We bought my wife's wagon with about 24k miles on it. It runs like a champ still (3k later). She has a client who has the exact same car but with 60k miles and the engine needs to be replaced. Something about sludge in the engine.
View 24 Repliesi have a 2004 passat 1.8t just hit 110k miles on it and a warning light that said stop engine oil pressure service manual came on and shortly after the engine died. it like putted like i ran out of gas. the engine cranks but doesnt turn over. i had it towed to a place and they said its the timing belt. another mechanic said that the engine could be blown. i researched the warning light and found a class action law suit against vw for engine sludge problems.
View 18 RepliesMy 2003 passat 1.8T has been in and out of the shop for the past few months all for the same prob oil sludge was building up in the engine the first time around tried to avoid pulling the oil pan and just ran some flush to clean it out needless to say that didn't work so i had to have my mech pull the oil pan and clean up the mess...... even though this is a known issue that vw is well aware of the refuse to fix the prob unless u have all of your oil change receipts which I do not have because i have my stepfather change my oil I now know that I need to run full synthetic in it......
View 24 RepliesI have about 80K on my Passat. This engine noise sounds like the rockers for the valves have to much play. I just hear it with low RPM. What can I do?
View 5 RepliesI love this car, but due to it's relative rarity, there don't seem to be too many ways to firm up the ride with some lowering. Eibach does not have a "package" for this model. I was considering getting 1BE springs with Koni FSD's.
View 1 RepliesMy girlfriend has an 04 Passat Wagon (dunno how many miles on the odo), and it makes a groaning noise that gets louder and more pronounced the more she cranks the wheel. She took it in a few weeks ago to a place that specializes in European cars, and they changed the serpentine belt. Since then, the issue has gotten worse.
My very limited knowledge tells me that it might be the power steering pump, but I know next to nothing about this sort of thing, and even less than that w/re to VWs, except that the Germans sometimes engineer things a bit differently than most of the rest of the world. For all I know, the car doesn't even have a power steering pump and uses some other sort of electro-mechanical method to operate.
Ok, wifey went to pull out of garage the other day (Tues.) and after putting car in gear, boom it went dead. She started it again and after 2 seconds of sputtering boom dead again. Tried it when I got home and spun over fine, but no fire. screamed fuel pump to me, but I did all the little things first, Fuses #7 and #26 or 28 or something like that, both were good. So I proceeded to check voltage at the pump (It is NOT under the back seat as alot of people told me..) it is under the passengers side mat in the back.
I checked the voltages when my wife was cranking the engine and it was 12.5 volts. When the key is just "on" the volts were 3.5... I went ahead and pulled the pump, not hard - just I had never done it / pumped 12 gallons of gas out.... Tested the pump connected straight to a battery with jumpers (6'+), and nada the pump didn't do any thing. reversed the polarity and it clicked, reversed it again and clicked again, after the 4th time it went to buzzing. I put it back in and nada.
Pump would work sometimes when it was laying on its side. Good enough for me, new pump ordered. New pump installed and cranked it over, nada. Cranked it over again and sputter sputter - vrooooom! Yea! fixed. Well sorta... Read on. Car started up immediately after shutting it off when testing - turned car over to wifey (after flushing brakes and replacing front pads with those niffty green ones...)
OK here is the point to this diatribe: Car's fuel pump isn't firing with the switch "on". it is pumping when the key is switched to "start", and it runs when the car is started. So you have to crank the engine to "prime" the fuel rail. The second time you crank it, it fires right up. Car accelerates well after started but the double cranking cannot be good on the engine's starter. The fuel drain happens sometime after the car has sat for 15+ minutes. If you shut the car off, then wait up to 15 minutes (all I have had time to sit still and check) the car will fire right off. I just don't know what to check now. Could the relay be bad?
I do not hear any humming from the back when the door is opened. What triggers the pump when the door is opened the CCM? It didn't do this before the car quit, always started with a second or two of cranking...
