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Oil Sludge in '04 Nissan Xterra w/pics
- Thread starter westwood
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Use this as a learning experience. Hopefully it will be saved. Now you know what to look for in the future.
JHZR2
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I see all this on a mechanical cleaning of the oil pan... Id also get up under the valvecovers and clean both of them too.
No. My brother bought it in Florida as a rental return (Enterprise, I believe) in late 2004. It had about 26K miles or so at time. But, unfortunately, he passed away a few months after and I drove it to my Mom's in CA. She gave it to us at about 33K. So there is a sentimental attachment to the car in our family.
Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
Might just be the dealership trying to squeeze a few bucks out of you.
Or they don't want to be responsible for it after it's back together.
They already are backing away from warranting this work (normally 12 and 12K). My history with them while it was under warranty was about one in five for actually diagnosing/fixing something on first pass. That's why I left them once warranty was up. Only reason I went back was because I involved Nissan Consumer affairs. But I was anticipating some problems somewhere on the job, it's just the sludge thing has thrown a wrinkle in.
Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
Might just be the dealership trying to squeeze a few bucks out of you.
Or they don't want to be responsible for it after it's back together.
They already are backing away from warranting this work (normally 12 and 12K). My history with them while it was under warranty was about one in five for actually diagnosing/fixing something on first pass. That's why I left them once warranty was up. Only reason I went back was because I involved Nissan Consumer affairs. But I was anticipating some problems somewhere on the job, it's just the sludge thing has thrown a wrinkle in.
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How well does it run? If it runs fine,I`d just keep on cruising! :^) Maybe do 1500 mile or so oci`s with a good dino and a cheap filter.
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
How well does it run? If it runs fine,I`d just keep on cruising! :^) Maybe do 1500 mile or so oci`s with a good dino and a cheap filter.
It's run fine since we've had it. Even with the small gasket leak it had no problems or hint that something was going wrong inside.
Oh, and thanks River Rat for the PP and PU explanations. My dad always swore by Pennzoil and the yellow cans.
How well does it run? If it runs fine,I`d just keep on cruising! :^) Maybe do 1500 mile or so oci`s with a good dino and a cheap filter.
It's run fine since we've had it. Even with the small gasket leak it had no problems or hint that something was going wrong inside.
Oh, and thanks River Rat for the PP and PU explanations. My dad always swore by Pennzoil and the yellow cans.
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I see all this on a mechanical cleaning of the oil pan... Id also get up under the valvecovers and clean both of them too.
^Yes. Do this.
Any thoughts to using a HDEO?
I see all this on a mechanical cleaning of the oil pan... Id also get up under the valvecovers and clean both of them too.
^Yes. Do this.
Any thoughts to using a HDEO?
Instead of Auto-RX try Kreen, have a read about Kreen in oil additive section.
My condolences regarding your brother. I would scrape as much of the sludge out of the heads as you can. You might try running a load of Pennzoil Ultra 5w-30 in it for a few thousand miles with a few filter changes and top-ups during the OCI.
Originally Posted By: Hemi426
My condolences regarding your brother. I would scrape as much of the sludge out of the heads as you can. You might try running a load of Pennzoil Ultra 5w-30 in it for a few thousand miles with a few filter changes and top-ups during the OCI.
Thank you.
Quite frankly, I think the dealer has already slapped the engine back together (it's suppose to be ready tomorrow morning). While I would have hoped they would have at least cleaned off the valve covers, I can't for sure say they did. It hasn't been that pleasant of an experience.
I'm assuming they have changed the oil out with regular Castrol on the job. Should I dump it relatively soon for synthetic, or let it go for 3K and then begin with PP or PU?
My condolences regarding your brother. I would scrape as much of the sludge out of the heads as you can. You might try running a load of Pennzoil Ultra 5w-30 in it for a few thousand miles with a few filter changes and top-ups during the OCI.
Thank you.
Quite frankly, I think the dealer has already slapped the engine back together (it's suppose to be ready tomorrow morning). While I would have hoped they would have at least cleaned off the valve covers, I can't for sure say they did. It hasn't been that pleasant of an experience.
I'm assuming they have changed the oil out with regular Castrol on the job. Should I dump it relatively soon for synthetic, or let it go for 3K and then begin with PP or PU?
What ever you do, if you want to clean the engine up I would not use a straight conventional except to use it for short intervals with an oil additive.
Instead, consider 3,000 to be the LIMIT of sanity for your oil changes over the next year in this vehicle(or longer than a year). You have many options moving forward. You could use what is called Heavy Duty Engine Oil, run that for 2,500 mile oil change intervals, changing your oil filter half way and topping off the oil.
That's one idea, others have suggested what basically lead in the same direction by means of a different method. A good synthetic, frequent oil changes etc, especially should you consider using reliable yet cheap oil filters and changing them every 1,500 miles or less.
