Volfy
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Oil change intervals don't tell the whole story. How often you drive your car, and how long each of your drives are, under what weather conditions, what fuel was in your tank, etc., are just a few other factors that could conspire to cause sludge in your engine.
Just as an example, there are cases where real nice classic cars were rarely taken for a long Sunday drive. Owner did start it every so often, drive it around the block, made sure everything seemed hunky dory, then put it right back into the garage. A few year later, the car started to have running issues and the mechanics found out the engine oil was milky and the internal bearings were all pitted and worn. What the owner did never got the engine hot enough to boil off the moisture, which built up in the engine and eventually corroded the bearings and internal parts.
Another factor... running high ethanol content can exacerbate this problem. ECU will enrich mixture on very cold startups, and there will be some unburn fuel swirling around. That unburnt fuel has high ethanol content in it. So... if you shut the engine off before it got up to operating temp nice and hot, all that unburnt fuel stays around and settle on the surfaces of your engine internals. The ethanol, being hydroscopic, will attract moisture, which will start to corrode your cylinder walls, bearings, and valvetrain.
The best way to combat this is make sure you go for a nice long drive often enough to rid your engine completely of moisture... especially in the winter months. Another way is to change your oil more often than what you might think you can get away with. Oil is cheap; engine overhaul is not.
These are just a couple of example use cases. There are far more ways to F* up your car/engines.
If your engine had sludge, that is nobody's fault but yours. Whatever you did - regardless of what you might argue was done, or not done - culminated in the formation of sludge in your engine. Own up to it and learn the lesson. That is the only way you'll change your ways and not let this happen again.
I myself have changed oil in all my vehicles and the intervals rarely exceeded 5k mile... and those were typically after long vacation drives of 2-3k miles of predominately long-duration highway cruises. Sometimes, less than 3k intervals - especially for Mrs. Volfy's car - ironically because she doesn't drive her car too much. Never once had engine trouble. Never once gave the dealer any excuse to blame me on DIY maintenance, I stopped keeping receipts prolly 20yrs ago, and no dealer service ever dared to mention a peep to me about it. Because I left no door open for them to.
Just as an example, there are cases where real nice classic cars were rarely taken for a long Sunday drive. Owner did start it every so often, drive it around the block, made sure everything seemed hunky dory, then put it right back into the garage. A few year later, the car started to have running issues and the mechanics found out the engine oil was milky and the internal bearings were all pitted and worn. What the owner did never got the engine hot enough to boil off the moisture, which built up in the engine and eventually corroded the bearings and internal parts.
Another factor... running high ethanol content can exacerbate this problem. ECU will enrich mixture on very cold startups, and there will be some unburn fuel swirling around. That unburnt fuel has high ethanol content in it. So... if you shut the engine off before it got up to operating temp nice and hot, all that unburnt fuel stays around and settle on the surfaces of your engine internals. The ethanol, being hydroscopic, will attract moisture, which will start to corrode your cylinder walls, bearings, and valvetrain.
The best way to combat this is make sure you go for a nice long drive often enough to rid your engine completely of moisture... especially in the winter months. Another way is to change your oil more often than what you might think you can get away with. Oil is cheap; engine overhaul is not.
These are just a couple of example use cases. There are far more ways to F* up your car/engines.
If your engine had sludge, that is nobody's fault but yours. Whatever you did - regardless of what you might argue was done, or not done - culminated in the formation of sludge in your engine. Own up to it and learn the lesson. That is the only way you'll change your ways and not let this happen again.
I myself have changed oil in all my vehicles and the intervals rarely exceeded 5k mile... and those were typically after long vacation drives of 2-3k miles of predominately long-duration highway cruises. Sometimes, less than 3k intervals - especially for Mrs. Volfy's car - ironically because she doesn't drive her car too much. Never once had engine trouble. Never once gave the dealer any excuse to blame me on DIY maintenance, I stopped keeping receipts prolly 20yrs ago, and no dealer service ever dared to mention a peep to me about it. Because I left no door open for them to.
