What do you think - for mechanics

[JayL]

My friend who is a banker and knows about cars next to nothing except to drive brought in his Toyota Rav 4 to me. White smoke is coming out of the Tail Pipe. Clouds of smoke.

Opening the Top Cover and the oil pan revealed too much gunk formation. It seems that he is not the type who goes for a car change oil "regularly"

We cleaned the gunk, flushed the engine and put in new oil. The vehicle now runs ok and no more clouds of white smoke.The smoking problem was isolated to a clogged PCV valve.

My question is do you think I need a second engine flushing and change oil considering the gunk found. Was one flashing enough to clean the engine internals?

I don't have an engine leak tester so I cannot tell what other damage was made. Will a compression test be good enough? However no sign of bluish smoke on the tail pipe as of now.

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

[eschoendorff]

I would... oil is cheap, engines are expensive!

[84TurboBuick]

I would flush it again, hell.....do it 3 times....

Like esch said.....oils cheap

[trackwelder]

Change the filter a few times also between flushes.

[JayL]

I think I will drive it for around 150 miles then flush the engine. Change Oil and Filter.

I hope the piston rings and valve seats are ok. I will bring it to a shop and have the engine Leak Tested. Probably will cost me $40 to do this. Damn this is half the cost of a Star Leak Down Test kit. I think I should get one of this kit.

Would you believe I brought it to Toyota Philippines with the original smoking problem and they wanted to rebuild the engine and quoted $4,800 for parts and labor.

[ddawg16]

Throw in a qt of transmission fluid and then drive it for awhile...but not hard....then change the oil and filter....

The transmission fluid will act more like a detergent to help cleans things out.

Truth is....the damage, if any, has most likely been done.

It's guys like that that keep mechanics employed.

[CatfishXpress]

I wouldn't lose to much sleep over it, it sounds like he has plenty of money. After he replaces a few engines he might decide to start changing the oil at regular intervals.

[eschoendorff]

Oh... and make sure that you pull the oil pan at the next oil change and clean that out too... lots of gunk settles in the oil pan that does not come out during an oil change. i learned this the hard way... except in my case there was about 1/2 quart of coolant in the bottom of the oil pan that I thought was drained when I simply drained the oil...

[SpiderGearsMan]

normal toyota problem , google toyota 3.0 V6
on the 3.0 the oil clogs the valve cover , and stops oil flow to the head
trade in time

[MAD]

I would just change the oil again at 200 miles and again after another 1000 miles. Do another flush if you want to but if all seems well I wouldn't do extensive testing unless you are planning to buy the car from your friend. Sometimes it is better not to know some things.

To loosely quote Duke Ellington: "If it runs good, and it drives good than it IS good"

[nissan_crawler]

Throw in a qt of transmission fluid and then drive it for awhile...but not hard....then change the oil and filter....

The transmission fluid will act more like a detergent to help cleans things out.

Truth is....the damage, if any, has most likely been done.

It's guys like that that keep mechanics employed.

x2 tranny fluid has worked better than seafoam or anything else I've tried.

[Moose-LandTran]

To loosely quote Duke Ellington: "If it runs good, and it drives good than it IS good"

"Ignorance is bliss"

[billymade]

In the future a full synthetic oil would probably be a good idea; especially, for the type of person who doesn't change his oil that often!

[SpiderGearsMan]

does this have an oil cooler ?

[JayL]

does this have an oil cooler ?

No oil cooler.

I will monitor the oil consumption and see if any other damage was done. If so there really is no choice but to rebuild the engine.

However I'm more inclined to say that the engine is still in good shape as the spark plug readings were normal. I'm just not so sure because when I first drained the oil I got only around a liter or of semi gunk oil. I was surprised too that the engine oil check lamp was still off even at this low oil level.

[MAD]

when I first drained the oil I got only around a liter or of semi gunk oil. I was surprised too that the engine oil check lamp was still off even at this low oil level.

Did a light come on that said "GAME OVER"?

[eschoendorff]

Game ain't over if the car still runs...

[JayL]

The owner got a Toyota quote for $4,800 to fix the problem before he came to me. Now at $200 the car is running without puffing clouds of blue smoke. I haven't told him yet about this result until I'm sure that the vehicle is ok. I'll go ahead and have it Engine Leak Tested today before I flush it again.

[Deafautotech]

The owner got a Toyota quote for $4,800 to fix the problem before he came to me. Now at $200 the car is running without puffing clouds of blue smoke. I haven't told him yet about this result until I'm sure that the vehicle is ok. I'll go ahead and have it Engine Leak Tested today before I flush it again.

What did Toyota told to Owner what is problems????

[SpiderGearsMan]

drainbacks were clogged - oil was flooding the valve guides , toyota wears out valve guide seals and spark plug tubes pretty good

[JayL]

What did Toyota told to Owner what is problems????

That he needed an engine rebuild and quoted around $277 for labor and $4,523 for parts. Most expensive is the aluminum lower block which cost $2,500. However in fairness to them they told the owner that this might or might not need to be replaced.

[PAToyota]

I worked with a guy like that. His comment one day about not doing maintenance, oil changes, or anything like that was that a car only lasted 50~60K miles, so why put any extra money into it... :wtf:

Well... If you treat a car like that, it is only going to last that long...

[eschoendorff]

That he needed an engine rebuild and quoted around $277 for labor and $4,523 for parts. Most expensive is the aluminum lower block which cost $2,500. However in fairness to them they told the owner that this might or might not need to be replaced.

All that for parts and only $277 for labor???? That just doens't seem right... My built in BS detector is going off as we speak...

Or this is one of those quotes that starts off at $277 for labor and quickly escalates as they get into the job.

[billymade]

If that is the price; I think I would just look for a good used low milage engine at a junk yard and swap it out. Are parts prices insane in the Philippines? Seems like they would be cheaper because you are in asia (much closer to Japan then the USA); cost effectiveness wise, used motor sounds like the way to go to me. Is the situation where; labour is cheap but parts are insanely expensive? I remember hearing about parts being expensive and that why people "make" their own parts to keep things going over there, is this true?