2000 Passat (2.0 V6) Has Sludge

Symptoms:
1. Smelly exhaust.
2. CEL on.
3. "STOP ENGINE NOW" warning every once in a while.
4. Rough idle.

I looked in the hole where the oil filler cap goes. There's a dark
brown gel all over everything. I think this is sludge.

I've had this car since new. I have the car serviced regularly
according to the maintenance schedule.

What do I do now? Has anyone been in this situation?

Thank you,
AABob

On 13/02/11 09:35 PM, AABob wrote:
> Symptoms:
> 1. Smelly exhaust.
> 2. CEL on.
> 3. "STOP ENGINE NOW" warning every once in a while.
> 4. Rough idle.
>
> I looked in the hole where the oil filler cap goes. There's a dark
> brown gel all over everything. I think this is sludge.
>
> I've had this car since new. I have the car serviced regularly
> according to the maintenance schedule.
>
> What do I do now? Has anyone been in this situation?
>
> Thank you,
> AABob
Have a look at the plugs, which may be the solution to the rough
running, not the sludging. I recently took a car for statutory
inspection. It ran perfectly on the way there. Whilst in the inspection
it developed a misfire, and the engine attention light came on. It was
nothing more than dirty plugs!

In my opinion VW are guilty of extending the service intervals (oil
changes) beyond the capability of even modern oils. Personally I use
"fleet" oils from bulk. They have the requisite specifications and if
they're good enough for commercial vehicles, with the rough treatment
they receive, they're good enough for my vehicle. The advertising hype,
and prices for "premium" oils is a load of ballyhoo, far better to
change your oil more often as a way of avoiding sludge.

Forget flushing oils also. They will come out dirty, but the main body
of sludge needs a full strip to remove, it's far too persistent to rinse
out. I'd change the oil, drive it for a couple of thousand miles, give
it another change and forget the extended mileage nonsense.

You have only to see the numbers of persons experiencing the modern
phenomenon of sludging becoming a problem area, then compare it with the
extended mileage regimes in order to identify the root cause.

Hope this helps put things in perspective a little, as well as helping.

"AABob" > wrote in message
...
> Symptoms:
> 1. Smelly exhaust.
> 2. CEL on.
> 3. "STOP ENGINE NOW" warning every once in a while.
> 4. Rough idle.
>
> I looked in the hole where the oil filler cap goes. There's a dark
> brown gel all over everything. I think this is sludge.
>
> I've had this car since new. I have the car serviced regularly
> according to the maintenance schedule.
>
> What do I do now? Has anyone been in this situation?
>
> Thank you,
> AABob

Exhaust odor may mean your ruining your catalytic converter

Driving with CEL on for extended period is know to ruin catalytic converter

STOP ENGINE NOW (or blinking CEL/MIL on many vehicles) basically means
"warning, catalytic converter damage imminent".

Rough idle... so your saying your engine is definitely not running
correctly, while driving or idling, and it's to the point of smelling it in
the exhaust.
This, I expect has led you to.
1. Look down the oil fill cap... sorry, that's not going to help you much.
2. Ask here about oil sludge... also not a subject that's going to help you
much.

Sounds like you need to get your car fixed for the 4 symptoms you've listed.
Looking down the oil cap means nothing. If your dip stick shows oil level
correct and it doesn't look like a milk shake from water/coolant in it, your
fine. Don't know what you have for mileage on it, but about any 11 year old
car will have some brown tarnish looking coating on the top end. It's not
sludge. Sludge is what you dig out of the lower pockets... places where it
settles out of the oil. You may just need a tune-up, or some component has
failed, (or a combination of problems) which can be found by diagnosing the
problem. Codes that can be read from the ecm are very useful for this, but
do not tell you what the fix is unless you want to blindly throw parts at it
and hope you hit the problem. But if your trying to fix this yourself
(often the case for people asking questions here), start with posting the
codes here and be very specific about symptoms. Unfortunately, a typical
DIY code reader isn't enough because you often need to look at some of the
engine data.

Also, the V6 engines aren't as sludge prone as the 1.8Ts. Sludge is actually
not a goop but more of a cristalline substance. And roughg running isn't
from sludge unless it's happened for so long something else broke.

