Volvo Cartridge C&P Mahle 2002 Volvo V70XC using HPL 0W30

Astro14

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Mahle OX149 cartridge filter, 2002 Volvo V70XC with 301,xxx miles. I’ve cut apart a couple of these before, and the filters are good. Well-made, hard for me to cut with a knife, and they hold up well.

This car is on its fifth run or so of HPL 0W30 Euro oil. So, this filter, represents run number four on the HPL.

I posted about the car before, and this is one where I dropped the sump, and cleaned it up a couple years ago. Photos of that sump shown in this thread:
Thread 'Volvo dealer used abrasive wheel to clean engine sump'
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/t...d-abrasive-wheel-to-clean-engine-sump.374594/

Now, when I dropped the sump, I was careful to clean all of the carbon. At least, all the carbon I could reach. That was about 25,000 miles ago. Yet this filter still had a significant amount of carbon in the pleats. The carbon is gritty, but if you apply pressure it crumbles in your fingers.

So, clearly, the HPL is not done cleaning the engine. Whatever carbon I could not reach, and I’m sure there was plenty in the cylinder head, and perhaps the rings, is being dissolved, circulated, and caught by the filter.

The car has always used a bit of oil, a quart every 1500 to 2000 miles. The car is back in the shop for some Sound system, and other interior work at the moment, and 1000 miles into this run, 1000 miles after the filter shown, the oil level hasn’t moved at all, so I am hopeful that perhaps, the root cause of the oil burning is being mitigated by the cleaning that’s taken place. Only time will tell on that.

Here is the filter:
IMG_3281.jpeg


Some close-ups of the pleats, carbon tracks shown.

IMG_3282.jpeg


IMG_3283.jpeg


Very similar to this - https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/volvo-cartridge-c-p-2004-xc90-using-hpl-0w30.383676/

And not much different than the previous C&P.

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/t...-hpl-0w30-6-000-miles-2002-volvo-xc70.360166/

I did find this teeny bit. I mentioned that I cleaned the sump a couple years ago, and I did use an actual bronze brush, the kind that you get for cleaning firearms.

Despite my best efforts, it appears that a tiny bit of bronze brush was left somewhere in the engine and got caught by the filter on this run.

IMG_3284.jpeg


IMG_3285.jpeg
 
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Mahle OX149 cartridge filter, 2002 Volvo V70XC with 301,xxx miles. I’ve cut apart a couple of these before, and the filters are good. Well-made, hard for me to cut with a knife, and they hold up well.

This car is on its fifth run or so of HPL 0W30 Euro oil. So, this filter, represents run number four on the HPL.

I posted about the car before, and this is one where I dropped the sump, and cleaned it up a couple years ago. Photos of that sump shown in this thread:
Thread 'Volvo dealer used abrasive wheel to clean engine sump'
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/t...d-abrasive-wheel-to-clean-engine-sump.374594/

Now, when I dropped the sump, I was careful to clean all of the carbon. At least, all the carbon I could reach. That was about 25,000 miles ago. Yet this filter still had a significant amount of carbon in the plates. The carbon is gritty, but if you apply pressure it crumbles in your fingers.

So, clearly, the HPL is not done cleaning the engine. Whatever carbon I could not reach, and I’m sure there was plenty in the cylinder head, and perhaps the rings, is being dissolved, circulated, and caught by the filter.

The car has always used a bit of oil, a Court every 1500 to 2000 miles. The car is back in the shop for some Sound system, and other interior work at the moment, and 1000 miles into this run, 1000 miles after the filter shown, the oil level hasn’t moved at all, so I am hopeful that perhaps, the root cause of the oil burning is being mitigated by the cleaning that’s taken place. Only time will tell on that.

Here is the filter:
View attachment 228127

Some close-ups of the pleats, carbon tracks shown.

View attachment 228129

View attachment 228130

Very similar to this - https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/volvo-cartridge-c-p-2004-xc90-using-hpl-0w30.383676/

And not much different than the previous C&P.

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/t...-hpl-0w30-6-000-miles-2002-volvo-xc70.360166/

I did find this teeny bit. I mentioned that I cleaned the sump a couple years ago, and I did use an actual bronze brush, the kind that you get for cleaning firearms.

Despite my best efforts, it appears that a tiny bit of bronze brush was left somewhere in the engine and got caught by the filter on this run.

View attachment 228131

View attachment 228132


Looks very good Astro. Keep up the great work. 👍🇺🇸🍻
 
Looks very good Astro. Keep up the great work. 👍🇺🇸🍻
Thank you, I never really did a whole lot of filter cutting before so I lack your experience, but I am fascinated by the carbon that I’m finding in this, and other, Volvo engines.

Interestingly I am not finding it in the Mercedes, which just did 10,000 miles on HPL 5W40
 
That is a bit of carbon on there. Keep at it and maybe it'll slow down but with it burning at that rate it may not? All you can do is keep trying to see if it slows down the filter loading. Bristle brush was a good eye 👀. Good pics 👍
Yep. The set of observations will continue. This doesn’t have enough control of variables to be an “experiment” - but there are some interesting observations.
 