When I drive my 1.8T from cold the red oil warning and stop light flashes for a 5 to ten seconds it then goes off and all appears fine.Whist it is flashing there are no tappity noises and the engine sounds sweet. If I let the engine run for 5 mins before pulling away I have no problem
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Once warm it seems to be ok uless I drive hard on the motorway - then it comes on as I decelerate. Once again, everything sounds normal.I've always had services and oil changes on time. I had the engine flushed this week, but it has made no improvement.
I went to check my oil this morning even thought its only been roughly 2000 miles since the last change/filter(Napa Gold and Mobil One 0w40). I noticed that the dipstick had just a tad of yellowish snot stuff on it. I know it mean water in the oil but I cleaned it off and recheck, put a hair more in and it was all clean no more snotty yellow gunk.
My question is because it is cold and my dad moves it almost every morning before work could it be condensation? I know with my 1998 Chevrolet Tahoe with roughly 153,000 miles used to get the same yellow snot stuff in the oil fill neck but never on the dipstick. The passats oil filler cap/neck were both free of any snotty stuff.
If its still like this tomorrow I'm taking it to the dealer. Also there's still coolant and I couldn't be sure if there was any less as if it was a leaky head gasket but the rest of the oil is clean and not milkshake like.
My 2003 camry had black oil when I bought the car. I flushed the engine with motor flush two times. Very dark oil came out both times. But when I did third time oil was clear.
I do not have any oil pan or valve cover leak. Do I need to drop the oil pan to clean the gunk if there any?Do I have to clean the oil pick up also?
If the oil is dirty and black does it mean gunk built up in oil pan and oil pick up strainer?
I peeped through the valve cover but I did not see any gunk in the cylinder head.
My wife has a 2003 Camry LE with the 3mz-fe V6. First, from what I have seen, these engines appeared in 2004 models, but that's what's in it. Anyway, she doesn't take care of her car and the other night the check engine and oil indicators came on. Having been through this with a VW Passat (known sludge engine) myself, I immediately suspected a sludge issue. The next day, I had a mechanic come over and check it. He pulled one of the valve covers and sure enough, there was sludge everywhere, some of the oil journals completely occluded.
So, the question is what to do? As I said, I've been through this myself. When it first happened, I had to have main bearings replaced and they flushed the motor well enough to get normal oil pressure. It wasn't 3 months before the same thing happened. They flushed it again enough to get the oil pressure back to normal and I got rid of it that weekend. I know flushing the Camry could solve the problem, but could just as easily push sludge into other parts of the engine and give me a nice deja-vu. The other options are to have the motor rebuilt or buy a used motor. The car has 80K on it so I'm thinking a remanufactured engine.
I have a 2006 Kia Spectra with 74K miles. It was apparently neglected before I bought it (at 55K miles), and has a case of engine sludge. It's clogging my oil control valve, and a couple engine flushes (by Kia dealer) over the last year have failed to correct the problem thus far. The car runs ok, but cannot pass an emissions test due to the check engine light and corresponding codes. Can I perform the flushes myself? What product should I use? Can I safely remove and clean the OCV myself? What product should I use?
View 19 RepliesRecently replaced the transaxle fluid on my 2007 Prius with 47,000 miles. This was the first time the transaxle fluid has been changed in the vehicle. After removing the drain plug I noticed a substantial amount of a thick, grease type substance on the bottom of the plug. When they have change the transaxle fluid on their vehicles? I found minimal metal shavings on the plug, but was concerned on the thick sludge/grease substance on the bottom of the plug. The ATF fluid that I drained was very dark. Definitely not close to the red color of new ATF WS fluid.
View 19 RepliesA friend of mine has a 2002 Century with a 3100 engine, 65,000 miles. The car has been well cared for, with all regular maintenance performed on time.
The car is losing coolant, the low coolant sensor comes on every few hundred miles. The local garage has added coolant, replaced the coolant sensor , and flushed the entire system. At this point my friend asked me to have a look.
1) Slimey "milkshake" on oil cap. Cleaned & dried it 4 days ago. 100 miles later, it's all slimey again.
2) Rad cap also has slimey gunk on it.
