lexus2k2

I was talking with the Manager at Advance parts and he asked me to try Sea Foam. He said the worst it could do is cause a rear main seal leak. But he says that it would clean up the sludge.

Also I forgot to mention - I had my emission test done last month. It was clean. Does that tell anything ?
And to I don't really see any Blue smoke (again I might not be looking right) when I start the car in the morning.

The Manager suggested to do the Sea Foam; run car for two day (about 100 miles), get Oil change. Then replace the PCV valve.

you guys think it would be good idea ?

jbl-1985

Well my '99 was owned by my parents for the first 10 years and 45k or so miles. They took some long trips in it for sure but the overwhelming majority of the use on that car came from very short trips most less than 5 miles. I use this car in Arizona now and it doesn't burn an ounce of oil. So it is not by any means a foregone conclusion that the car is doomed if you use it primarily for short trips. OCI's for the car over it's entire life have been consistent at around 3-4k intervals, and now the mileage intervals are even less but the time of the OCI's are no more than 6 months. Lastly, I use Standard Pennzoil 5w-30 exclusively for years now. Maybe my experience is an exception not the rule.

carguy07

Personally I'm not a Sea Foam fan. Get that valve cover off and see what's under there before doing anything else. IMO

lexus2k2

yes .. that is the next step. Will try and get the pics in the following days ... have to find a shop that would open the valve cover so I can snap some pics

lexus2k2

I started thinking about what Salim said .. oil has only so many places to go.

Now that I think - the oil thing started to happen after I put in a bottle of NTP cleaner into a full tank of gas.

I noticed that my mileage per gallon went down .. I used to get around 21.5 per gallon .. after the NTP it fell to around around 17 .. then it recovered to 19.5 .. but not able to get my old 21.5 per gal.

I totally regretted using the NTP.

Is there a connection - can that be one of the reason I am losing oil.

salimshah

The only common link between the fuel+air supply and the engine block is the PCV valve. It is inexpensive and if you have the valve cover off, go ahead and change it out.

Short-runs does not mean a kiss of death. All it means is non-ideal conditions and would require special attention ...[I think hyper when he said operator error really meant the machine is being operated outside optimum range].

Salim

hypervish

Yes, that is what I meant. Sorry, I didn't word it better. I was out of state (michigan), and just got back home, I replied to the post on the road and didn't put much thought into it.

code58

Do you like your car or hate it? If you like it, leave the Sea Foam on the shelf where it belongs. Or somewhere else, but NOT in your engine. They keep that on the shelf right next to the snake oil, for gullible people. MOST additives (there are a few that actually do what they are supposed to) do little but empty your wallet. Worse yet, they actually do harm sometimes. I would ask the opinion of most parts store counter workers what their opinion is, only so I could make sure to do the opposite. Some people kid themselves into thinking the car manufacturer is keeping these great additives from them so the car will wear out sooner. Got a bridge for sale if you believe that one. Your car, your money, part with it if you wish.

hypervish

I agree, stay away from most additives.

OP: If there is one additive that does actually work, it's Auto-RX. You can look into that if you wish to.

hypervish

It's possible for it to happen to any car with that sort of driving. But, the 1MZ-FE motor is already prone to it, and for that reason it's likely that it would sludge rather than the VW. The long rides are good for the car, so definitely do them. I tell my family in Chicago, to every weekend take their car out on the highway and burn off any fuel dilution, etc. Especially, in the winter time. Their trips are usually under 5 miles.

I'm sorry if I came off a bit as an a*hole. I didn't mean too, I was in the middle of a road trip and didn't have a chance to take my time and write the post, I wrote it while re-fueling. My apologies.

lexus2k2

hypervish - no hard feelings. I know you are only trying to help.

I understand that it is the 1MZ-FE when thrown into the mix can make it sludge prone.

One a side note - we did use the Lexus a lot on the weekends. So It was not always short trips. After all it is my main family car. We take it out and drive a lot in the weekends - after all in Chicago - a 45min drive is considered as "not far" .

I am still rooting for my engine not to have sludge.

my challenge is now to find me a mech that would open the valve covers for me to snap some pics.

mckellyb

If you're up to it, the oil pan is rather easy to remove, once the oil is drained, and you should be able to see if there are any sludge nuggets in there. Look at the oil pickup's screen.

"Sludge" is a bit of a misnomer. It's more like hard baked oil. Oil which has, for lack of a better term, become crispy. It's all pretty small, but it can clog oil passages/pickups in a hurry.

Don't ask how I know. 1983 Lincoln Continental. Car was fine, as long as you stayed in-town.

JohnLX300

iTrader: (2)

This happened to my car at one point.....I was convinced that the car was burning to oil off. I had the same symptoms with the decrease in gas mileage, and disappearing oil!! I tried seafoam, multiple applications. I have use the whole can of seafoam at one point and drove the car for weeks. I replaced the valve cover gasket afterwords. Sludge was having a party in my engine. Even after seafoam! So in conclusion snake foam wasn't good for sludge clean up at all!!! I ended up removing most of it with rags when the valve cover was off. After reading so much about Auto-RX I caved in a bought it. It helped a little, the oil was getting burned up so fast I think it would have worked better if it wasn't as bad as it was. Auto-RX definitely helped. An old mechanic told me to use transmission fluid as a sludge cleaner too, but I never go around to trying that!

carguy07

Good watch:

code58

One word of caution! DON'T use something like trans fluid. It is HIGHLY detergent and indeed will loosen the sludge and crud. Problem is, too much so. What will happen is all that sludge and crud will end up on the pick-up screen and you'll be buying an engine anyway. I found out the hard way once. It was a VW Rabbit Conv. and I KNEW the young lady that owned it (away at college) did not even think about maintenance and likely hardly ever changed the oil. I used a good engine flush (not many that are actually worth the money (actually do the job)) and after a drive down the freeway for a ways, the CEL came on. Stopped for about 5 min., started and proceeded on my way. In a couple of miles it came back on. Did this for about 2 or 3 more times to get back to the shop. Fortunately no damage because I stopped each time it came on. Pulled the pan and the screen was plugged solid from the softened sludge. This was not the rock hard baked stuff the RX often gets, but what we usually think of sludge as. Cleaned the pan and the bottom end and no more problem. This for a friend who had the irresponsible daughter owner or I would have gone further into it. Auto RX doesn't do that when it cleans out the sludge because it actually DISSOLVES the sludge over a longer period of time so that it not only REMOVES the sludge, but won't allow it to clog the screen because it is turned back into a liquid. Much different than most all other "engine flushes". This and a lot of other maintenance work was "gratis" because he was a friend. Didn't appreciate being her whipping boy because of her irresponsibility.