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Yep. The set of observations will continue. This doesn’t have enough control of variables to be an “experiment” - but there are some interesting observations.


Awesome man…. Really well done and great pictures like 53 said.

I agree. Observations are helpful to us has well. Not truly defined or necessarily repeatable but still good to take note of.
 
Quite a bit of crud in there Mr. Astro. Since you shared your Volvo filter pics, here are my latest from the 2006 V70R which just hit 285K miles. 5K OCI with a Hengst Filter and QS Euro 5W-40. This R has seen synthetic oils for most of its life, so the engine is pretty clean.

IMG_0823.webp


IMG_0822.webp
 
The car has always used a bit of oil, a quart every 1500 to 2000 miles. The car is back in the shop for some Sound system, and other interior work at the moment, and 1000 miles into this run, 1000 miles after the filter shown, the oil level hasn’t moved at all, so I am hopeful that perhaps, the root cause of the oil burning is being mitigated by the cleaning that’s taken place. Only time will tell on that.

Have you tried 40visc. full saps ?
 
Have you tried 40visc. full saps ?
I've done 30 or 40 oil changes on this car. I think there was some Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel Truck (5W40), some Pennzoil Ultra Platinum Euro 5W40, some Castrol 5W40, among others.

But I did not see a substantial change in consumption, and I wasn't cutting filters open back then, either.
 
Thank you, I never really did a whole lot of filter cutting before so I lack your experience, but I am fascinated by the carbon that I’m finding in this, and other, Volvo engines.

Interestingly I am not finding it in the Mercedes, which just did 10,000 miles on HPL 5W40
I'd like to resurrect this thread to comment that my first 5k miles of HPL 5-40 I'm my MB 3.5 had absolutely none of this. I changed the filter @ 5k and checked every pleat and nothing. I know you take care of your vehicles so why does the Volvo engines get this dirty? Is it engine design? I was expecting something with this oil.
 
I'd like to resurrect this thread to comment that my first 5k miles of HPL 5-40 I'm my MB 3.5 had absolutely none of this. I changed the filter @ 5k and checked every pleat and nothing. I know you take care of your vehicles so why does the Volvo engines get this dirty? Is it engine design? I was expecting something with this oil.
My personal opinion is that it is the nature of a Volvo engine to have lots of carbon. The Achilles Heel of this engine, which is a great engine overall, the V70XC from which this filter was pulled has over 300,000 and runs great.

I know I’ve posted some pictures of Volvo engine, sumps, and even with frequent, synthetic oil changes, they get pretty carboned up.

I mechanically removed a lot of carbon from this engine when I did the sump last fall. Here is how the sump looked, at 280,000, again, after 200,000 miles of good oil. It’s more than just varnish - it’s carbon.

So, I cleaned it, and have been using HPL. I reckon the HPL is removing the carbon that I could not reach.

IMG_2341.webp


IMG_2340.webp
 
@loneryder Excellent question.

My experience with three of these engines is they run cool. Probably too cool. Plus Volvo does not spec oils beyond the base API qualification and Volvo dealers are notorious for using base level bulk 5W30 oils.

I never had any issues because my cars saw highway driving 95% of their life with Mobil 1 0W40 changed every 5k.

My Dads V70 is another story. Local trips with bulk 5W30 for the first 110l. HPL EC30 is now removing lots of sludge and carbon. The oil filter pleats look far worse than the one @Astro14 posted.

I’m sure @Astro14 will have more to add.
 
@loneryder Excellent question.

My experience with three of these engines is they run cool. Probably too cool. Plus Volvo does not spec oils beyond the base API qualification and Volvo dealers are notorious for using base level bulk 5W30 oils.

I never had any issues because my cars saw highway driving 95% of their life with Mobil 1 0W40 changed every 5k.

My Dads V70 is another story. Local trips with bulk 5W30 for the first 110l. HPL EC30 is now removing lots of sludge and carbon. The oil filter pleats look far worse than the one @Astro14 posted.

I’m sure @Astro14 will have more to add.
In Europe they’ve always specified A3/B4 or A5/B5 oils.
 
In Europe they’ve always specified A3/B4 or A5/B5 oils.
Volvo specified A1/B1 here in the early 2000s, then updated that to A3/B4 after the sludge started happening.

But the sludge happened because Volvo of North America and its dealers thought all they needed was a 5W30.

What they used didn’t meet either specification.

Volvo even issued a TNN on how to clean the sludge. Here it is repeated in an engine rebuilder notice:
https://www.lydellmotorsltd.com/Files/PDF/aera-bulletin.pdf

As far as how hot or cold they run, I don’t know. Volvo has one of those temperature gauges that stays in the middle over a wide range of temperatures.

The engine PCV pipe is heated in a coolant jacket to prevent condensation of oil vapor.

I believe the thermostat is a 92C. I can’t find that anywhere, but I think that’s what was stamped on it. So, relatively warm. The block and head are aluminum. Pretty consistent for temp, I reckon…
 
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