Friend has a 2000 Passat wagon with the V6 engine. Has approximately 80,000 + miles. He has had the oil changed at a local quick change oil place when he bought several oil changes for a certain amount. Anyhow the mechanic who works on his car told him to add a can of J&B metal cleaner (?) to the crankcase, drive for 500 miles, change the oil and repeat 2 more times.
I couldn't resist taking off the oil cap and peeking inside. There was a light brown coating on the metal, I assume this is heavy varnish. Could be wrong.
My readings here tell me that this engine isn't the 1.8T sludge monster however I wonder if it has sludge issues since the engine oil that was used may not have been "robust" enough. The manual recommends 5W-40 but can also use 5W-30. The sticker tells me that 5W-30 oil has been used. My impression from reading the guys over at VWVortex.com is that oils that meet VW 502.00 requirement being hard to find here and therefore synthetic oil is the way to go. I don't know what brand oil was used but I know it wasn't synthetic. So any opinions about sludge in my friend's Passat?
I am thinking that an ARX treament might be in order or maybe using LC only given the heavy varnish assuming no sludge issue. Any thoughts? opinions? Thanks!
I couldn't resist taking off the oil cap and peeking inside. There was a light brown coating on the metal, I assume this is heavy varnish. Could be wrong.
My readings here tell me that this engine isn't the 1.8T sludge monster however I wonder if it has sludge issues since the engine oil that was used may not have been "robust" enough. The manual recommends 5W-40 but can also use 5W-30. The sticker tells me that 5W-30 oil has been used. My impression from reading the guys over at VWVortex.com is that oils that meet VW 502.00 requirement being hard to find here and therefore synthetic oil is the way to go. I don't know what brand oil was used but I know it wasn't synthetic. So any opinions about sludge in my friend's Passat?
I am thinking that an ARX treament might be in order or maybe using LC only given the heavy varnish assuming no sludge issue. Any thoughts? opinions? Thanks!
