Anyone ever see Amsoil sludge?

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Just changed my oil on my 5.4l '97 Expedition. Been using Amsoil for 75k miles now (5w-30). I noticed that this last time the oil seemed like it was turning to sludge! Very black and thick, thought I even saw chunks! The oil itself had ~9-9500 miles on it. I changed the Amsoil filter @ ~7k miles, put on a Fram XG2 for the last 2K. I should've done an analysis, but instead I put in some Seafoam to clean it and changed the oil....
I've been a true Amsoil beleiver so far...

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Have you ever brought your car into the dealership for anything?
They may have changed your oil by mistake and refilled it with dino oil. I have experienced this myself when I was working at a Toyota dealership. Car comes in with a Check Engine light on and the customer wants it checked. Mechanic brings the car in puts it on the lift, drains the oil, then reads the repair order. Then OOPS! Refills the oil with the dino oil and continues to check the car for codes or whatever the car came in for service. Mechanic never tells the customer that he drained his oil and the customer still thinks he has synthetic in his/her car.
Unfortunately, this happened on an average about 10 times/month.
Do an analysis and check if it is Amsoil...and not dino oil.

[ May 04, 2003, 11:51 PM: Message edited by: Tommy2 ]
 
If the color had been milky I would have suggested you had a coolant leak. But just in case, check your coolant level and make sure it is ok.
 
Huh, I did have the spark plugs changed during this time! It definitely wasn't milky, though. I shoulda had an analysis done! just didn't want to wait for it to come in the mail!

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I have a friend whose father has been selling Amsoil since at least the late '70's. My friend has a Ford truck (not sure what year) with a little over 100,000 miles that has always had Amsoil 10-30 in it. Recently it had to have some work done on the motor and the mechanic found a pretty good bit of sludge in the bottom of the oil pan. The rest of the motor looked pretty good though.

Les
 
Although surprising I can believe the possibility. Again, most Amsoil dealers push the extended drains, at least one year and as we know many engines cannot make a year without analysis to back it up. So, it is possible this truck should not have been on extended drains and sludge did build up over the course of 100,000 miles.. It happened on the Toyota engines in the 99-01 engines as well.

We have all heard different stories as well, my dealer tells of the crystal type crud he found on an engine using Amsoil. Again, no one knows how long the oil was rynb before changing etc.
 
I do indeed wish a sample was retained.

It seems so unlikely that in that application and under 10K miles the oil would have sludged. 20K even seems remote.

Was the engine fully warm? Condensation?

Call or stop by the dealer today - but just innocently ask what EXACTLY what they did to the car the last few services? Oil Change?
 
More questions:

What did the oil look like 2K back when you put the Fram on?

Have you always gone this 9K interval? Did you have the oil analyzed on any of the previous intervals?

Thanks - sorry for the snoop questions, trying to play Columbo.

Mods: Sorry I missed the edit window
 
After all is said and figured out. I would be interested in knowing if Amsoil stands behind their product like they claim. I know they always point to the Magnusson Moss Act.

Or does Amsoils claim to pay any repairs if the long term drain causes problems from their oil?
 
When I changed the filter @ ~7-7500 miles I noticed the oil seemed pretty black then. Didn't really pay it much mind @ the time. But then with periodic checks on the dipstick and noticing how black it looked it started to bother me... which is why I changed the oil @ only 2k miles on the new filter! It was when I was pouring the old oil into the big recycling container several days later that I noticed how bad it looked.
With past oil changes, usually ~14k miles, oil still seemed fine.
I'll do me an analysis next time... when do you suggest, next filter change?
 
I just noticed - you are right down in Sedro-Woolley!! (I live in Lynden and work in Bellingham)

Did you talk with the car dealership? (In Burlington?)

I would just watch the oil again and maybe sample again if it looks ugly - or at 5-7K miles. If the oil was going 14K before - something isn't right. Was there water or condensation in the container that you were pouring from?
 
Hey Lynden!
I'm in Glenhaven actually (by Sudden Valley). Had it in the dealer ~1 + months ago. I'm sure they wouldn't remember if they accidently changed the oil. It sure didn't say on my receipt.
I had a little moisture in the oil containers... rinsed out milk jugs. I'll get an analysis @ filter change. Do you recommend the Amsoil kits or something else?

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For $18.95 which includes ALL shipping, it's hard to beat the Amsoil OAI analysis. And besides most folks believe that the lab most familiar with an oil is the best to analyze it.

Some people will say they are biased - I have no way to prove this - but my 4 way study showed they had some good level of accuracy.
 
I know of three ways AMSOIL can thicken--

Coolant in the oil will cause thickening.

Excess fuel in the oil will cause thickening.

High nitration will cause thickening (often a bad EGR system).

In every case that we've sent a sample in because of suspected problem, one of these three came back as the culprit (or the indicator)
 
quote:

Originally posted by rich mds:
I would be interested in knowing if Amsoil stands behind their product like they claim. I know they always point to the Magnusson Moss Act.Or does Amsoils claim to pay any repairs if the long term drain causes problems from their oil?

Well, there is no apparent engine damage that requires repair plus he added seafoam so all kinds of potential disclaimers here. Not sure of how long oil was in as to time etc. Further, catastrophic engine failure is extremely rare and the oil is rarely the culprit. If sludge caused failure, as in the Toyota cases, then the oil could be a factor but in those cases Amsoil claimed it was engine design flaws that caused the oil to sludge and refused to pay. they site the extended warranty that Toyota came out with as proof it was engine design. Well the engine was designed for more frequent changes and Amsoil dealers kept selling the one year intervals etc. so!! IMO No oil stood up to the task but Amsoil never did inform customers that Toyotas should have mroe frequent changes and refused to pay off anyway.

Any oil cahnge beyond 7500 should have analysis first, not all engines and driving conditions can handle extended drains.

[ May 05, 2003, 12:43 PM: Message edited by: Spector ]
 
Originally Posted By: Tommy2
Have you ever brought your car into the dealership for anything?
They may have changed your oil by mistake and refilled it with dino oil. I have experienced this myself when I was working at a Toyota dealership. Car comes in with a Check Engine light on and the customer wants it checked. Mechanic brings the car in puts it on the lift, drains the oil, then reads the repair order. Then OOPS! Refills the oil with the dino oil and continues to check the car for codes or whatever the car came in for service. Mechanic never tells the customer that he drained his oil and the customer still thinks he has synthetic in his/her car.
Unfortunately, this happened on an average about 10 times/month.
Do an analysis and check if it is Amsoil...and not dino oil.

[ May 04, 2003, 11:51 PM: Message edited by: Tommy2 ]


Blackstone can not tell the difference between Dino and Synthetic.
 
I don't think it's the Amsoil. I think the oci was just too long for whatever reason/s in those specific situations.
 
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