Passat sludgebucket

aero nut · Aug 8, 2005

This is just a repost of an earlier thread about my
sludged Passat & Auto-Rx. Very briefly my wifes Passat with 68,000 miles totally sludged. This is a
real problem with these cars. Per mechanic my pressure was 0 at idle and 15psi at 70mph on new synthetic. I very carefully drove the car home & started some research when I came across this website. VW wanted $9,000 for an engine replacement.
I started the ARX and drove very carefully. The oil light came on sporadically. By the rinse phase, the light never came on. After rinse phase I changed to synthetic and back to the mechanic for a pressure test. He couldn't believe it. 15psi at idle and 45 psi at 60 mph (2000 rpm). He
said it was factory specs. Problem fixed. I ended up trading in the car (not a VW) shortly after.
I repost this just because ARX fixed an engine that was within a few miles of meltdown. If this didn't prove ARX's worth I don't know what would.
I still have a few bottles around that I will use on other cars. E-mail me with any questions. In summary ARX saved me $9,000 and I am indebted to ARX and whom ever developed it...a Big $9,000 thanks. Fred

GROUCHO MARX · Aug 9, 2005

Nice post. Deserves a bump.

mechtech · Aug 9, 2005

Sounds like the pick-up screen was clogged.
Or, maybe some sludge was in the port to the sending unit,and the pressure was really OK to begin with. It just started reading correctly, now.

Rick20 · Aug 9, 2005

Many times these small displacement motors, producing impressive horsepower numbers require serious care. ARX has helped out alot of Passat owners on their board. I think oil change intervals were why to high OEM wise. However excellent maintainance, coupled with frequent ARX treatments seem to be the ticket.

JeffPGH · Aug 10, 2005

OCIs were not necessarily too long. This is/was caused by dealers using unapproved (dino) oil for the changes.

blmqzjc · Aug 10, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by JeffPGH:
OCIs were not necessarily too long. This is/was caused by dealers using unapproved (dino) oil for the changes.

And they still are. Last time the wife took the 1.8T in for an oil change, I noticed that the cost on the invoice was only about $35. Normal synthetic oil change is almost twice that at the stealership.

I called and asked the service mgr if they used dino or synthetic, he checked the file, and said that they had "accidentally" used dino. Can you believe it? With all the fanfare over synthetic oil for this engine in the last year, you would think any idiot working there would know that the car now requires synthetic. Now if the customer emphatically requested dino, I would understand. But the wife just said change the oil, like she always has. The previous couple of times they used synthetic, as they should.

For this, and other reasons, I will be doing all future oil changes on the Passat, as I don't trust anybody else to do it right.

LarryL · Aug 11, 2005

If you expect the dealer to know much about oil you might be wrong. Some do, many do not, and don't care, either. A dealer told me you can't use Mobil 1 unless your engine was made for that oil, like the Corvette. He stated that Mobil 1 causes leaks and it's so thin the oil pressure drops when the engine warms up. I sure want this guy looking over the service for my car. I don't want any of that leaky Mobil 1 in my car. Imagine what happens when these people speak to those that listen and don't know.

cyclic · Aug 11, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by LarryL:
If you expect the dealer to know much about oil you might be wrong. Some do, many do not, and don't care, either. A dealer told me you can't use Mobil 1 unless your engine was made for that oil, like the Corvette. He stated that Mobil 1 causes leaks and it's so thin the oil pressure drops when the engine warms up. I sure want this guy looking over the service for my car. I don't want any of that leaky Mobil 1 in my car. Imagine what happens when these people speak to those that listen and don't know.

Your dealer is full of ****, or he is very ill advised. Mobil 1 does not cause leaks in newer vehicles.

blmqzjc · Aug 12, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by LarryL:
If you expect the dealer to know much about oil you might be wrong. Some do, many do not, and don't care, either.

You must be kidding!!!The dealers have the "factory trained" technicians which know our car best, right? I don't expect them to be experts on oil. I do expect them to know what fluids go in what vehicles - that is their job for goodness sake. If a TSB says that a 1.8T requires synthetic, then by god that's what they should put in there, UNLESS the customer specifically insists on something else. Likewise, I don't expect them to top off G12 coolant with G11, which has happened. You'd have to be color blind to make that mistake (pink vs. blue, I believe).

