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Thread: VANOS Condition After 60k on an oil chenge w/ Auto RX Cleanup

  1. #1
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    VANOS Condition After 60k on an oil chenge w/ Auto RX Cleanup

    OK.....so it looks like the other thread got shut down.....

    This will be the thread we update with pics and status when we do our inspection soon.....

    Initial thread opening comment...."Okay...those of you following this saga...know the story....but the guy I am helping out (tps7c) waited 40k in between oil changes...so we decided to do his VANOS to see what the damage is.....The below is what we have, and I am speechless....I need help....I need my mommy.

    Seriously though...I think we are going to remove as much as we can....do the VANOS job and let some Auto RX remove the sludge...hopefully.

    My question is...at this point should we worry about trying to remove all of the visible sludge?

    Oh yeah...actually 60k...I had to beat the truth outta him...lol

    Looking for ideas and not smart ass comments...Toms a good guy...and is learning a valuable lesson....lol"

    Before...



    What has been done up to this point is the VANOS rebuild and inspection and cleaning of the interior of his engine.....with what we could grab without dislodging and dropping too much.....

    We buttoned it up and ran AutoRX in it with a conventional motor oil for 3,000 miles, then did a drain/refill and flush with conventional motor oil. We are in this phase now.....with 600 miles miles to go, before popping the VCG to see how the AutoRX cleaning and flush did. Up to this point....the car has been running great, only producing one code....P0442. We have a handle on this.

    I figured I should throw a pic in here (for comparison) as to what it looked like after we removed as many of the large chunks of sludge that we could without exacerbating the problem. this is what it looked like the last time we saw it.....

    BEFORE AUTO RX.



    AFTER AUTO RX, ONE RINSE CYCLE OF ESTER FREE OIL AND ABOUT 1000 MILES ON MOBIL I 0W-40.
    5/12/10






    Plan is we are going to run a few more cycles of Auto Rx, with rinse stages in between....then pop the cover again. The saga continues.....lol.
    Last edited by danewilson77; 05-12-2010 at 07:07 PM.

    by Dane Wilson, on Flickr

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    this thread may be locked FYI

    that is gross... mine was super clean
    RIP homie TehPandaShow: Loiue

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    I'm ok with an update thread, but not a replacement to the thread that got locked. That thread was locked for tps7c's own good. It was about to be inundated with new members from other forums who became members just to tell him he was a moron, which is a conversation that for the most part was finished up in the first 100 posts.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SilverBeam View Post
    I'm ok with an update thread, but not a replacement to the thread that got locked. That thread was locked for tps7c's own good. It was about to be inundated with new members from other forums who became members just to tell him he was a moron, which is a conversation that for the most part was finished up in the first 100 posts.
    I'm glad you aren't locking this thread. Can't wait to see the update.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SilverBeam View Post
    I'm ok with an update thread, but not a replacement to the thread that got locked. That thread was locked for tps7c's own good. It was about to be inundated with new members from other forums who became members just to tell him he was a moron, which is a conversation that for the most part was finished up in the first 100 posts.
    OK........thanks

    by Dane Wilson, on Flickr

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    Very interested in the end results of this. Thanks for the effort blokes. Common sense tells me that you are both approaching this situation correctly. You're extremely lucky that a replacement engine is so cheap in the States, if needed that is.

    Shame all the imbeciles ruined the other thread. Grand effort from all those single post heroes.

    Dane, any chance of loading some of the other pics (filter's etc) with a short description in the first post.

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    Unfortunately, I did not take any filter pics. We will this next time.

    I can describe though....

    After first XXXX miles, after the autoRX, the filter was complete mush. Very dark and soft. None had broken apart though. Next two filters were subsequently better...which I think is good.

    We will take a pic soon, when we do the VCG open and inspect.....

    by Dane Wilson, on Flickr

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    Quote Originally Posted by danewilson77 View Post
    After first XXXX miles, after the autoRX, the filter was complete mush.
    How many is XXXX?

