Air contamination - Oil

[TotDoc]

Are you suggesting that the compressor oil was diluted with toluene? Because I can't see toluene becomes a chemical/physical by-product in such situation.

No - dilution of the oil with toluene is not how it gets there.

Toluene gas is a known product from overheating of some synthetic oils, which can then bypass filters and end up in breathing gasses, especially if carbon filters are wet from running in a hot and humid environment. As it turns out, someone already posted a video from Analox (they make gas analyzers) in this thread explaining that (see post #14 above). In fact, multiple volatile compounds can be released by overheating synthetic oils, but toluene is rather common, and is particularly nasty.

Here's a real nice discussion about toluene as it relates to an issue that happened a number of years ago...Toluene Gas Contamination Incident

 

[abnfrog]

overheating is really critical in a compressor failing (among other failures) some manufactures are so concerned about it they stress that fact for hours in courses.