I will easily concede your last sentence above - they don't care. Bottom line I think is to do any service you can yourself, and find a good INDY you can trust for the tough stuff.

LarryL · Aug 12, 2005

As far as oil goes, there are dealers that say they have beter 'local knowledge' and will use, say, a different viscosity oil because they think they know better. In extreme situations that's ok, but not always. If you start talking about specs with engine oil you will get a blank stare. They know that brand x is the best, because (insert story here). That's as far as thier advise goes. If you have a sludge prone engine you had better educate yourself some where besides the dealer.

cyclic · Aug 12, 2005

Larry, rereading your post it would appear you knew your dealer was full of ****, therefore I didn't need my post.

Sarcasm is hard to detect sometimes.

LarryL · Aug 12, 2005

Wake up and smell the oil, cyclic. The guy explained how M1 works, and he believed it. Just because I listened does not mean I had to agree. I also learned that if I hurry, I can still find Z-Max at Wally World and Pep Boys. There's no end to the stuff you can lean from the automobile professionals. I was with a friend picking up his A4 SludgeMobile after some unrelated work.. We put it through three cycles of ARX and it runs like new. The dealer wanted $9k for a new engine. When we showed them the ARX'ed car they showed no interest at all. Anyhow this car is getting Chevron Delo Synthetic 5w-40 and maintenance doese of Lube Control after three shots of ARX. The clean and rinse were done with Delo 15w40 conventional oil. A final note, the dealer said you can't use Delo diesel oil in a gas car, that it will plug up the engine...what.

aero nut · Sep 2, 2005

Did I mention that VW refused to honor the 100,000 mile warrenty. Their position was that this was due to owner neglect. We were over a few hundred miles on 1 change (dealer couldn't fit us in in time) and
we couldn't document some others.

Steelhead · Sep 2, 2005

most dealers hire brain dead meth heads to do oil changes at less than minimum wage. lucky they tightened your oil drain bolt enough so it didn't fall out.
all the profits go to the owner and sales-service managers.
Chevron Delo Synthetic 5w-40 sounds like just the perfect permanent oil for these engines

Donald · Sep 3, 2005

We sold our 2000 V6 Passat because of some 13 trips to the dealer for warranty repairs, including a new head. Before selling it (and it was at that time out of warranty) we had to have the secondary air pump hose replaced by a local mechanic. He told me in the process of replacing the hose, he found caulking (think window caulking from Home Depot) on the hose and where it should go. Only one dealer ever working on the car and they must have damaged the hose fixing something (the head) and fixed it with caulking.

Thatwouldbegreat · Sep 4, 2005

We had two Passat GLX VR6 5 speeds, a 1993 and a 1996.

I ran the 1993 with Castrol Syntec 5W-50 at 5K intervals, then Mobil 1 15W-50 at 5K OCI. I drove this engine wide open throttle to near redline and at high speed from 1000 miles on.

And I changed the car's suspension, wheels, tires, and brakes to make it more of a sport tuned sedan.

When I moved to Colorado I noticed that the oil temps were quite high during full throttle runs up the passes driving from Vail to Denver and back.

I also had quite a few trips to Florida and Las Vegas where the temps would often be 100 to 114 F.

So I switched to Redline 10W-40 at 8K OCI, and Redline MT90.

The engine ran better, the transmission shifted nicer, and oil temps dropped enough to stay mid range or slightly above on the oil temp gauge.

At 160,000 miles * the engine was still perfect in every way, zero oil consumption, and excellent mpg and power.

* My experience with this engine ended when a pickup ran a stop sign and totalled the car.

---

VW dealership work was really bad, and I avoided them whenever possible. I also had only a few problems, power window recalls and pulley damage by a quick oil change employee leaving a wrench in the engine compartment.

The biggest problem was the ABS brakes on the 1993 were never correct, and it was a generic problem. They did such a good job of not 'locking up' they never stopped safely on snow or ice.

I did the Redline OCI with the 1996, and it was trouble free and had a later generation ABS system was was quite good.

The big thing is that with moderate OCI, and good synthetic oils the engines stayed sludge free..even with fairly hard use.

Passat sludgebucket

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