Solid black grit in engine oil

I think 2010 was the last year for the V70 so you are thinking of buying another vehicle with a limited dealer network that is at least 8 years old . Forget it . If you have read anything here is that used luxury vehicles are expensive to maintain and that does not seem like anything for you.

Iā€™m thinking that it could be some ā€œcokedā€ residue from the turbocharger that has gotten into the crankcase, and that would not be a good thing.
:thinking:

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This is a turbocharged engine? Oh my. Then Iā€™m thinking the same as VDC above. Whatever the source, turbo unit or elsewhere, some kind of carbon/coke deposits have broken loose. Carbon/coke can be differentiated from most plastics b/c It wonā€™t melt at any reasonable temperature. Years ago I had a summer job where Iā€™d have to test the melting point of certain precursors of plastic. What we used was sort of a hot plate equipped with a thermocouple and a microscope. Weā€™d turn the hotplate up and watch when it melted, then weā€™d note the temperature from the thermocouple. OP could figure out a way to do something like that I suppose.

Not all plastics ā€œmeltā€. Thermoplastics do melt, thermoset plastics donā€™t - think bakelite or phenolics. They turn to a crusty burnt product much like the OP describes.

I think that lends credence to yours and @VDCdriverā€™s ā€œturbo oil coke depositsā€ theory.

Thanks, althoughā€“for the sake of the OPā€“I hope that I am wrong with that theory.

Here is a possible scenario:
The previous owner changed oil infrequently, ā€œwailed on itā€, and did not consistently use the proper specification motor oil, thus leading to ā€œcokedā€ oil in the turbocharger.
Now that the OP has changed the oil 3 or 4 times in 13k miles, using Mobil-1 (NOT ā€œMobileā€ 1 :wink:), some of the coked deposits in the turbo have been loosened, and have been washed into the crankcase.

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