Maintenance Auto-RX Dose in Sludged Engine = ?

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JAG

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What would happen if a maintenance dose of Auto-RX was used with German Castrol in a moderately sludged 99' BMW engine and it was run for 3000 miles? Could the oil filter clog up by then? Would it do any cleaning considering the low dose and use of synthetic oil? Basically, what positive/negative effects would there be, if any? Thanks.

P.S. I'm asking for my car-lazy brother...if it were me I'd follow the instructions to a "T".
 
JAG,

Did you first clean and rinse the engine with Auto-Rx? your engine has sludge I would recommend you do this first and the maintenance dose will be ok.

Daryl
 
Thanks for the quick reply. I better give more info. This is my brother's 99' BMW engine that has been used for mostly short trips which is partly why it's sludged (also used dino oil). He doesn't rack up many miles per year and doesn't change his own oil (and doesn't want to). I barely got him to agree to pay for Auto-RX and he'd prefer to take the easy route of using it in a maintenance dose along with GC. He hasn't started using Auto-RX yet so hasn't done the clean and rinse phases. Yes he's lazy and doesn't deserve a nice BMW engine but oh well...I'm just trying to help him fix his problem in a way he's willing to do it.
 
If the motor is sludged as you indicate. You need to run the clean and rinse cycle, likely twice to correct the problem. It does not take any effort on the owners part, other than a couple short oil change intervals. The product works as you drive. How hard is that. I would recommend that he uses the maintenance dose after curing the sludge issue, based on the mentioned driving habits.
 
To get the most benefit, he's going to need to get the engine up to temp and leave it there -- preferably for a 500 mile trip or more -- with the full prescribed dosage of 2 ounces per quart capacity.

The 1,000 mile balance of the cleaning phase won't be as critical, so he can resume his short-trip ways if he wants.

Same drill on the follow-up 1,500 mile rinse phase.
 
I think after a full treatment of ARX in a sludged engine, a full-length oci with 1/2 a bottle is probally most cost-effective. Dino 15w-40 and 1/2 bottle of ARX run out to 5000 miles would give a lot of cleaning, it works slowly. BMW filters are easy to change out, I'd do that partway into the oci too.
 
Thanks Rich. It didn't take much for me to decide that I am going to tell him he must do it right. If he starts complaining, I'll tell him to quit whining and suck it up.
smile.gif

I've never used Auto-RX so I'm excited to see what it does to his engine. When I took of his oil cap, there was a thick layer of yellow and red sludge on the underside of it. The same stuff was on part of his dipstick too. It looked disgusting and almost made me nauseous.
 
When I took off his oil cap, there was a thick layer of yellow and red sludge on the underside of it.

Yellow and red?
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Can you give us a little more detail, such as "transmission fluid red" or "ketchup red", and "mustard yellow" or "anti-freeze greenish-yellow"?

What might be the cause of this? My idea of sludge is something black with varying degrees of "gooeyness". Could this involve some sort of contamination or excessive moisture accumulation in addition to / rather than sludge?
dunno.gif
 
Thanks for the comments everyone.
XB70, it was like mustard yellow and ketchup red. And there was a glob of water (condensation) on top for good measure. I think those short trips and the water buildup in his engine is partly to blame for the sludge (hydrolysis). The colors are weird but I think sludge can come in several different colors depending on it's chemical makeup. Can anyone confirm that or is something else going on here such as coolant leak?

This article has some cool info on sludge. http://www.oilanalysis.com/learning....asp?articleid=59&relatedbookgroup=Hydraulics
 
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