Hey guys, my father has a 2013 TDI golf with approx 324000km(201324 miles). Oil used in the car is Rotella T6 and oil changes have been completed every time the counter in the car indicates the vehicle is due. Recently he ran into a no start situation which was diagnosed as a clogged DPF by VW. The DPF was changed under warranty at the dealer and when the tech started the car he claimed that the oil light came on so he checked the oil and found it was down roughy 2 quarts. Tech decided it would be better to just change the oil completely. So tech pulls the oil plug and oil leaves the pan very slowly, and is stating he believes the engine is heavily sludged up and wants to pull the oil pan for further inspection. It’s at this point that I instruct my Dad to have the car towed to my place as this wasn’t adding up, I performed the last oil change on the car and noticed no issue at all with the oil draining. So car comes to my place and I pull the oil pan off and find massive amounts of this jelly sludge. It has a rubbery texture and breaks apart fairly easily in your hands. I was able to clean out the oil pan fairly easily as it doesn’t appear to stick to aluminum very well, the windage tray and oil pickup(plastic) however is a different story. I’m currently soaking these parts in varsol, which has helped with loosening the deposits however deposits do no appear to be dissolving, rather it looks like a bunch of permatex silicon floating around in the varsol. In doing some google searches I saw that coolant in the oil can cause this sort of thing, however we haven’t had to add any coolant to the car. Car had some front end work completed a couple of months ago, I’m concerned someone may have sabotaged his engine figuring him has an easy target(he’s 80 years old) . Would love any and all feedback!! Thanks!!
Rotella T6 turned into jelly
- Thread starter durtydiesel
- Start date
Possibly a sabotaged bottle of Rotella?
Should be VW507.00 IIRC.
JHZR2
Staff member
Something doesn’t add up there if the oil was reasonably new. This isn’t what we would expect from coolant or fuel mixed in here.
Massive soot loading into the oil perhaps??!?
Massive soot loading into the oil perhaps??!?
A complicating factor is when people don’t use an oil with the appropriate VW approval, so that brings into question whether they are performing other maintenance properly. Lots of unknowns here.
Grade is not the cause.
Is Rotella T6 really much of a downgrade or an issue here? I wouldn't bat an eyelid buying a diesel VW product if it had it's oil changes performed with Rotella T6. Ultimately it's still a quality, well formulated lubricant by a major manufacturer.
Can you define "every time the counter in the vehicle indicates it is due"? This car would be set for 10,000 mile interval on 507 in the US. Im not sure if Canada follows EU or US maitenance schedule but believe on variable scheduling the car could be set for up to 18,000 miles based on oil quality. I would not run T6 for 18,000 miles.
Hypothesis - inappropriate oil run for consistently too long intervals has resulted in deposits over a long period which just now became an impediment to draining.
Hypothesis - inappropriate oil run for consistently too long intervals has resulted in deposits over a long period which just now became an impediment to draining.
T6 in the VW community is actually considered superior to the VW branded oils. I spoke with a shell engineer a while ago about the VW 507, his response was it wasn’t worth it to shell to certify it for the VW rating(which is primarily because it’s got a DPF) because the other engines it was designed for exceeded the VW requirements. As for the maintenance, I can say whenever the oil maintenance came on in the car, my father would act immediately. This sludge does look or feel like the conventional sludge I’ve seen in engines that were no maintained. The fact that the sludge won’t fully dissolve is solvents also tells me this jello is no normal oil sludge jello.
I guess, if the VW community says so. But it’s not about VW branded oils.
I’m honestly not sure how many miles it triggers at for Canadian cars. I would assume it’s likely the same as US but would have to check.
Did your dad purchase the car used? May not have a coolant leak now, but I wonder if it did in the past.
A differing opinion apparently:
Response recieved from Shell when I asked about 507.00 and Rotella T6
I know there are a few threads that discuss using Rotella T oil in our cars and this may have already have been covered (I searched but didn't find anything) but I E-Mailed shell expressing disappointment that Rotella T6 isn't certified for VW 507.00 and they sent me back a response that some...
forums.tdiclub.com
Very odd.
Who has been doing the oil changes? Is it possible that the oil wasn't changed?
I would think your dad would've had a hard time driving to dealership or anywhere else with that amount of sludge
Who has been doing the oil changes? Is it possible that the oil wasn't changed?
I would think your dad would've had a hard time driving to dealership or anywhere else with that amount of sludge
Yes what about the pump pickup and on top of the head?
Yes he has owned the car since it was new
Only time I've seen something similar was on another forum and the guy was burning veggie oil. Apparently some sort of reaction from unprocessed fryer/veggie/peanut oil caused the crankcase oil to jelly up like this.
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