should I use BG engine purge, or Auto-rx?

[jonathag]

Hopefully I'll get lots of good advice on this.

My 2000 Avalon is still in the shop while I've been debating on what in the heck I need to do about my sludge problem.

The oil light came on last Monday and it has not been driven since. This was the 2nd time the light came on, first time was a month ago, mechanic cleaned the screen only, it stayed off for 2000 miles, then came back on last week.

I am sick to death of researching this crap. I had finally resolved to doing kerosene flushes but was told today that I should not do that because the kerosene could strip the engine of the 'good' lubrication in there and dry things out, so I didn't buy the kerosene.

I then decided I would try the BG engine purge product here, followed by the BG MOA product on the same page..

http://www.bgprod.com/products/engineoil.html

BUT..then I got to looking for reviews on the BG product and see where alot of people say that using the Auto-rx product would be better than the engine purge product because the auto-rx will work slower without breaking chunks of sludge off like the purge probably would.

Is the best thing to do to pull the valve covers off and check the screen and see how bad the sludge is, then use the auto-rx if it's really sludged up, and use the BG product if it's not sludged up too bad?? My thought is if the sludge is too bad and we used the BG product it would break off too much crap possibly.

I really need help on this! PLEASE!!

[OpticNerve]

Would like to know more about your Avalon before I suggest anything. How often and what type and grade of oil and oil filter have you been using? How many miles on the car when the oil light went on the first time? After your mechanic cleaned the screen, what other things were done?

From reading other forums and my own experience when the oil light comes on your oil pressure may have been as low as 5 PSI. Any situation where the oil pressure drops so low as to trigger the light is very serious. What advice does your mechanic offer? Have you raised your question with any Toyota dealerships and have they offered any advice? Have you checked the BG web site for a local shop that offers the BG PF 12 Power Flush and Prime?

[jonathag]

Thanks, I bought the car with 96k miles on it, here are the number of miles between each oil change that I did. I have been using Castrol GTX 5w30 oil with fram filters since I've owned the car at 96k..here are the oc intervals..

3792 miles
5210 miles
5629 miles
6485 miles
6660 miles
7761 miles
5429 miles
7053 miles

Engine never used any oil and level was always good and oil was never black at any oc-was dirty but not black. The car had approximately 148k when it came on the first time, my mechanic cleaned the screen, it went for 2k more miles then came on again last Monday, it has a little over 150k on it now. The only thing he did was clean the screen, nothing else.

My mechanic really has not had that much sludge experience. I've heard all of my advice mostly from this forum. I've called a Toyota dealer and they quoted me a new engine, that's it, $4500. The shop my mechanic works at sells the bg engine purge, that is how I learned about it.

I talked to my mechanic tonight and he is going to pull the valve covers off to see how bad the sludge is, then we can decide on using either the bg engine purge if the sludge isn't too bad, or the auto-rx if the sludge is really bad. That's the only thing I can come up with. He normally works on Volvos so he's seen alot of sludge, he just has not had to clean out many sludged engines, people who can afford Volvos normally just replace the engine I guess.

My fear is that we break apart the sludge too fast, then I'll be driving down the road and something would be causing the oil light not to come on, so I won't know the engine is starved, then it sieze up on me. I drive a ton, sometimes 1000 miles per week for my job. I can trade this car in right now and probably get a few thousand for it, so I just don't know what to do. If I ruin my engine with a harsh additive I'm screwed and may have an accident when I'm driving or something.

[OpticNerve]

Around the house we have a saying "Good communication is a very elusive thing". Keeping that in mind, I what us to be clear when I suggest using either the BG PF12 Power Flush and Prime for Engine Oil Systems( may use BG 105?), or the BG Performance Oil Changer Complete Kit that uses BG 109. I would use whichever your mechanic recommends of these two since he uses products from BG. I prefer using one of these machines as opposed to just putting in a quart of the BG 120. The machines after cleaning also blow air thru the engine which is an additional step. I would also recommend using a synthetic oil 0W-30 for the next few changes with the MOA, and a good oil filter like a Mobil 1, K&N or PureOne.

Since you are rightly concerned about a catastrophic lubrication failure without the warning light going on like what some of the folks who have 2006 Avalon's, I would also suggest looking into the installation of a good aftermarket digital oil pressure meter and if you really want to be safe a digital engine temp meter. The root cause of your problem may be an OIL PUMP that does not supply sufficient oil pressure in certain situations. I don't know how many miles you have already driven with a oil warning light on, but I would not want that to happen again. This may cost you a few hundred bucks, but since you drive sometimes around 1000 miles a week, the money you save on depreciation alone would be worth it. I would not worry about a clot causing a blockage, you want to clean this engine up.

If this works out, I would get into using MOA on a regular bais, along with some of the other BG products. It may sound like I work for BG, but I don't, but I am a big believer in total deposit control.

OVER

[jonathag]

Thanks! Great idea on the oil pressure gauge, I didn't know there was such a thing!

I only drove a couple of miles the first time it came on, just enough to get me home, then last week I drove 2-3 miles to get to the next exit. That's it. The engine still sounds great when it is running, no noises or anything, so hopefully I'm ok.

[OpticNerve]

If your mechanic pulled the valve head, I would suggest that if it has a lot of sludge, to soak the head in a 5 gallon pail of kerosene overnight. Might as well do that before he puts the whole thing back together if its not too late. Don't get too excited about only driving a few miles with the engine oil idiot light on. When THAT Light goes on, its pretty serious, so I hope everything is still ok with your engine.

Over

[jonathag]

Thanks, so are you saying that even driving just a few miles with that light on was bad enough to do damage?

When it came on the first time, I was about 2 miles from home-it stayed on pretty much the whole time I drove home, the second time which was last week I pulled over and it went off, so I took off again to get to the next exit and it stayed off until I got up to 60mph or so and it came on again, so I pulled over, it went off, started driving again and it did the same thing, I was at the exit so I slowed down to get off the exit and it stayed on solid for the next mile or so, then went off when I got to a stop.

[OpticNerve]

As I have said before, I am not a mechanic. In my opinion, if either the low oil pressure warning indicator, or the temperature warning indicator are set off, you have done SOME damage. How much damage and will it matter, time will tell. When the car is started does smoke come out the exhaust. If yes, what color is it? These two warning indicators are much more important then a check engine light and should be treated as needing immediate attention. Read your owner's manual, what does it say? Having said that, I think that the 2000 1MZ-FE is a very robust well made engine, and I with the miles you drive, hopefully will last you along time.