Passat Engine Restored, $9,000 Saved

This is topic HELP!! Passat 1.8T Sludgebucket in forum Additives, Fuel, Oil, Cleaners at BOBISTHEOILGUY. We cannot affirm that the post will be available after any period of time. It had been posted at this URL: http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=003008

All posts below are by aero nut, the Passat owner. Chronology edited for space purposes. Complete discussion can be found on above link if the post is still active.

February 7, 2005
A.  Got a Passat 1.8T 2001 w/77,000 mi. Oil light came on. Got it to our mechanic. Confirmed oil pressure is low & to get it to VW for the extended warranty work. Engine is sludged. Common with this engine. VW denied claim based on we don't have all oil change records. $9,000 for new engine. Runs good without noises now, but trouble is just around the corner with extremely low pressure.

You have to take the car's frame apart to get to the oil pan (10 hr job).

What about Auto-RX? Can I restore enough oil flow before major damage? The car's worth 5,000 in good shape. Mechanic says go for it. I don't have anything to lose. But he says I need to use a heavy oil. I would have thought a lighter oil would be better for better flow. Any ideas? I'm between a rock and a hard place. Think the ARX will work in time? Any other suggestions? I do think there is minimal damage at this point if any. I used synthetic oil on changes except for the last one. I may tow this 2001 Passat to the junk yard if this doesn't work.

B.   My mech. just changed the oil to synthetic and put a good filter on it. The pressure didn't come up with synthetic. I doubt I'll be buying a VW again. Just want to get enough pressure back so the warning doesn't come on so I can trade it in.

C.   I don't think a heavier oil is going to solve this problem. Usually the oil pickup screen is blocked or the galleyways are blocked with sludge. Sometimes the pump has to be replaced from sludgeing. The problem is to get the oil pan off you have to disassemble the frame. Go figure. Really need to solublize the sludge and thought ARX might be able to do it before the onset of major damage. If I get the thing de-junked then I'll worry about using better oil.

February 8, 2005
A.   Well VW is saying there is a sludge problem & my mechanic says there is one. He just put a pressure gauge on it to verify the low pressure. I've read too many posts from other people with this engine to think otherwise. Yes it could just be the pump. The first 4 oil changes were done under VW's deal in 2001 to do the scheduled maintenance free. They used dino 20w-50. After that I used synthetic except for this last change. Even with synthetic, the oil looked really dark in just a few miles. Maybe this should have told me something. But I'm not a mechanic (though I do play one on TV) and I did maintain it per VW specs.

B.   Right now the oil circulatory system is highly compromised and I'm not sure any agent is going to get in there to do any cleaning before the "Big Bang". I may be just SOL regardless. But there may be some 1.8 driver out there who used ARX and fixed the problem or whatever.

February 9, 2005
I need to get the pressure up first. I'm hoping the low pressure is due to blockage not bearings. It does run well with little noise. The mechanic said he could hear a little groaning in the top end. He said probably lifters. So I hope a little cleaning out will increase flow enough to prevent major damage until Auto Rx cleaning occurs. It's going to be a close call and I really think I'm dead in the water to begin with, but at this point I have little to lose. The real kicker that I was not expecting is the problem of getting the oil pan off--complicates things a bit. I will drive the car home tonight on synthetic oil. About 20 miles.

February 12, 2005
Drove the car home 20 mi without the Oil Pressure light coming on. A good sign. Maybe the synthetic is helping. However on start up the next day it was apparent the turbo was spinning dry. Must be coked up terribly. Any way of breaking this up before the bearing burns up without disassembling the thing???

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February 22, 2005
Since the oil light hasn't come on lately, I'm thinking maybe going right to the ARX cleaning driving VERY gently. Yeah I'm afraid of blocking the oil screen with some of the other methods.

Most of my oil changes on synthetic were between 5-10 k miles. It didn't call for synthetic so I thought it was no big deal, thinking if dino can go for 5k, what would be the big deal going 5-10k on synthetic. It might have been OK and what did the damage is the dino with changes at 5K. Hard to say, but I think dino is toxic to this engine. Too bad VW didn't know it or let us know. Getting rid of the car regardless. Not a maintainable car in old age. It has more issues right now than I can mention. Lights that light up, dingers that ding & VW can't figure out why. They think it has a vacuum leak somewhere. The brakes fail on startup intermittently. Traction control doesn't work etc. etc. Some people live & breath VW. I like the cars. I just don't think they are maintainable at close to a reasonable cost. Imagine a $9,000 engine swap. How much is the tranny? You can't put those kind of figures into a used car and justify it on a balance sheet. If the car had been maintained by the new 2005 standard, maybe the engine would have lasted till out of warranty.

