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Oil color not a good indication of condition
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Posted by Ari [Email] (#2847) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Ari) on Mon, 28 Feb 2005 06:22:30 Share Post by Email
In Reply to: How to Check for Sludge???, Paul O., Sun, 27 Feb 2005 19:02:50
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Oil turns dark when it is heated. Depending on a lot of things, like oil base stock, additives, etc., it can turn nasty black and still be nice and clean, and doing its job lubricating. When oil engineers design oil, keeping the oil from changing color isn't high on the list. Depending on the brand of oil they used, it could easily be only a couple thousand miles old. Not likely if it's synthetic, but definately if it's a dino oil, even a good one.

Yes, 7500 or 10K miles is rediculous in my opinion. But that is the way of today's world. Primarily, it's because some places rate cars on maintenance cost, and obviously that's reduced by stretching out oil changes. False economy? Sure, but it works. Also, as more manufacturers go to 'free' scheduled service (primarily to protect resale of large fleets of returned lease cars), they're cutting their costs. Yes, they end up with more warranty repairs, but not on all cars; most don't need repairs within warranty. And if the repairs are required at higher mileage, that's work for them.

Don't get pissed at the dealer for following the manufacturers recommendations. He won't be reimbursed by Saab for doing oil changes more frequently. Yes, it would be a profit center to get customers in twice as often. But many folks find that dropping a car off to get an oil change is a pain, and they do it as infrequently as possible. So why bother with the hard sell when only a few folks will respond, and the rest will just get pissed off?

As to the dealer and CPO, that varies wildly. I've seen CPO'd cars blowing enough smoke from a blown turbo to lay blot out the sun. I really doubt that a sludge search is on the '110 point' inspection. What 110 points? Does checking the pressure in each tire count as 4 inspections?

So - just because the oil is black doesn't mean you have sludge. A record of oil changes is your best defense - no more than 10K, preferably more frequent.
Frequent oil changes are good, but I don't know that they do much in the way of 'flushing' out sludge. Almost by definition, sludge is insoluble gunk in the bottom of the oil pan.
You could demand that the dealer check for sludge. He may decide to charge you for it if it isn't part of the inspection. Or he may do it for good customer relations. But what if he said that he did do it as part of the inspection, and it was fine? Or if he does it, charges you (or doesn't), and says it's fine? Now what?
And when it comes to sludge, if the coat hanger comes up dirty, now what? I'll bet that cleaning out sludge isn't covered under the warranty. How much sludge is 'too much?' I'm not trying to be difficult, but work through the next steps. The dealer's approach may be that there is no problem (and he may be right), and that if the engine does lunch, it's covered by your CPO. And he'd be right.

If you're really worried about sludge (and I'll repeat - oil color means nothing!!!), I would take an afternoon, drain the oil, and do the test yourself. Or find an independent shop and pay for it yourself. SHouldn't cost much more than an oil change plus maybe 1/2 hour of labor. Then ask, what if they see something? How much is too much? There are various methods, but dropping the oil pan (not easy but doable) is the only way I'd be sure of cleaning the pan and oil screen.



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