Klaus and I am a Volvoholic.

If you need an oil additive, you are getting the wrong oil.

However, using a good quick flush, such as made by AMSOIL, won't do any harm and could do some good. If you are willing to drive some thousand miles and let the stuff work, I've heard nothing but good about Auto-Rx.

I'm glad there is a discussion going on about this.

I must say though that the disdain for oil additives is surprising me.

I feel that the demands placed on engine oil by the turbo could call for increased protection of some sort...

I am curious as to how people feel about Moly additives? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molybdenum_disulfide)
They are used in HD greases and also in Honda motorcycle oil (you can buy their synthetic oil with or without moly), and I have also heard that some long haul trucking companies/drivers use this stuff to good effect with both fuel mileage and engine life...
If moly additives actually confer any advantage then the additives that contain it would not really be snake oil at all (I think Slick-50 does contain moly)

Other products/methods that strike me as interesting I'd like opinions on:

- Seafoam (in the crankcase)(with quick change?)

- Rislone (with quick change?)

- Lucas Oil Stabilizer products - fully synthetic, and non (I've read mixed reviews. Perhaps this one is in the 'oil thickening' category?)

- Diesel oil (engine oil rated for use in diesel engines, not diesel fuel) in the summer (when it's warm) to make use of the additional detergents, with quick change

- Tranmission fluid, with a quick change



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1998 V70 AWD Turbo 180k+

Have you been running synthetic? It does a remarkable amount of cleaning on its own. The mechanic might not recommend it because he might see you a little less often.
Volvo consistently recommends not using any additives at all, that said, folks do do flushes.
I'd vote for the Seafoam quick change then synthetic.
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'97 855na, Mobil 1, K&N, various IPD's and eBay's

A cute "testimonial" for AutoRx:

http://www.auto-rx.com/pages/enginebuilder.htm

Makes me wonder if I should buy that clunker 850 on Craigslist with the "dripping" RMS leak :)
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My name is Klaus and I am a Volvoholic.

in the past i have used saefoam, autoRX, and ATF to clean out an engine crankcase and remove sludge, schmutz, and slimey paraffin residues. they seemed effective and useful as a temporary engine additive/cleaner.

i dont think any "oil additive" really helps. if the additive is essentially "thickening" the oil, maybe you can try a heavier weight oil instead. the "slick-50" type additives are a bunch of overpriced snake-oil hooey and are only a placebo for your car.

a worn out engine (low compression, tired bearings/seals) might limp along for another year or so with thicker oil though...

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-woodsytf '95 850 wagon 160k

Nope. Nothing is as good as oil, an additive will not do anything for the engine. Unless there is a lot of sludge buildup, then it needs a bottle of AutoRx to clean it out, but that is not an oil treatment.

Make sure you are using a Mann oil filter.
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My name is Klaus and I am a Volvoholic.

Here is my 3 cents on additives.... If you have sluge in the engine then an additive might be called for. but an additive in itself is not recomended by Volvo. So there you go.

It depends on which additive...do you know what it is? Most of them are snake oil, but there are very good products like Auto-RX. They are designed to slowly remove sludge and varnish from the engine. There are other additives that thicken the oil so that it won't burn easily when the rings are shot. Those are probably more damaging to your engine than anything else.

Not claiming anything beyond my personal experience..

AutoRx did wonders in my engine.

My 850 T5 would start to smoke slightly out the tailpipe if it sat idle for about 5-10 min's..to the point that it failed one emissions test because of visible smoke.
One AutoRx treatment..and NOTHING else..it stopped..
That was 40k miles ago it now has 243k miles..and no more smoke