February 22, 2005
I'm starting the Auto-Rx treatment for heavily sludged engines. If it works, I will be singing the praise of ARX. If it doesn't work, well maybe the engine was just too far gone. Only time will tell now. I'll be changing the oil filter quite frequently, anticipating lots of crud coming loose.

February 25, 2005
I now have 200 miles on the ARX treatment and it SEEMS to be going well. The oil light is not coming on and there SEEMS to be less turbo lag. Maybe the de-sludge process is taking place.

March 7, 2005
Bad news today. My wife was driving the car very gently and the oil light came on again. I thought we had gotten past this. It was 70 degrees today which maybe cause the oil to thin out?? It now has 400 mi on the ARX treatment. Maybe I need to change the oil filter again. Last did it 200 mi ago. She let the engine cool down for 1.5 hours and then drove home. The light didn't come on again. I'm using 10w-40 Castor oil. Don't know what's going on, but it was not a good sign.

March 8, 2005
Took it for a good long drive today. All kinds of driving, high speed highway, in town etc. Oil light never came on. My wife said the oil light came on yesterday when she came up to a stop sign at an idle. Maybe it was just a fluke. Or maybe the temp made the difference. It was 70 degrees when it came on and today it was 38 degrees. I am going to change the filter again as soon as the weather is a little better.

March 10, 2005
Did a 40 mi. (each way) interstate highway trip. The 1st leg was climbing a mountain on interstate. After about 30 min the oil light came on (36 deg outside temp.). Over the next hour I made it to the exit, stopped for about an hour and added about 1/2 qt of 20w-50 (10w-40 was put in last oci). Made it home (downhill) with no other problems. Today I changed the oil filter and opened it up. This filter had 500 miles on it. The first filter was changed at 200 mi. There was nothing in the filter. Just dirty oil. No sludge no carbon. So the test continues.

April 8, 2005
Finished the cleaning phase. Used 10w-40 castor oil. The oil light came on occasionally while driving, sometimes at high speed, sometimes at an idle. No real pattern to it. I changed oil filters several times & cut them open. Did not see anything!! I'm 1,100 miles into the flush phase now. I've left the same filter on. I'm now using 15w-40 Rotella for this phase.

Now the oil light never comes on. I climbed a 3500 ft. mountain on interstate at 80 deg. ambient temp. I figure if the oil light is going to come on it will be with this drive. I don't know if the engine is getting better or the higher weight Rotella is just holding up better.

Also the gas mileage is up noticeably. Even my wife commented on it. I'll let you know how it ends up after I finish this flush phase. I'll then have an oil pressure test done so we can quantify this thing. The pressure will be the the real test.

April 16, 2005
I didn't check the pressure sensor, but verified that the pressure was VERY low by a high quality separate pressure gauge. Can't see the rocker area because there is a shield below the oil cap so you can't really see in (remember it's a VW, everything is difficult).

Have 1600 mi on the rinse so I change the original filter from the beginning of the rinse. Cut it open and.........Nothing again. No slime, sludge, carbon grit, just dirty oil. Is it possible that the crud has been solublized and is just floating around in solution?? I won't be doing a second treatment. The wife wants a Honda Odyssey (much to my chagrin). Trade in will be soon, but I'm doing another pressure test before then. Will be interesting to see the results.....stay tuned folks.

April 20, 2005
*** Auto-Rx Success **

Oil pressure test today. Here are the numbers:

Engine at full temp with synthetic before ARX treatment
Idle: 0 psi
70 mph: 15 psi

After ARX treatment with Mobil 1 at full temp.
Idle: 15 psi
65-70 mph: 40 psi

It looks good to me. My mechanic said the pressure is now within specs for this car. He also said he wouldn't have given me 2 cents for the engine when he first looked at it. He was also surprised the engine lasted through the 3500 mi clean & rinse phases with the pressure it had. I may now keep the car and run another treatment & another pressure test after that. But the way it looks now, I'm OK and the engine should do fine from here on.

Thanks to everyone here for all of the advice. Seems it has saved me possibly $9,000.

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