Originally Posted By: ZOMGVTEK
Originally Posted By: OrdnanceMarine
OUCH! You've definitely got yourself a problem that needs solving. No point in going with a synthetic at this point since you need to be changing your oil often until you figure out what the source of the sodium and the copper, iron and chromium are. These J30 engines are not naturally that hard on oil with some fuel dillution being the most common problem. Stop idling your engine to warm it up for starters. Start it and in 10 seconds you're ready to drive. Don't run it hard until everything is completely warmed up (~10 minutes or so).
Have you owned this car since new? Was there any work done recently? Do you live near the ocean or very salty roads?
On the bright side, you've found that you have a problem so now you can figure out how to solve it. 99% of people would never know there was an issue until something actually fails.
If I dont let it warm up a few mins the trans shifts very hard when its cold outside. And if I dont let the car idle a few mins when its below freezing, it runs noticeably worse. I usually dont let the car idle too long, but on this oil change id say I have several times of 10-30 min idles with a warm engine. You might not know how terrible cars feel when the engine is in the 10-20ºF range, which is normal for this time of year. Every car I ever drove when its cold outside feels terrible until it warms up.
I owned the car since it had 32K miles on it. The engine was never touched, just oil changes. We generally have salty roads here 6 months out of the year.
Those levels are really that high? Im not really concerned about the engine, I dont plan on having the car past 100K anyways. I waited a little longer than normal on this oil change, I never usually let it go past 4k.
10 to 30 minutes spent idling to warm up the car? Holy [censored]! That's completely unnecessary and is actually doing more harm than good.
Engines take longer to warm up without varying speeds and putting a load on them. Forcing an engine to warm up idling in park/neutral increases the time the engine is running with oil that isn't at operating temperature, likewise increasing engine wear and needlessly wasting gas.
Transmissions warm up faster under load as well. In park the only thing that's moving while the car is in Park is the torque converter. Start the car and let it run for 20-30 seconds max so that the engine can build oil pressure and drive. Take it easy on the car for the first few minutes, but after that you can drive normally.