Kreen seems like it is a great additive, but personally I wouldn't go straight for additives, perhaps MMO to start and then work up to Kreen. If you have the ability to get this engine opened up once you get it back, get access to underneath the valve covers and drop the oil pan.
Manual cleaning, done in a well thought out manner, will greatly help you moving forward to getting a clean engine than simply short OCIs with any oil + any additive in consideration. Those should be 'post' clean up oil choices, even then sticking to 2-2.5k mile OCIs for the next year would be advisable after successful manual cleaning of the top-end and bottom-end.
Instead, consider 3,000 to be the LIMIT of sanity for your oil changes over the next year in this vehicle(or longer than a year). You have many options moving forward. You could use what is called Heavy Duty Engine Oil, run that for 2,500 mile oil change intervals, changing your oil filter half way and topping off the oil.
That's one idea, others have suggested what basically lead in the same direction by means of a different method. A good synthetic, frequent oil changes etc, especially should you consider using reliable yet cheap oil filters and changing them every 1,500 miles or less.
Kreen seems like it is a great additive, but personally I wouldn't go straight for additives, perhaps MMO to start and then work up to Kreen. If you have the ability to get this engine opened up once you get it back, get access to underneath the valve covers and drop the oil pan.
Manual cleaning, done in a well thought out manner, will greatly help you moving forward to getting a clean engine than simply short OCIs with any oil + any additive in consideration. Those should be 'post' clean up oil choices, even then sticking to 2-2.5k mile OCIs for the next year would be advisable after successful manual cleaning of the top-end and bottom-end.
You could drain the oil and save it for another oil change if you can put it in a clean sealed container. I would try the Pennzoil Ultra 5w-30. Be warned that Ultra cleans very well. It isn't out of the question that all that sludge removal may do something bad like wipe out a bearing or even clog the oil pump screen. Not saying that it will happen but you never know.
^Good points, which is why as much manual cleanup as possible from the top-end and then a thorough(including oil pickup screen) cleaning of the bottom-end prior to this is critical.
JHZR2
Staff member
Originally Posted By: westwood
No. My brother bought it in Florida as a rental return (Enterprise, I believe) in late 2004. It had about 26K miles or so at time. But, unfortunately, he passed away a few months after and I drove it to my Mom's in CA. She gave it to us at about 33K. So there is a sentimental attachment to the car in our family.
Missed this... It explains it. Did they give records? Potentially no oil change at all, or sub-par oil change if they did one. Rental car places are some of the biggest crooks out there.
I once had a rental and it went >15k without an oil change because of their practices...
No. My brother bought it in Florida as a rental return (Enterprise, I believe) in late 2004. It had about 26K miles or so at time. But, unfortunately, he passed away a few months after and I drove it to my Mom's in CA. She gave it to us at about 33K. So there is a sentimental attachment to the car in our family.
Missed this... It explains it. Did they give records? Potentially no oil change at all, or sub-par oil change if they did one. Rental car places are some of the biggest crooks out there.
I once had a rental and it went >15k without an oil change because of their practices...
JHZR2
Staff member
Originally Posted By: ltslimjim
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I see all this on a mechanical cleaning of the oil pan... Id also get up under the valvecovers and clean both of them too.
^Yes. Do this.
Any thoughts to using a HDEO?
Given that the OP is in NV and it is summertime... I think that Rotella 30wt is pretty cheap at WM. Id probably run that IF it is cheap, otherwise a 15w-40 bought in 2.5-5 gal containers... Change often (100, 500, 1000, 2000, ETC.)
Id get it mechanically cleaned, then run an OCI of just oil to flush things through (maybe MMO or neutra the last 50 miles)... Then do another maybe with MMO, then another with Kreen... Not going too long or too hard when the oils have additives in.
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I see all this on a mechanical cleaning of the oil pan... Id also get up under the valvecovers and clean both of them too.
^Yes. Do this.
Any thoughts to using a HDEO?
Given that the OP is in NV and it is summertime... I think that Rotella 30wt is pretty cheap at WM. Id probably run that IF it is cheap, otherwise a 15w-40 bought in 2.5-5 gal containers... Change often (100, 500, 1000, 2000, ETC.)
Id get it mechanically cleaned, then run an OCI of just oil to flush things through (maybe MMO or neutra the last 50 miles)... Then do another maybe with MMO, then another with Kreen... Not going too long or too hard when the oils have additives in.
That sludge is probably from coolant intrusion into the oil.
As long as it runs fine with good oil pressure I would just run a good synthetic on shorter changes,say 3k miles. That will clean out most of the sludge very slowly, like over 30k-40k miles.
As long as it runs fine with good oil pressure I would just run a good synthetic on shorter changes,say 3k miles. That will clean out most of the sludge very slowly, like over 30k-40k miles.
I'd clean the lower end of the engine and the upper end of the engine as much as possible manually, and make sure the pick up screen is clean. Put it together and give Kreen a try, do a few short OCIs with Kreen. See what happens.
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