Like it says, has anyone heard this, someone told me that the GS and the IS have a major sludge problem. I dont believe it but want to know if anyone has encountered this problem. All answers are welcome.

 

There is a TSB for top engine cleaning, As i was told all DI engines have them

 

Sludge.... I had a VW Passat, 1.8 Garbage Turbo motor. I bought it to sell and make a buck.

A book of records came with the car so I thought it was well maintained. Sludge in oil valleys, Turbo seized and broke in half, impeller tried to make it to the intake, got stuck in the tubing half way. Smoke everywhere and all. Car hardly ran.
Needless to say I lost money on that car.
Never buy used German cars.

 

Interesting thread as I remember this issue on the RX 300s (and whatever shared that engine). Lexus/Toyota were quietly covering replacements but the root cause was perported to be lack of reqular oil changes.

Seriously, modern oil additive packages are designed prevent sludge build up, but it comes down to how hot the oil is getting and how long it's in there. Suspended particulate matter should come out with each OC. Wonder if the DI motors should get more frequent oil changes? and/or I'd consider partial to full synthetic as a preventative measure...

I had a friend who's a Chemist and worked designing/testing oil additives. Years ago I bought a Chevy Lumina (don't laugh) that was a lease car and maybe had it's oil changed once in 35k miles. My bad as I didn't check it out well when I bought it. You could see thick sludge all in the valve cover area through the oil fill. I freaked and was thinking of doing some sort of engine flush. My friend said I'd cause a catastrophic failure doing that and told me to just replace a couple of qts of regular oil with synthetic (full) at each OC and start changing the oil every 3k miles. It took about 60k miles but the metal was mostly showing in the valve cover area by then and when I sold the car with 140k on the odo it was completely clean. Sorry for the long story but I thought it was germane to the topic...

 

My 2006 looks as bright and shiny through the oil fill as it did the day it was made. Doesn't mean there isn't more going on inside I don't know about.

Sludge and the top engine clean TSB are not related, the top engine clean is not a sludge thing it's a carbon buildup thing. Sludge is when oil basically thickens into a tar in the engine and from there continues to build up.

I just use basic oil and change it every 6 months and the car doesn't get a lot of miles between changes.

 

the es300 and the 4runner v6 are well known for having a severe sludge problem they need very frequent oil changes and pcv valves. also there is some corollas also that have this issue.

 

Ive always used full synthetic oil in my cars never had a sludge build up problem

 

i dont have any sludge on my 430. just change it often and it will be clean. and dont mix oils together.

 

I mean I use synthetic oil, its just I heard this from a Lexus tech and it sparked my curiosity.

 

You are saying you don't mix oils together? Or that oils shouldn't be mixed together, as in synthetic and normal dino oil, both poured in at the same time....? Or don't mix different weights maybe?

 

I've never had an engine problem because of oil, but I'm concerned about electronics.

 

The 3GS/2IS have no reported sludge issues, and as Jay stated, the carbon built-up problem in the IS250 has nothing to due with oil and is a common problem with a lot of DI motors.

 

Do you know what the "top engine cleaning" (mentioned in GS350Lexus's post) procedure is for that fix? Is it a physical tear down or just a fuel additive? If one had a DI engine and wanted to be proactive, you could dose every few tanks with some Techron if it's combustion chamber carbon -- the stuff works amazingly well...

 

The 1MZ was the motor with the sludge problem.