Toyota sludge problem on the news

[Dawgz]

Well i spoke to Eye8Pussies, a member on here, he's pretty good with the 1mz in my opinion...he said he has that as well and its pretty common as someone said on here, it doesnt neccesarily mean that we have Sludge.


The only True way is to take the Valve Cover off...but here is the tricky thing...if they find sludge, they dont charge u the 96$ fee, if they dont, they charge u.

[MCOjerry]

^I think it would be well worth $96 to make sure you don't have an issue before you pass the extended warranty that Toyota has set up.

I have 40 more miles left on my warranty (Gen2) and I'm getting squeaking noises when starting again...dealership, here I come on Monday! 10 miles to work, about 10 to dealership from work... just enough to get there with a few miles to spare!

[aleki2424]

ok well, i went and opened the Oil Fill cap and saw something retarded...i went to toyota and sure enough they think i might have a sludge problem...eh








Here's a pic with my Cell phone of how it looks with my oil cap off, after the engine cooled, i touched the black part, my nail sort of dug in a bit into it and i could feel some crust.


mine looks exactly like that, only that when i took apart the valve cover, to change the gaskets, everything seemed ok., nice a greased. oil cover though, was crusty as shown, even if the car drives well




The thing is, the car moves fine, and theres no blue smoke or watever with the car on...so i dono wats up, since ive had the car (got it at 44k miles, it has gottn regular 3k mile oil changes)


Im gonna drive it for now how it is, and get all this crap taken care of in the winter after this semester.

[philosophicaljt]

http://www.yotarepair.com/sludge%20article.html

for more info.

[Dawgz]

ok well, i went and opened the Oil Fill cap and saw something retarded...i went to toyota and sure enough they think i might have a sludge problem...eh








Here's a pic with my Cell phone of how it looks with my oil cap off, after the engine cooled, i touched the black part, my nail sort of dug in a bit into it and i could feel some crust.







The thing is, the car moves fine, and theres no blue smoke or watever with the car on...so i dono wats up, since ive had the car (got it at 44k miles, it has gottn regular 3k mile oil changes)


Im gonna drive it for now how it is, and get all this crap taken care of in the winter after this semester.

mine looks exactly like that, only that when i took apart the valve cover, to change the gaskets, everything seemed ok., nice a greased. oil cover though, was crusty as shown, even if the car drives well

so urs looks like mine but when u looked in the valve cover, it was okay?

[agent007]

since it is a recall...then warranty really isnt an issue, is it? My warranty ended a while back and my car is driving fine and have not anymore issues with it at the present...but if my car starts acting up and i take it to them to have the check and they find the sludge then i shouldnt have any problems getting them to fix it, right?

[Dawgz]

^ correct, as far as i know, its a unlimited warrenty for sludge.

[aleki2424]

yes dawgz. clean (well, bronze) as a whistle. almost looked new.

[agent007]

yea because when i remove the oil cap i noticed that it looked like that and never thought anything much of it...but like i said i am having no side effects so i guess so far so good...the only thing people are saying is to change the oil every 3k miles and you should be fine right?...thats pretty much what i do

[MCOjerry]

^ correct, as far as i know, its a unlimited warrenty for sludge.

I thought they only extended the warranty to 8 years. You'd better double check that!

[Gangis]

Yeah, the special policy regarding sludge extends to 8 years or 100,000 miles from manufacture of the car.

[Gadgetjq]

One major thing not mentioned in that report (for preventing sludge) is to be sure you drive long enough to completely heat up your engine.

Lots of short trips will destroy a motor in short order through sludge buildup and contaminated oil thanks to condensation and fuel contamination (remember your engine is running much richer when cold).

Not to start a dreaded oil thread but use of synthetics will also help keep the engine clean of sludge (because it won't even develop with syns) and other deposits.

Cheers

[wekillyou]

so what, if i bring my car to toyota and they find sludge i get a new engine/rebuild for free? (i've owned my car for about 6 months and have had two oil changes and have reciepts for both).

[Gadgetjq]

so what, if i bring my car to toyota and they find sludge i get a new engine/rebuild for free? (i've owned my car for about 6 months and have had two oil changes and have reciepts for both).

You're being facetious right?
Just in case not (and to prevent giving the service department one of those 'my craziest customer of the day' stories) remove the front valve cover (assuming you have a V6) and check for yourself. If there's just a tiny bit of sludge buildup (not likely at your mileage) you could run some engine cleanser in the crankcase for a few minutes before your next oil change.

Cheers

[wekillyou]

well no, my solara is used (2000 se v6) and has 91K miles. so i just want to make sure i dont miss out on the 100k mile -8year warranty.