Hi, y'all. I checked my oil yesterday and was shocked to find that it was down a half-quart. You see, up until now oil consumption in my sweet little engine was NIL/3000mi. And it's only a few hundred miles since I looked at it last.

I calmed down, double checked that there were still no oil leaks anywhere, and then came up with a theory. Which is:

I have recently started to downshift my automatic on a regular basis like I'm trying to kill it. I like to pretend I drive a manual. I also drive my car like a maniac, high revs and all. Personally, I think she likes it.

I also recently spent an afternoon and half a tank of gas with some intake valve/injector cleaner doing an Italian Tune-Up. This involved driving around at 5500rpm in second gear. Well, occasionally it also involved closing throttle at 5500 rpm, 2nd gear, 70mph, mondo engine braking.

This, presumably, would create some Serious Vacuum. So, if I'm not mistaken, this might be sucking oil up past the rings into the combustion chambers??? At an accelerated rate? Is that where my oil went? This is what I mean as opposite of blow-by. I don't suppose there's a name for it.

Suck-by? Yeeeesh.

Anyway, I'd appreciate some input, and admonitions are welcome regarding whether or not this all constitutes Volvo Abuse. Hell, it's my car, I'll do what I want, etc. But seriously, I would like to hear if this downshifting stuff is going to do any more harm than just shorten the life of my transmission (I'd assume at least that).

BTW - Italian Tune-Up worked nicely

Thanks in advance, y'all take it easy!