Sludge and Flush

Hi, all.

We have a '99 2.3L approaching the end of its basic warranty life. It is not showing any sludge symptoms yet. However, if sludge develops down the road, I'm worried about Saab honouring the extended warranty, and doubt the various claims of oil additives. More aggressive treatments like ATF are scary.

Can anyone tell me if there is a safe, effective, flushing fluid that will purge an engine of sludge?

Thanks

Jo Anne

Reply to
Jo Anne Coyne
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Regular oil changes are your best defense.

Reply to
Bob

When we nearly bought a 9-5 with a sludge problem my mechanic saved us alot of money! He warned us off it, in the process he said best defence was to remove the sump completely once a year and clean it out. And yes regular, say twice yearly, oil changes with fully synthetic are a good bet too.

Al

Reply to
Al

I think removing the sump every year is a bit too much. I would suggest remove it once, have it cleaned thoroughly and then have twice yearly fully synthetic oil changes.

Reply to
tobyfield

The safest, most effective fluid you can put into that engine is Mobil1

5W30 motor oil. Do it at about twice the manufacturers recommended intervals and you will not have sludging problems.
Reply to
Fred W

That won't help if you already have a build up of sludge though.

Reply to
tobyfield

...Castrol do a flushing oil. Have a look at this....

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why sludge should be such a problem? Should it build up to this extent on a comparatively new car??

Reply to
Pidgeonpost

Actually, I think it might. Synthetic has know properties of dissolving all sorts of gunk in your engine. Change to synthetic, run

2K miles, do that again. Then take a look, see how you did. No risk testing.
Reply to
Bob

correct.

Reply to
Fred W

suggest

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NB there is an underline between ..oil and bible!

Reply to
Richard Sutherland-Smith

It's a bit much to expect an addtive to *purge* an engine of sludge but there are many flushing additives available here in the UK that can be used at oil change time to help prevent the build-up of deposits. Also consider draining and refilling with flushing oil before finally draining and re-filling.

Use of synthetic oils will help greatly too.

Graham

Reply to
Pooh Bear

All good advice, but if we go back to the OP, it specifically says there is no sludge now (yet), at least none that the poster is aware of. Considering that, I would stay away from the "flushing chemicals" and just adopt a preventive habit of (more) frequent oil changes with a good synthetic oil.

One thing about the SAAB 4-bangers is they only take ~4 quarts of oil at a change. Compare that to my BMWs that take 8 quarts and you can deduce that the oil will take more of a beating in a given mileage, and it will be half the cost when you do change it.

As a point of reference, I routinely change the oil in both of my 1998

2.0L 900's at ~5k mile intervals (daughters cars). The BMWs go a bit longer (~8k miles) between changes.
Reply to
Fred W

Which oil do you use btw ?

Graham

Reply to
Pooh Bear

Mobil 1 10W30 in the BMWs (older) and 5W30 in the SAABs.

Reply to
Fred W

...Mobil 1 has always been used in our 9K. We bought it with a 3rd party warranty that insisted on engine oil and filter changes every 6K miles. At

155K it still doesn't need a top-up between services, doesn't drop any oil, and is really quiet. Whether this can be attributed to the oil in any way I've no idea, but I'd be reluctant to change now. There's only one thing that bothers me. When the 9K has to go, what the hell shall I replace it with??? None of the current range appeals.
Reply to
Pidgeonpost

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