"In2hoppn" > wrote in message
news:7_KdnRrPgvsq0__QnZ2dnUVZ_omdnZ2d@metrocastcab levision.com...
>
>
> "AABob" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Symptoms:
>> 1. Smelly exhaust.
>> 2. CEL on.
>> 3. "STOP ENGINE NOW" warning every once in a while.
>> 4. Rough idle.
>>
>> I looked in the hole where the oil filler cap goes. There's a dark
>> brown gel all over everything. I think this is sludge.
>>
>> I've had this car since new. I have the car serviced regularly
>> according to the maintenance schedule.
>>
>> What do I do now? Has anyone been in this situation?
>>
>> Thank you,
>> AABob
>
> Exhaust odor may mean your ruining your catalytic converter
>
> Driving with CEL on for extended period is know to ruin catalytic
> converter
>
> STOP ENGINE NOW (or blinking CEL/MIL on many vehicles) basically means
> "warning, catalytic converter damage imminent".
>
> Rough idle... so your saying your engine is definitely not running
> correctly, while driving or idling, and it's to the point of smelling it
> in the exhaust.
> This, I expect has led you to.
> 1. Look down the oil fill cap... sorry, that's not going to help you
> much.
> 2. Ask here about oil sludge... also not a subject that's going to help
> you much.
>
> Sounds like you need to get your car fixed for the 4 symptoms you've
> listed.
> Looking down the oil cap means nothing. If your dip stick shows oil level
> correct and it doesn't look like a milk shake from water/coolant in it,
> your fine. Don't know what you have for mileage on it, but about any 11
> year old car will have some brown tarnish looking coating on the top end.
> It's not sludge. Sludge is what you dig out of the lower pockets...
> places where it settles out of the oil. You may just need a tune-up, or
> some component has failed, (or a combination of problems) which can be
> found by diagnosing the problem. Codes that can be read from the ecm are
> very useful for this, but do not tell you what the fix is unless you want
> to blindly throw parts at it and hope you hit the problem. But if your
> trying to fix this yourself (often the case for people asking questions
> here), start with posting the codes here and be very specific about
> symptoms. Unfortunately, a typical DIY code reader isn't enough because
> you often need to look at some of the engine data.

Thanks for the tips.
As a follow up, here's the latest:
The car is at the dealer now. He says I probably need a new engine.
He wants $500 to remove the oil pan and other covers to fully diagnose
the cause. He says the sludge is either due to me not changing the
oil or from a faulty part inside the V6 engine. On average I change
my oil every 7500 miles.

What do you think of this?

"AABob" > wrote in message
...
> Thanks for the tips.
> As a follow up, here's the latest:
> The car is at the dealer now. He says I probably need a new engine.
> He wants $500 to remove the oil pan and other covers to fully diagnose
> the cause. He says the sludge is either due to me not changing the
> oil or from a faulty part inside the V6 engine. On average I change
> my oil every 7500 miles.
>
> What do you think of this?


I think it sounds insane...
unless there's far more information you're not sharing...

Is the "sludge" your describing supposed to be causing
quote:
> Symptoms:
> 1. Smelly exhaust.
> 2. CEL on.
> 3. "STOP ENGINE NOW" warning every once in a while.
> 4. Rough idle.

Maybe someone else can chime in here... what would be the "faulty part
inside the V6 engine" to cause sludge???
I have no VR6 experience. But given that it's a VW, I'd guess all your
external rubber stuff is junk if not replaced yet. Prime for vacuum leaks
galore. I can imagine many things to cause the symptoms you've described.
I can't think of any symptoms of oil sludge, except a seized or knocking
engine due to lack of lubrication. Sludge doesn't cause a problem unless is
blocks a passage.
But if you really do have a sludge problem... maybe you want to find out how
much more you'll be spending on top of the $500 and consider junking it
sooner than later.
And no doubt, if you've been going that far between oil changes and it's
been not running right... misfire really causes fuel and crap (those nasty
emissions) to build up in your oil. Sounds like a good way to make sludge.
Unless your are getting coolant into you oil, but your description didn't
sound like that. Pictures of the "sludge" would be nice! Good luck with
it!

Is your car a turbo? The extended service intervals for turbo's were a
mistake; the oil gets hotter on turbo's and the combination of that and
5000+ miles on the oil caused a lot of them to gell and crater. Like
others have said, the gell itself isn't a real problem. Whatever caused
the gell/sludge may have caused other problems.

You can treat the sludge problem with a high detergent additive, like
Marvel Mystery Oil or others on the market. I've heard of using tranny
fluid to clean an engine out. These are to be added to the oil and run
for a SHORT TIME ONLY. Goot Luck with you Dubber. HDK