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    .....................
    Last edited by danewilson77; 01-04-2010 at 09:46 PM.

    by Dane Wilson, on Flickr

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    lol...well based on Dane's advice, I deleted my last post. I think I've just completely had it with all the clowns who felt the need to reinforce what a stupid thing I did. So let me say it again, I 100% realize how dumb it was. Ok? Now, for anyone that still feels the need to say something negative, I invite you to PM me and we can go from there. I think most of the people following this thread just want to see the outcome, and whether we can save this thing. And for the truly good people on this forum, including Dane, who have offered solid advice, I offer you my sincerest gratitude.

    One last thing. It's amazing to me that anyone would join a forum for the sole purpose of talking sh*t to me about this. Seriously? Are their lives that boring and shallow? Wow, maybe so.

    And now, back to out regularly scheduled program...

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by johnoh View Post
    How many is XXXX?
    Tom....fill in the blank here....I don't remember, was it 1500 or 2000, 3000? Heck, we've changed your oil so much I can't remember.

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    Quote Originally Posted by danewilson77 View Post
    Tom....fill in the blank here....I don't remember, was it 1500 or 2000, 3000? Heck, we've changed your oil so much I can't remember.
    That filter had about 3k on it, per the AutoRx instructions. Yep, only about 600 miles to go until we pop the vcg...

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by tps7c View Post
    That filter had about 3k on it, per the AutoRx instructions. Yep, only about 600 miles to go until we pop the vcg...
    Thanks......is the evap code still clear?

    by Dane Wilson, on Flickr

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    Quote Originally Posted by danewilson77 View Post
    Thanks......is the evap code still clear?
    So far so good, check engine light is still out...

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    Bated breath, dane. Bated breath. You've shown amazing kindness for helping out with this.

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    Quote Originally Posted by tps7c View Post
    lol...well based on Dane's advice, I deleted my last post. I think I've just completely had it with all the clowns who felt the need to reinforce what a stupid thing I did. So let me say it again, I 100% realize how dumb it was. Ok? Now, for anyone that still feels the need to say something negative, I invite you to PM me and we can go from there. I think most of the people following this thread just want to see the outcome, and whether we can save this thing. And for the truly good people on this forum, including Dane, who have offered solid advice, I offer you my sincerest gratitude.

    One last thing. It's amazing to me that anyone would join a forum for the sole purpose of talking sh*t to me about this. Seriously? Are their lives that boring and shallow? Wow, maybe so.

    And now, back to out regularly scheduled program...
    People don't read. They see the first post and then hit reply and think they are the first/most interesting person to open their mouth in the thread. Don't take it too personally. While you may not have a problem with it, I didn't want you to just be food for trolls.

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    There was a guy on the Audi's forum that had a problem with sludge. Now, I'm not sure if any of you have ever heard of this, but I sure haven't.

    He drained all of the oil in the engine, buttoned it back up and filled up the ENTIRE engine with diesel fuel.

    He filled it up untill it just started coming out of the filler tube. Took about 5 gallons. He let it sit over night, drained it, put in some cheap oil and filter and drove it for a few miles. The he drained the oil again, and filled her up with cheapy stuff again and drove it for a few 100 miles. Then finally drained and filled her up with the regular oil.

    He said that his engine was in top shape after that. Prior to him doing this, he was getting the oil light which was indicitive of a sludge problem.

    Anyone else heard of this? Think its ok for our cars?

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    I'm nearly 9,000kms into a 2nd clean/rinse on my 325. My indy shop owner wonders why my engine runs so much quiter and smotther than other E46's of a similar ilk. RX does it for me, a very impressive piece of U.S technology now sold in 20 countries.

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    I think you should consider installing a real oil pressure gauge. If the oil pickup screen starts clogging you'll see a gradual drop in oil pressure.

    How do the cam lobes look? From what I can tell of the pictures, not too bad. Pretty good for a 60K oil change interval. Don't tell BMW - they'll make it the new change interval for the free maintenance programs.

