I don't care Toyota or Subadru or AC/ Delco make a product for it. That's business and making money. I just wasted sometime and picked (3) cars...2005 Toyota Camry / 2005 Chevrolet Impala and a 2005 Subaru Outback. I looked up the owners manuals online. Not one of the owners manuals suggest an engine flush. Nowhere in them I could find that listed in preventative maintenance even for severe duty. I stand by my statement it's not recommended in any owners manual I am aware of. I can tell you confidently there isn't a taxi, police car, UPS or any other major fleet that does engine flushes. Fleets get basics maintence and in the best case scenario the bare minimum as spec'd and the cheapest fluids meeting minimum spec. That's a fact. Try google....a quick search brought up articles from Popular Mechanics, Click and Clack, NBC News and many other sources describing engine flushes as a scam, not recommended by owners manuals and many articles stating exactly what I said. The only "pro" articles were from the manufacturers of the products (money money money) or from Jiffy Lube Ect. Not one respectable independent source...I scanned quickly I admit...but I truly didn't see any pro engine flush from what I could consider reputable sources. A couple appeared reputable at first but upon closer inspection were paid adverts or tied directly back to a commercial entity profiting from a flush product. Now, if a high milage car has a problem of a sludged engine creating a runability problem that would require a tear down or rebuild then trying a flush as a last resort before a tear down makes sense. What have you got to loose? If you looking at spending big bucks on a tear down / rebuild and some says to pee in thr crankcase if it doesn't work you have nothing to loose. As a preventative measure, trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist you certainly have a whole lot to loose. I have seen in my shop cars where a flush was attempted that resulted in a complete engine failure. The most recent was my mother-in-laws Jeep Liberty. Her other son-in-law a hot shot tech at Mercedes with less than 2 years under his belt compared to my 22 years argue with me and convinced her the engine which ran fine had to be degunked and cleaned internally. It just had to be done or the world would crash down. Jeep ran great, needed plugs which is good and smart orientation maintence but has been maintained by my shop since new using the recommended intervals as spec in the owners manual. Well Mercedes son-in-law convinced her otherwise and was especially mad I had been running Fram Orange cans.....I like Fram.....and Mag1 oil which I buy in bulk for my fleet in the Jeep. He loves his boutique Liquid Moly Oil and his $50.00 a container Mercedes power steering fluid. Well he does a flush with all kinds of [censored] and drive X number of miles and drain and fill and fancy filters and when is done puts his Liquid Molly oil with some fancy filter on it and she hits the road for my house for a visit.....a 6 HR drive. 2/3 of the way here on the Turnpike and one of my wreckers has to go and get her because the Jeep started running poorly and shaking and quickly seized. We end up having to tear the engine down in my lowly shop wth a dirt parking lot (independent mechanic scum not Mercedes with the shiney floors, an air conditioned shop and 2 year experienced techs.....but hey whatever. We are ASE certified). So the tear down is coming along and what do we find. An oil port clogged causing oil starvation and engine seized. We rebuilt the engine with a complete kit and reman heads Ect and the jeep as back on the road. The jeep has no problems until he went mucking around tutting [censored] additives into the oil. This isn't the first time in 20 plus years I've seen this either. I've had 2 cars fresh from a Jiffy Lube after a flush same issue and about 2 years ago had a really low mileage VW that the owner had a $700 flush done at the dealership and ended up having a seized engine. Not one of thr owners manual ps recommended a flush....ever. Never ever at any mileage. Could these failures have occurred coincidently? Maybe. Not likely. Rarely do oil ports clog causing oil starvation. oil is like blood and an engine like thr human body. Ever hear of blood clots? What if you could break up thr cholesterol in your arteries and flush it around? Stroke city. Heart attack city. Don't try to solve problems that doesn't exist. If you have a real issue an it's a last ditch effort you have nothing to loose. It's kinda like a blown head gasket in a very high mileage car. If it's blown and thr car isn't worth much try a head gasket repair in a bottle. What's the worst that can happen? You junk the car or tear down the heads and repair properly. Plenty of companies make head gasket repair mechanic in a bottle products....I think AC Delco makes one too......but I can promise there isn't one engine manufacturer that lists in a shop manual that liquid head gasket repair is an acceptable procedure. Anyway. My thoughts.
