I just had my oil changed on my 1998 BMW 540i. I've had the car one week, so I'm trying to become familiar with it. Is it normal for the oil to show brownish sludge already? They use 10/30 Swepco High Quality MO and said it was good for 5k miles.

When was the last time the oil was changed before you bought it?

When you change the oil, it is not fully changed. There is always some old oil remaining. When the old and new oil mix fully, there will be a little darkening. And the degradation process starts immediately. It will not suddenly darken or darken after a few thousand miles.

Dave,

He can simply wipe a finger around on the inside of the valve cover and get sludge on it if there is any there without removing the cover, yes?

---

The trouble with doing nothing is not knowing when you're finished.

I would change the oil and filter again, keep checking it, and go about 3000 miles maximum then change it again. The oil should be less slugy by then. I would not add any stroong crankcase cleaner; this may loosen a lot of guck and plug oil passages.

I strongly disagree with BMW's long oil change interval, even though their sumps hold 7 quarts. As others pointed out, this car probably had little maintenance and may have been drive many short trips in cold weather.

As others have also pointed out, oil is cheap and engines, especially BMW enginmes, are very expensive!!

YOWSA!!!!! Now THAT'S a sludge problem!

---

The trouble with doing nothing is not knowing when you're finished.

have never seen a engine with that much sludge.what would the mechanic do to get all the sludge out of the engine.or is the engine shot

My opinion is that in some severe cases the engine oil should be changed every 3k miles at the latest; and in some cases maybe even 2k miles is warranted. My sister in law spends most of her life in one area with job, shopping, etc. all right there. Her vehicle seldom ever gets warmed up enough to even open the thermostat and this is rough on the engine and oil.

That BMW in the pic is pretty horrible. The only one I've seen comparable to that is a Subaru that came into the shop one time with a seized engine and only 25k miles on the clock.
The owner bought the car new, drove it for 2 years, and never changed the oil one time. It still had the factory oil in it when towed in. His driving consisted of a 2 miles here, 5 there, etc.

When the pan was removed it was discovered that the oil had coked hard onto the oil pump pickup tube and had gradually cut off the oil supply. Almost the entire crankshaft was purple from heat.
The oil in the pan resembled cold tar and before getting the service manager to look at this mess I stuck one of those extra long Snap-On screwdrivers into the oil in the pan. Five minutes later the screwdriver was still standing upright in the oil when the service manager came over to inspect it!
When left upside down for 10 minutes none of the oil would even fall out of the pan.

The car owner (when told he needed a new engine as the one he had was not even rebuildable) started screaming bloody murder and blamed it on us for quote "not advising him he had to change the oil when he bought the car".
He tried siccing Subaru of America on us (they told him to take a hike when given the entire story) and then sicced an attorney on us (who also told him to take a hike when I told the attorney the reason behind the engine failure).

Point made here is an example of why knowing the entire story behind a complaint can make a night and day difference as to who is really at fault.

We had one come in one day, a firebird, v6, with a spun rod bearing. New car with 14k miles on it. Owner was screaming and wanted a new car. they sent it to me to check out. The oil in the pan was so thick (Like thick mud) I removed it with my hands. Come to find out, he had never changed the oil, it still had the factory oil filter on it. I told the service manager that we dont need to warranty this engine. Well, the guy screamed so much they warrantied it for him. With GM, anytime you replace something under warranty, you send the old parts back to GM for them to look at. I put a crank kit, rod with all new bearings in it, what I sent back to GM was the old crank, rod, the old factory oil filter, oil pump and screen and the actual oil (Mud) I removed from the pan. Kind of sucks because someone doesnt take care of their car, we have to fix it at warranty time.


transman

---

transman

GM MASTER TECHNICIAN
SR. TRANSMISSION BUILDER

It is amazing how ignorant people can be with their cars. In the early eighties I worked in a shop and one day a (as I recall it) younger woman came in and asked me to listen to her car - it had had some strange noises the last 4-5 days. Okay, and we went outside to find an almost brand new looking Mustang. Checked the odometer (around 32k miles) and popped the hood - all seemed fine, asked her to start it. Fired up perfectly and I could hear each and every bearing hammering and banging in that poor almost new looking engine. I screamed to her to kill it and pulled the dipstick, no oil whatsoever. I asked when was the last time she'd checked the oil? "checked what" was the answer, I continued with when was the last time she opened the hood? "never, I don't know how to do that". Last question - when was the last time she had any service done to it? "what is service, is that something I'm supposed to have done to the car". It turned out that from day one she had just driven that car and never cared for it. Of course she got quite angry with me when I told her she needed a new engine. I actually think that, that engine did pretty well - lasting about 32000 miles without any service.
Another guy came in - walking - asking me to check his starter as it didn't start. Well, at first we had to tow it in from a nearby gas station. Turned the key, no go, but didn't sound like starter failure, went to look at the engine while he tried and sure enough it tried to turn the engine (Mi. Colt late 70's). Hmm, timing belt, no - fine. Couldn't turn engine with wrench either. Tried some other things and didn't get anywhere.Guy said he had borrowed the car and that the owner had told him that the engine used a little oil. Okay, but what did happen on the gas station? "oh, I just got some gas and gave it a quart of oil and when I came out again after paying the starter acted up". OH and then I pulled the dipstick. I didn't even manage to pull it all out of the tube before oil ran out of it. I then took the sparkplugs out - same thing, oil everywhere. I drained allmost 3 US-gallons of oil out of that 1,4 l. engine. Guess he don't forget to check the oil again after that episode.
Klaus

It's those loose nuts behind the steering wheel, I swear.

---