alonkut

Hello All,

I've got an '01 allroad tip. Found bad sludge problem after purchase- had an indie flush it, replace a few seals($) and replace the octopus (or whatever it's called).
Have since been religiously changing oil with synthetic every 3000.

Well, I know it's normal for the allroad to loose oil, but it seems to be going fast. Also, just started to notice some darker smoke on start-ups after it sits for
a day plus. I know this might mean oil in the cylinders. Then....
checked the oil today and it was nearly empty- AND it had a couple of "pieces" of sludge on the dip stick.... (ugh.)

So, I was considering dropping the oil pan, cleaning and also clearing the pick up tube filter. But I can't seem to find any pics
of what I might find - or how difficult it is for my model... seems the '02 has a lot of stuff in the way.

Also open to suggestions and recommendations..

thanks in advance!

09mehashaw

That's very unusual.

What weight oil are you running?

John535is

Dark smoke on start up generally means valve guides. The oil slowly leaks past the valve guide when the engine is stationary (like overnight) so when you start up, the oil in the cylinder burns for the first few seconds = black smoke. You can get a shop to replace the valve guides without a motor rebuild however, if you have really lost significant oil and no puddle under the car from a leak, you would have to believe it's been burnt, which generally means new rings = an engine rebuild.

In the short term you could, remove the pan, remove any debri, new oil pan and plug seal, new oil & filter with an engine 'additive' to reduce the burn.
Now for a compression and leak down test.
The compression test will show if it's one cylinder or multiple, the compression should be within 10% across all. The leak down test will tell you if the cylinder can hold the compression or if the rings are burnt (due to long term valve seal leaking). Then you decide on just the guides or a rebuild.

Or

Fill it up with heavy oil 30/50 or heavier and trade it in before the Turbo's let go from the heavy oil.

Just my thoughts, hopefully its just the guides

GTA_Driver

Oil sludge means the owner prior to you left te oil in the engine for a really long time. Which is highly unfortunate for such a piece of machinery as the Allroad.

The engine could be consuming oil, that is why you should do a compression test as well as the leak down test. This I would do first.

If those check out, your turbos could be on the way out an dumping oil, though they would have likely failed by now.

Do you get absolutely no oil spots/drips under your car whatsoever? Did you out a cardboard under to see overnight? How does the bottom of the engine look - any oil dripping down from the valve cover gaskets?

thejulex

Clogged PCV system will also cause excessive oil consumption.

John535is

Doing some research on the weekend for a hot start problem I am chasing and there was a discussion on replacing the rpm/speed sensor and one of the write ups reported that they experienced not only issues with restarting when the engine is hot, but also when it did kick, it 'blows black smoke on start up'. Assume this would be due to excess fuel from continual cranking without a start but might help your black smoke investigation issue. Doesn't help the mistery of the missing oil issue.