Whats the worst looking fluid you've drained from a vehicle?

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Apr 30, 2019
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kansas
For me it was the mtf on a friends 2001 civic. This was a pet project of a shop that built race civics and came off of one with a turbo and I can only imagine it was the original fluid still.
When my friend got it i convinced him to change the fluid out and what we drained was absolutely shocking. Unfortunately i do not have a picture of this fluid but it came out a light grey green color and no light was passing through the fluid.
It was similar in shade to this:
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Once I had to melt crayons to get them out of the sliding door track on a Ford mini van. My kids jammed them in there and the door wouldn't close. I don't know if hot wax qualifies as a 'fluid' They blended together into a disgusting goat puke green.
 

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Gear oil from my Miata that the pinion nut had backed off without warning. Drove it probably 50 miles like that. Talk about sparkles.
 
I didn't drain it, I had to use a scraper to remove the sludge from an engine oil pan after it was removed. Literally it was inches thick. Was back before cellphones so no pic. It late 80s Firebird V6. Guy never changed oil. I dont remember if we rebuilt it or threw in a reman.

Lots of burnt trans fluid back in the day. Water in gear lube. Lubes weren't very good back then and people didn't like changing fluids then either.
 
My grandma bought a 2015 Kia Soul in 2016 with 10,000 on it and the first oil change I done on it was nothing but sludge that looked like a milkshake. It was the color of coffee with creamer in it. The previous owner had some Indy shop do the work instead of the dealer and had the cheapest filter on it too. Been using Mobil 1 in it since that day and haven’t had any issues luckily it took a couple changes to fully get rid of it. I couldn’t believe an engine was full of sludge that soon.
 
Probably urine from the back seat 😃

That usually just pours out of the cowl if you park somewhere that ticks someone off. :ROFLMAO:

Edit: this was 10 years ago? :oops: feels like yesterday!

 
Pull drain plug on Impala back around the nineties for warranty as it quit. 20k with no oil changes. I removed pan with jelly in it as it wouldn't drain. Got it warranted caused she claimed no one told her she needed oil changes since it was new.
 
My Diesel Benz with OM606 engine with almost 300k miles after I put in 1/2 Quart Kreen/drove 500 miles and drained it. It looks like Arco graphite oil. Probably the best thing I did to the car after so many miles.
 
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Had a 92 F150 with the 351 that was getting water in oil somehow when I first got it. The oil when drained would look the same color as coffee with lots of creamer. It never did have very good oil pressure after that but it kept running and as far as I know is still running.

My 92 Mazda B2600 the first time I changed the rear diff oil was pretty bad too. The gear oil was goopy and full of water. I did a bunch of flushes with cheap gear oil for the first 5k or so of owning it. Nice thing is it has both fill and drain plugs on it. Sure would be nice if that was standard on all differentials.
 
When I worked for Walmart there was a manager that drove a 99 Civic. Every time it came in for an oil change, nothing would come out of the pan. Only the filter would have oil in it. That car still ran after I quit. Not the worst looking fluid that came out since there was none :ROFLMAO:
 
I can't think of any differential fluid I've ever changed that wasn't disgusting.

The stuff smells terrible going in, and I'd guess it's probably the single most neglected fluid on the vehicle to the point that I'd not be surprised if large numbers of RWD vehicles go to the junk yard with their factory fill.

If you do drain it(or attempt to drain it and end up pulling the back cover because it won't come out) you are often rewarded with black goop and I really suspect that the gates of hell probably smell slightly better.
 
When I worked for Walmart there was a manager that drove a 99 Civic. Every time it came in for an oil change, nothing would come out of the pan. Only the filter would have oil in it. That car still ran after I quit. Not the worst looking fluid that came out since there was none :ROFLMAO:
My guess is that he only came in for an oil change when the oil light came on. To him that meant time to change oil.
 
The worst was the strawberry milkshake when the lower portion if the radiator (ATF cooling) failed in our trusty '95 Accord LX.
2nd was a friend's neglected small Dodge PU (Dakota?) V6 oil. Thick black mess. Sheesh.
 
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My Jeep's cooling system. What was basically mud came out when I flushed it in 2017.

Last summer I ran 16-1/2 gallons of distilled water through it and converted over from green coolant to G05. Still wasn't spotless but it was as good as it was gonna get.
 
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The worse looking used oil/fluid I have ever seen was gear oil, on two different occasions.

One was out of a gearbox on a corn chopper. We drained the oil while it was warm, and went to lunch while it was draining. When we came back the oil had cooled, and was the consistency and color of dark peanut butter. We had to scrape it out of the pan, and the smell would make you gag. All I could think of is that the oil was overheated and oxidized.

The other time was when I drained the differentials on a used front end loader we had just purchased. The differentials were limited slip, and the gear oil that came out was chunky with clutch material and brass particles. I am guessing the oil had never been changed. I did a few quick changes and once it was clean we ran the machine for ~5 years with no issues.
 
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