Cleaning Out Oil Pan - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

jkjk15 · 11-22-2008, 10:16 PM

Hey guys,

Has anyone tried dropping the oil pan and cleaning it. I have dropped the ATF pan but just wondering if there are any differences with the oil pan. My understanding is I just need to replace the oil pan gasket.

The reason for the drop is..I've been getting some light brown deposits (possibly some sludge?) at the tip of my dipstick.

JasonA · 11-23-2008, 08:28 AM

The light deposits on your dipstick are likely just varnish spots. How often do you change oil, and what is your drive cycle? How many miles on the engine?

I would NOT drop the oil pan just because of some varnish on the end of the dipstick. The book rate for it is 1.5 hours for warranty, or 2.6 hours for non-warranty.

mikered30 · 11-23-2008, 09:42 AM

It would be easier to pull the valve cover an look for sludge or varnish that way. What year is your car?

jkjk15 · 11-23-2008, 06:46 PM

I have a 2003 LE. I used dino until about 80000km, since then have used castrol syntec at about 8000km intervals. I am at 131000km now.

I notice these brown deposits even right after an oil change. So I'm thinking the bottom of the pan is dirty.

JasonA · 11-23-2008, 06:54 PM

Describe the deposits. Or better yet, take a picture. Are they "sandy" deposits? Stuff you can flake off or rub off? If you can rub it off with a paper towel, what color are the deposits on the towel? Brown or grey?

Your oil pan shouldn't have "deposits" like that in there. It stays wet all the time. The places to look for oil varnish/sludge/deposits are in areas that don't stay submerged in oil, such as the cylinder head cover, like what was suggested above.

If you can take a high resolution photo of the deposits, it would help.

So you're doing 8000km intervals with Castrol Syntec now...what about your interval with conventional? Even 8000km on conventional (which is 5000 miles) should be just fine -- it's Toyota's spec as a matter of fact, so there should be absolutely nothing wrong with that.

mikered30 · 11-23-2008, 07:18 PM

Do you have a lot of short trips?

bbsgarage · 11-24-2008, 10:32 AM

Is it a "deposit" or goo hanging off the end?

jkjk15 · 11-25-2008, 10:12 PM

its a brown color, not dark brown. Its not slimy or anything, more so like fine particles. I'll try to get a pic up this weekend.

I would say the trips are about 10km each way during the weekdays...with one longer trip couple times a week.

O.O · 11-26-2008, 12:00 AM

drop it for the piece of mind. better to see the condition than to guess.

bbsgarage · 11-26-2008, 08:50 AM

Also its better to drop the pan and scrape the crud out then using some sort of engine flush.

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