Recently, I asked my fiance when she had her oil changed last in her 2003 RAV4, as I had sent off an oil report for my own car.
She didn't remember when, but knew it had been a long while. I offered to do it for her, since I'm now maintaining my own new car *'06 Civic Hybrid}. She was interested, but we never set a date certain. Told her I'd take a sample of the oil and have it analysed just to see what things looked like.
A couple of weeks later, the day after I got my Blackstone report back *stellar result}
, we were talking on the phone and she said... "were you still interested in changing the oil in my car ? It had a funny sound when I started it this morning...like metal on metal" I told her I'd be there in a few minutes.
Got to her house, pulled the dipstick...and I couldn't believe what I saw. It was a semi-solid black goo. Chunks were present on the dipstick. I wiped it...and found the oil had varnished itself on to the stick - I couldn't get all of it off. I also noticed that nothing was present on the dipstick when I reinserted / pulled it again. Not even near the 'add' mark *2qt between 'add' and 'full', per the manual}. Took a couple minutes to get the oil cap off - and when I did - sludge was practically falling out of the cap, and was packed in the recesses of it.
The car has the 1AZ-FE 2.0L w/ VVT-i, with a 4 qt sump. 2qt of Citgo 5W-30 *I picked it for the moly} got it back to the full level on the dipstick. Started the engine and heard a grating metallic sound as it fired to life, but then it quietened down *as much as this engine can, that is - it's always been a noisy little bugger that doesn't have much grunt, IMO}. We ran it at idle for a couple of minutes, then took it to 1500 for a few seconds, back to idle, and then up to 2000rpm and back to idle. The top end sounds a little noisy, and I can hear there's an attendant noise from somewhere in the top end. Nothing else amiss, from what I can tell.
I'm hoping the bottom end is ok, and I'm thinking we may have gotten to the car just in time *it's a leased vehicle, so we have to keep it running until Nov 2007 unless we term it early for the Honda Element that we've had our eyes on}. 45,500 on the clock. When I pressed her for when she thought it had been changed last, she thought "last fall". Her work driving would amount to < 6200 mi over that period - when I met her, she had about 31K *?} on the odo - I'm thinking it may not have been changed since *then*, the way the oil looked. We live in Northern IL, so it gets cold in the winter, and we just suffered through 100F temps like the rest of the country last week.
As we were driving to the auto parts store to pick up that 2qt and 5 more for an oil change to be done tomorrow along with oil / air filters, I told her of Auto-Rx, and how it helps sludged-up engines. She trusts my knowledge and instincts when it comes to cars, and so we're ordering a couple of bottles today.
My questions:
- I was going to take a sample of the existing oil - but with the dilution of two new quarts just added last night - is it going to be a waste to do so ? I have extra kits on hand and could easily take the sample. As I alluded to above - I don't know what brand is in the crankcase now, or how many miles are on it. I'm thinking if I do, that a TBN would be useless, btw.
- I've seen mention of a third cleaning cycle *the ARX website lists 2 for sludged-up engines} by a couple people on this board. Figured I'd use the varnished dipstick and oil fill hole as guides for a 3rd cycle if needed. Thoughts ?
- Any special considerations / issues for this engine, for Toyophiles out there ? I'm a Hondanista, myself
, so I don't know a ton about Toyota's engine offerings. I'm guessing that I'll have to monitor the seals / gaskets quite closely after all the **** has been removed. I haven't seen the bottom end yet, but the top end gaskets look ok from what I've seen.
- Now, she wants to go to synth once we get the cleaning done. She didn't like it too much when I laughed on this one. But she wants to do it because she left this oil in for so long. I also reminded her we're doing this just to get to Nov 2007 *we had already decided prior that we wouldn't keep the vehicle}. I'll have to remember to tell her about the gaskets and potential for leakage, now that I write this.
- Finally *being facetious here, no answer needed}...WHY do women do this with their vehicles ? I've now seen this firsthand, and we've agreed that I'll be doing all maint going forward, as I don't want to be replacing her Element after 3 years. While I felt bad that I didn't think about this, we don't share a household yet, so her vehicle has been 'her responsibility' - but no more
I'm not a 'Yota fan, but seeing the condition of that poor engine made me want to cry.