3) Coolant recovery tank is CRUDDY. The walls are all darkened with what I'd assume is oil residue.
Now, before anyone starts saying this is normal with Dexcool, I'll mention that I have a '98 and an '02 Grand Prix with Dexcool, they have 218,000 and 158,000 miles, respectively. My oil caps are bone dry. My coolant caps have only Dexcool on them. And my coolant recovery tanks are so clean they look new.
In seems to me that there is some kind of internal issue, e.g. intake manifold gasket, where the fluids are mixing. FWIW, I don't see any sign of external coolant leakage. Do the 3100s have any known issues in this area? I suggested my friend have the Buick dealer pressure test it (when it's cold), and go from there.
We have a poorly maintained 2001 Dodge Intrepid 2.7L with 155,000 miles on it. Over the Christmas break, we left it untouched in the driveway for a month. After that it wouldn't start without being jumped off, and the oil light flickered when the car idled. We had the battery, alternator, and starter checked at a local shop; all of them checked out fine. Nevertheless, the car wouldn't start without being jumped off. It would click once, and then nothing. We also noticed it was overdue by 2,000 miles for an oil change, and thought this may be causing the oil light issue. Since the 2.7L Intrepids are notorious for engine sludge, we added a couple of ounces of Seafoam, drove about 15 miles, and then took it in for an oil change. Now it starts without a jump. So my question is Is there any way that oil sludge (and perhaps a weak starter?) is the issue?
View 6 RepliesI've got an oddball '88 SWB with the M5OD transmission. Since I've had it (about a year now), its always required a lot of gas to get it rolling without it stalling after sitting overnight or during the day at work, especially putting it in reverse for the first time. The shifts have always been a little choppy/jerky/grabby/whatever you want to call it, too. Mostly going into first from a stop, but you can feel it other gears too, especially if you're not flooring it.
Anyway, it seems to have gotten worse and I'm getting to the point where I'm looking at a cause. One thought I had was oil contamination on the clutch discs, I know this will make a clutch feel "grabby". There is some sludge accumulation between the trans and engine, and it appears I may have a very slow leak there.
I have to change the trans fluid this weekend and am wondering if there's anything I should inspect while I'm at it -- I don't know a whole lot about the clutch system on this van and there's next to no information on it. Frankly, I don't even know if its hydraulic or cable.
I have a 01 passat wagon here that wont crank. I would like to know where i can locate the neutral safety switch. Also the only light that works on the gauge cluster is the traction control light until you press the switch and then it will go off too. Would the cluster being broken cause the car to not crank????
View 4 RepliesI inherited a Passat wagon abt a month ago and I just got an Oil Pressure Low warning.
Long story short, took it to the mechanic said it was a sludge issue in the oil pick up and that he'll have to drop the oil pan to fix it.
Don't have that to give at this point.
I'm confident I can tackle it myself but I need a DIY guide or the Haynes repair manual to guide me along the way.
Always used the button to close it, and nothing particularly different happened last time my wife shut it... now it just makes a groan for a second or two, the TOP of the hatch pops out about a quarter inch (bottom doesn't move at all), and nothing else happens.
View 11 RepliesI've been looking at the wagon for about a month now, but I am not too sure it has enough space in the rear to accomodate 2 convertible kid seats and a baby seat in the middle.
The Phaeton probably has a ton more space in the rear for that setup, but haven't really test driven one yet, but I am sure its a dream. The good thing is that the Phaeton is certified too and about a couple grand cheaper, even though it is used.
2001 Passat Wagon GLS v6 - 83k
Just replaced the drivers-side taillight and hood strut. Been a week or so since the vehicle has last been started as it is sitting in the garage. When I start the vehicle, it will turn over a bit, cranking away, then start clicking (pretty quickly).
If I pay careful attention while it is turning over, I can hear the door locks making some noise, kinda like they are trying to decide whether to lock or not. I will also get dash light flickering on/off. turn-turn-turn / click-click-click
I know it is not the battery. All power works fine when the key is just in the on position, no dimming, etc. Though it seems to be something electrical with the weird noises I get while trying to start.