when a car sees a lot of varnish on the inside and on the dip stick what does that mean? or what can it mean? my gf has 85k miles on her 05 corolla and it has seen ALOT of city driving. as with most girls she just gets in and slams the gas lol.. i have been changing her oil for over a year (the length of time i have been seeing her).. she supposedly changed the oil at 5k miles before i met her. any ideas??. all of her oil changes have been at jiffy lube type places.. i cleaned the dipstick off a few changes ago and no varnish back on it yet but it was bad.
Varnish on the dipstick question
- Thread starter mikeg5
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If you check your oil level every few hundred miles and wipe the dipstick off, as you should do to properly check, you will have no problem with varnish on it.
There's the problem! All the JL's around here are run by frigging idiots. They should also get training on how it's important to tighten a drain plug!
On a serious note, the only way to check the extent of varnish is to either drop the pan or take a look inside the valve cover with a mirror and flashlight.
well like i said after i started changing the oil i cleaned the dipstick off with her nail polish remover and has been clean ever since. i do check her oil once a week or two.. i was just curious if that is a tale tale sign of poor ventilation (pcv valve) or whatever..
Varnish is usually not hurting anything.
Sludge is bad, but discoloration by varnish won't hurt.
Both the car and the girl won't reveal everything about their past, BTW.
Sludge is bad, but discoloration by varnish won't hurt.
Both the car and the girl won't reveal everything about their past, BTW.
You could try using a full synthetic oil, it MAY clean things up a bit in the long run,plus you could do extended OCI's and it will protect better in the heat and cold.
a win win situation.
a win win situation.
IF you suspect varnish do an engine flush with Amsoil,EagleOne,or B-12 chemtool and cal it a day. If it is sludge go for Auto-Rx. I do not like varnish in anything I own and when I buy a used vechile if it has varnish I end up getting rid of it. I would no more want a varnished up engine then I would a dirty house! Most varnish is not very harmful to most of the mechanicals in an engine but it can in some cases cause some problems. It will though reack havick with your seals in the long run. Varnish on the pickup screen can reduce oil flow buy up to 30% and that is with just barely enough varnish to be detected by the naked eye. SOme people also like SeaFoam but I really do not know if it is strong enough to get rid of varnish. One of these day's I am going to have to get some varnished up parts fromthe junk yard and test various cleaner/flush's to see how well they work.I would have to get someone to scan them and post them though since my scanner is brocken and I still have not bought a digital camera yet.
I was able to remove most of the varnish on my Honda Accord I can see through the oil filler by using auto-rx. Now with M1 I see no new varnish in 70,000 miles. Seems to work in some cars but not others. I would guess if it didn't work heaver doses of auto-rx may. However I would talk to Frank at auto-rx about that one.
That means your girlfriend is buying cheap oil and not changing it often enough. A lot of people just don't know any better. I know that sounds derogatory, but I don't mean for it to be.
You can fill her engine up with Maxlife blend and watch the varnish melt away after about 1500 miles. I have no way of qualifying that statement though; you'll just have to believe me.
You mean no qualification AT ALL. No personal experience, no neighbor's friend's brother saw it on the web, not even a theoretical hypothetical ???
I guess were SOL.
Not exactly.
A lot of guys want proof on this board for claims such as that which is perfectly understandable, but I'm not able to offer that proof; however, I think the occurrence of varnish removal is significant enough to mention so that if someone were to actually believe me, they could really benefit from the oil. That's what I meant to say in my earlier post.
I forgot to mention that maybe it wasn't the 1500 miles that cleaned off the varnish as much as the internal engine parts being in contact with Maxlife for 4 months. Some of you guys might say. . . " I put 1500 miles on my car in 1 week, how is that going to clean the varnish?"
It may very well be the length of time with Maxlife that does the cleaning and not so much the mileage.
It may very well be the length of time with Maxlife that does the cleaning and not so much the mileage.
We were just bust 'en your chops there Merkava.
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Not exactly.I do have some experience with Maxlife dissolving varnish with my own car that I purchased from the original owners. It had 82K on it when I bought it with some varnish staining on the rocker arms, valve springs, valve spring retainers (basically what I can see through the oil filler hole). In my case, the brown stains gave way to nice clean gun metal gray in 1500 miles. I was thrilled!
A lot of guys want proof on this board for claims such as that which is perfectly understandable, but I'm not able to offer that proof; however, I think the occurrence of varnish removal is significant enough to mention so that if someone were to actually believe me, they could really benefit from the oil. That's what I meant to say in my earlier post.
I have the same personal experience. After 4 OCI on maxlife under the valve cover it turns from light varnish to clear shinning silver.
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