    BTW, what kind of oil was in the engine during this time? Did you ever need to add oil? If so, what did you add and how much?

    Cheers.
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    Quote Originally Posted by LeeeR73 View Post
    [Stuff about diesel cleaning the engine]
    To directly answer your question, Yes, I have heard of this being done a few times. But thats all I really know of the process. I thought I had heard people cleaning it with tranny fluid though as well...

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    Question

    Yep. I had never heard of using diesel fuel until one of my neighbors did this with what he said was kerosene. Some old American-made beater, 4-cyl. if memory serves. He drained the sump, filled with diesel or kero, ran it at idle for about 15 minutes, drained all that and replaced the oil. According to him, this was a good treatment to do to any car periodically.

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    Quote Originally Posted by kgvickers View Post
    I think you should consider installing a real oil pressure gauge. If the oil pickup screen starts clogging you'll see a gradual drop in oil pressure.

    How do the cam lobes look? From what I can tell of the pictures, not too bad. Pretty good for a 60K oil change interval. Don't tell BMW - they'll make it the new change interval for the free maintenance programs.

    BTW, what kind of oil was in the engine during this time? Did you ever need to add oil? If so, what did you add and how much?

    Cheers.

    KGVICKERS, I'm taking a chance by answering you question that once again the trolls will pounce, lol. But at this point, who cares. I'm not going to rehash why this happened, because, well, even I'm not 100% sure.

    But anyway, I did need to add oil several times and I always used Mobil 1 fully synthetic. I think what 'may' have helped this situation a little is that most of those 60k miles were highway, and I was never one to stomp on the gas pedal too much. In other words, there wasn't a whole lot of spirited driving done with it, other than when I first got it.

    Quote Originally Posted by sprintman View Post
    I'm nearly 9,000kms into a 2nd clean/rinse on my 325. My indy shop owner wonders why my engine runs so much quiter and smotther than other E46's of a similar ilk. RX does it for me, a very impressive piece of U.S technology now sold in 20 countries.
    Dane, this makes me think I should do a second application of the AutoRX even if it looks ok when we pull the vcg. Since I already have the second bottle............what do ya think?
    Last edited by tps7c; 01-05-2010 at 11:30 AM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

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    tps7c, thanks for the reply.

    Hey, we all do things that are not ideal, so what. It's only a car. I'm guessing that you are in sales and spend a lot of time on the road? If so, you probably made 100 grand in the time that would have been wasted getting the oil changed. A salvage replacement engine will set you back at most $5K, so that's a $95K gain. Or, who knows, maybe you were too busy getting laid by all the chicks impressed with the car. Either sounds like a good deal to me.

    I'm impressed that the engine has done so well despite the abuse. You da man!!!!
    Keith

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    Quote Originally Posted by tps7c View Post
    Dane, this makes me think I should do a second application of the AutoRX even if it looks ok when we pull the vcg. Since I already have the second bottle............what do ya think?
    Speaking as a long-time autorx user, my two cents is that a second application is the way to go.

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    Quote Originally Posted by johnoh View Post
    Speaking as a long-time autorx user, my two cents is that a second application is the way to go.
    I'm thinking that sounds like a good idea at this point.

    Quote Originally Posted by kgvickers View Post
    tps7c, thanks for the reply.

    Hey, we all do things that are not ideal, so what. It's only a car. I'm guessing that you are in sales and spend a lot of time on the road? If so, you probably made 100 grand in the time that would have been wasted getting the oil changed. A salvage replacement engine will set you back at most $5K, so that's a $95K gain. Or, who knows, maybe you were too busy getting laid by all the chicks impressed with the car. Either sounds like a good deal to me.

    I'm impressed that the engine has done so well despite the abuse. You da man!!!!
    Yep, I'm the man who went 60k without an oil change! Not the moniker I really want to be known by lol.............kgvickers I'll PM you the details of why this happened.
    Last edited by tps7c; 01-05-2010 at 01:05 PM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

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