Thanks for reading, if you made it this far. It was cathartic to write about it
Sorry about the irregular formatting - apparently, parentheses aren't allowed in this forum
She didn't remember when, but knew it had been a long while. I offered to do it for her, since I'm now maintaining my own new car *'06 Civic Hybrid}. She was interested, but we never set a date certain. Told her I'd take a sample of the oil and have it analysed just to see what things looked like.
A couple of weeks later, the day after I got my Blackstone report back *stellar result}
Got to her house, pulled the dipstick...and I couldn't believe what I saw. It was a semi-solid black goo. Chunks were present on the dipstick. I wiped it...and found the oil had varnished itself on to the stick - I couldn't get all of it off. I also noticed that nothing was present on the dipstick when I reinserted / pulled it again. Not even near the 'add' mark *2qt between 'add' and 'full', per the manual}. Took a couple minutes to get the oil cap off - and when I did - sludge was practically falling out of the cap, and was packed in the recesses of it.
The car has the 1AZ-FE 2.0L w/ VVT-i, with a 4 qt sump. 2qt of Citgo 5W-30 *I picked it for the moly} got it back to the full level on the dipstick. Started the engine and heard a grating metallic sound as it fired to life, but then it quietened down *as much as this engine can, that is - it's always been a noisy little bugger that doesn't have much grunt, IMO}. We ran it at idle for a couple of minutes, then took it to 1500 for a few seconds, back to idle, and then up to 2000rpm and back to idle. The top end sounds a little noisy, and I can hear there's an attendant noise from somewhere in the top end. Nothing else amiss, from what I can tell.
I'm hoping the bottom end is ok, and I'm thinking we may have gotten to the car just in time *it's a leased vehicle, so we have to keep it running until Nov 2007 unless we term it early for the Honda Element that we've had our eyes on}. 45,500 on the clock. When I pressed her for when she thought it had been changed last, she thought "last fall". Her work driving would amount to < 6200 mi over that period - when I met her, she had about 31K *?} on the odo - I'm thinking it may not have been changed since *then*, the way the oil looked. We live in Northern IL, so it gets cold in the winter, and we just suffered through 100F temps like the rest of the country last week.
As we were driving to the auto parts store to pick up that 2qt and 5 more for an oil change to be done tomorrow along with oil / air filters, I told her of Auto-Rx, and how it helps sludged-up engines. She trusts my knowledge and instincts when it comes to cars, and so we're ordering a couple of bottles today.
My questions:
- I was going to take a sample of the existing oil - but with the dilution of two new quarts just added last night - is it going to be a waste to do so ? I have extra kits on hand and could easily take the sample. As I alluded to above - I don't know what brand is in the crankcase now, or how many miles are on it. I'm thinking if I do, that a TBN would be useless, btw.
- I've seen mention of a third cleaning cycle *the ARX website lists 2 for sludged-up engines} by a couple people on this board. Figured I'd use the varnished dipstick and oil fill hole as guides for a 3rd cycle if needed. Thoughts ?
- Any special considerations / issues for this engine, for Toyophiles out there ? I'm a Hondanista, myself
- Now, she wants to go to synth once we get the cleaning done. She didn't like it too much when I laughed on this one. But she wants to do it because she left this oil in for so long. I also reminded her we're doing this just to get to Nov 2007 *we had already decided prior that we wouldn't keep the vehicle}. I'll have to remember to tell her about the gaskets and potential for leakage, now that I write this.
- Finally *being facetious here, no answer needed}...WHY do women do this with their vehicles ? I've now seen this firsthand, and we've agreed that I'll be doing all maint going forward, as I don't want to be replacing her Element after 3 years. While I felt bad that I didn't think about this, we don't share a household yet, so her vehicle has been 'her responsibility' - but no more
Thanks for reading, if you made it this far. It was cathartic to write about it
