Originally Posted By: Gary Allan
Quote:
Also, this was the engine that was supposedly a sludge monster, something I never experienced. Could it be possible that the ones experiencing such horrible sludge issues be in part caused by not changing the filter every interval? What do you think Gary?
There you're dealing two issues. It's either a design problem ..or a user neglect problem. I imagine that it's a collision of both. Most traditional domestics don't have "neglect" related issues. The domestic iron is well buffered for the traditional numb consumer and their lack of competence in vehicle maintenance.
Now the design issues ..with something like the VW/AUDI sludge problem was (perhaps-my speculation) spec'ing too long a drain interval without having wide access to oils spec'd to make the trip. For all we know the dealers didn't even bother to buy them due to the limited distribution (the onset of VW 500.0+ and such)...or it could be Joe/Jane consumer going to Jiffylube for their 10k+ OCI and getting SL 5w30
On the Asian's with issues, it's probably more of a neglect thing that the designs weren't buffered for. Outside of Honda ..I don't see too many long(er) drain Asian engines.
So ..exotics (relatively) that may not be using expensive oils that are spec'd to long in service ...or not so exotics not spec'd with the right oils for the likely service
Most of your Asians shun synthetic oils
Most of your Euros require synthetic oils.
They both had instances of sludge issues.
American engines spec cheap oil and long(er) OCI's and don't seem to suffer from this issue.
So Gary do you not recommend synthetic oil such as PP for my Civic. I have been overloaded with so much info since finding this site that I don't know what to do anymore!