Looking at 2004 - 2006 V70 XC AWD. The 98 V70R I have has a sludge problem at 190K, is this common with all 5 cylinders?

An excess of deposits can happen, but it's not common. Like the others have said, it's usually attributed to lackluster maintenance for some time in the past.

Check maintenance history before buying. Worst case someone had the car as a lease and never changed the oil. Rest easy after the sale by using a good synthetic oil to both prevent sludge and extend your change intervals.

Good Luck,
Will
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854 - 244 - Mini

Its not common with these engines in general. The exception is Turbos where the oil has not been changed properly. I generally use dino oil in my N.A. engine, but if I had a turbo I would most likely use a full synthetic for the heat protection. Turbo's can be brutal on oil. Try running some Mobil M1, it seems to clean exceptionally well.

What kind of problems/symptoms are you having that you think are related to sludge in the engine?

A good start would probably be to go and do a few 1000 mile oil changes to flush some stuff out of there. They sell engine flush products but I don't like them - I think they're too hard on seals. I don't have any real evidence for this.

AutoRx seems to be the only 'add to crankcase' product that's trusted 'round these parts, and might be able to help.



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1998 V70 AWD Turbo 190k+

Impossible to answer directly. Varibles to consider are oil quality, filter quaLITY, frequency of maintenaince, how hard the car was driven, short trips, long trips, temperature, coolant issues......the list goes on!

I have 100K on my V70 T5a and it's spotless, but I take care, and use quality products. It's the old adage: Pay me now, Pay me later. I'd say at 190K and major sludge the car was not maintained properly or driven at a level that would be considered "severe" in the manual and the maintenaince done at the regular interval with less than the best of products. And then there is the engine at the poor level of tolerance levels when built. Your guess is probably better than mine!

Jerry
01 V70 T5a