What Happens When You Don't Change the Oil

[Community Alumni]

Dear Lord. According to the article this was the engine of an Audi TT that had not had its oil changed for 84,000 miles. There's not much detail beyond that, but the article has a higher resolution image.

Article

[hzjcm8]

mbopp wrote:
When I bought my '04 Envoy the dealer had a "get aquainted" night with the service dept. I was talking with a tech about the 4-valve VVT engine, and he took me in the back where they had one torn apart.
Turns out the customer thought that when the "change oil" light came on all he had to do was pump the gas pedal 3 times to reset the oil life. Yup, 60k+ miles and never changed the oil. It was ugly.

mbopp,
A couple of years ago, I gave a seminar on oil and coolant analysis at the Indiana, Illinois and Tennessee Good Sam state rallies. Here's a link to the slides I used in the class.

RV Seminar Slides (Good Sam Club Rallies)

[mbopp]

When I bought my '04 Envoy the dealer had a "get aquainted" night with the service dept. I was talking with a tech about the 4-valve VVT engine, and he took me in the back where they had one torn apart.
Turns out the customer thought that when the "change oil" light came on all he had to do was pump the gas pedal 3 times to reset the oil life. Yup, 60k+ miles and never changed the oil. It was ugly.

[dodge_guy]

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:
Dodge Guy I have a lot of respect for you and do not think you would BS anyone. However as I'm 100% sure you know there is a big difference between dyno oil and 100% full syn oil. A $30.00 oil change is getting you a junk filter and the cheapest oil out there. All OM extended oil change schedules require you to use at least a syn blended oil if not a full syn oil. I know FCA does and my wife's 200 Limited ($79.00 oil change) requires a full syn oil as does my Eco-diesel. The 200 is on a 7500 mile oil change schedule and the Ram is a 10,000 mile oil change schedule.

As i said and posted the Amsoil premium diesel oil is an extended use oil when used with their filter and their requirements.

Don

Hey Don, no problem. I was talking a bit older gas vehicles that still use Dino oil. Yes I guess newer with semi or full synthetic will be a bit more$, but the end message is still the same.

[Perrysburg_Dodg]

Dodge Guy I have a lot of respect for you and do not think you would BS anyone. However as I'm 100% sure you know there is a big difference between dyno oil and 100% full syn oil. A $30.00 oil change is getting you a junk filter and the cheapest oil out there. All OM extended oil change schedules require you to use at least a syn blended oil if not a full syn oil. I know FCA does and my wife's 200 Limited ($79.00 oil change) requires a full syn oil as does my Eco-diesel. The 200 is on a 7500 mile oil change schedule and the Ram is a 10,000 mile oil change schedule.

As i said and posted the Amsoil premium diesel oil is an extended use oil when used with their filter and their requirements.

Don

[BenK]

I'll always use the "me" computer to decide when to change

Computer controlled is only as good as the software, hardware and maintenance/materials/etc

How does it know what kind of oil (which multi weight, which pure synthetic,
Blend, etc), what filter, how I drive, what I haul/tow, where I drive, etc

Averages based on the OEM's model of the "average" driver, etc

Does it understand a change in oil PSI?....fluctuation inPSI?, etc

Nope, but I do

Unimaginable to me how anyone can "forget" to change their oil, but read
About that all the time...or are they just lazy....or are they ignorant of
How important it is ???

Worse if they ignore the need

But....know most all are fans of computer controlled automotive controls...
Noodle the latest plane crash in Europe...one possibility is that the computer
"Thought" it was in a stall and it drops its nose to regain control...there
Is TSB on how2 get out of that situation...not a for sure, but a theory being
Tossed around

Oh well...I'd be VERY embarrassed if any of those sludges ICEs were mine...

[tcp]

toyota's oil life monitor is based on the use of synthetic oil (TGMO - toyota genuine motor oil). using semi-synthetic or cheap dino oil could make an engine look like that if you follow the 10k mile recommendation.

[dodge_guy]

Yes it is a maintain. light on the dash! But it still tells you when to change the oil! And yes we change the oil at the shop so those are pictures right from my phone. We put a sticker in that tells them 3 months or 3k miles. The customer comes in when the light comes on. This email s not the first one. We had a Yukon Denali that was sludged up because the owner follows the oillife monitor. Although it wasn't as bad as the one in the pic. Then we have the regular customers that follow our adviceand never have an issue, other than minor oil leaks. When you pulls valve cover on one of those the inside is as clean as it was when new.....well almost as clean!

Play with fire all you want! A $30 oil change is cheaper than a motor or a car!

[Dave_H_M]

OLM on a highlander. Hmmmm we are on our fourth toyo and none of them had an olm, not ever the current 2015. Mileage trips the trigger on the message on the dash. Our current one comes on at 5000 intervals, with the oil needing changing at the 10000 mark.

[Bionic_Man]

dodge guy wrote:
How about something better than an oil analysis?!







2005 Toyota Highlander. oil changed religiously by the OLM. customer just couldn't understand how that could happen. No oil analysis needed!

Change your oil people! an oil change is cheaper than a new engine or a car!

I have a hard time believing this one as well. All of these photos look like pretty extreme abuse. How would you NOT notice how nasty/sludgy the oil was when changing it? And if you weren't doing it yourself, even the most incompetent shop would say something to you about it.

[fj12ryder]

dodge guy wrote:
How about something better than an oil analysis?!

2005 Toyota Highlander. oil changed religiously by the OLM. customer just couldn't understand how that could happen. No oil analysis needed!

Change your oil people! an oil change is cheaper than a new engine or a car!

Did you actually see this engine in person, and talk to the owner?

Sorry, I'm not buying that the oil was changed religiously. As with the first photos, there's more to these than meets the eye.

[jus2shy]

We had Cummins "L" series motors that had their oil change every 11k to 14k miles in a heavy stop and go duty cycle. Far worse than anything anybody on this board would subject their vehicle to. We determined this was the limit through an oil analysis program for those engines, popping the valve cover off, it was nice and clean all over the valve train. Never had an issue with gunk/varnish building up on those engines. Once our motors are outside of warranty, we do a rigorous oil analysis program to determine how far we can take the oil change interval out and still have plenty of buffer before the oil is too well used. I'm perfectly fine with my 15k oil change intervals, but warranty keeps me at 6 months (which is anywhere between 5k and 9k miles for me).

Any Particle Quantifier analysis would tell you how big the "Chunks" of material are in your oil, so for those sludged up engines, you'd see it in the analysis. You'd also see plenty of soot. Your base/acid number would also be fairly low and your additive package would be well diminished when compared to new.

[dspencer]

dodge guy wrote:
How about something better than an oil analysis?!







2005 Toyota Highlander. oil changed religiously by the OLM. customer just couldn't understand how that could happen. No oil analysis needed!

Change your oil people! an oil change is cheaper than a new engine or a car!

I can guarantee you he didn't change that oil at 6000 mile intervals or the motor wouldn't look like that!!!

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

oil changed religiously by the OLM

Sure he did. :R

[dodge_guy]

How about something better than an oil analysis?!







2005 Toyota Highlander. oil changed religiously by the OLM. customer just couldn't understand how that could happen. No oil analysis needed!

Change your oil people! an oil change is cheaper than a new engine or a car!