Oil sludge in 2010 maxima

#1 there are two types of oil used in engines asphalt base which leaves tar and sludge. And Paraffin base that leaves your wax sludge in engines. these are raw oils and additives have been added to create your engine oil. But now we need to determine how these deposit are created and stick to internal components and the damage that they have done. #1 oil has a life span created by time and temperature. So changing oil at earlier intervals helps stop these sludge build ups, Most new car manufactures call for a 6 month 7500 mile oil change. with a little* after it stating if you drive your short distances and in extremely cold weather to do it sooner. WHY? oil gets contaminated with the by product of combustion and the moisture content in the air by not building enough heat in the oil this allows the oil to cool and stick to the walls in the engine. now the other end salesman drive cars about 3000 miles a month go 6 months the same problem occur due to the additive package added to the oil base has been gone since the oil has reach its limit of use of 7500 miles so the contaminates are suspended in the oil to help create sludge. Now think of your engine having HIGH cholesterol changing your diet corrects this but in the engines case it is your to determine your driving style and change the oil accordingly. one change of recycle oil does not create sludge THIS is a long term problem, NOW CHEAP solution. Warm engine drain oil and filter install the very cheapest filter you can buy. put kerosene and cheap oil in crankcase with filter 3 quarts oil 2 quarts kerosene. let engine idle for 30 minutes. Drain out put fresh oil and filter. Drive 1000 miles repeat again this may take 6-7 changes to reduce the sludge. If engine smokes out exhaust after treatments check oil use which if greater than 1 quart per 1500 miles piston ring damage & valve guide have been done. A rebuild is the only answer to this problem. Good luck.

Ouch that is not something that you want.
Water can get into the oil two ways. You generally don't have to worry about one of the ways if you drive your car enough to burn off the water during normal driving. This drives off the moisture that simply comes from your engine breathing when it is not being used (cold air enters a hot engine and water condenses) and from combustion by-products. The second more destructive route is through a coolant leak due to a bad gasket, an engine crack, etc. This amount of moisture is generally going to cause serious engine issues including loss of power, oil sludging, etc. Consult your mechanic when in doubt.

Can't see that hurting it no, but it sounds or may be your pins hitting the top pan covers, I took my truck in to a mechanic friend for the same problem and what he had tried and I'm sorry I can't remember what the stuff was called but it was really thick and after he poured a little bit in, told me to rev a bit and what it did was reset my heads again and the ticking went away. Sadly is a result of starting and driving right away without letting the engine and fluids warm up. A Lube expert should know what I'm on about. Taking it back and asking if they did put wrong Oil in it wouldn't hurt any and it's a good start to have them hopefully look it over and give it a shot of my super thick goop stuff (lol).good luck

There are two basic causes. One, that your oil pressure is really too low at idle. You did not state the mileage, but if the vehicle is high-mileage, this is a possibility. The other is the oil pressure sender is bad, and reporting low pressure when it is actually OK. The best way to know for sure is to have a shop test the actual oil pressure using a calibrated gauge. If the vehicle is lower mileage, and you think the pressure is really OK, it may be cheaper for you to just replace the sender as a test(if you are mechanically inclined enough to do it yourself). If the warning light goes out, the old sender was bad.

If replacing the sender does not cure the problem, then you have low oil pressure. This will shorten the life of the engine, so you need to have a mechanic diagnose the problem. Possible causes are: bad oil pump, excessive bearing clearances due to high mileage, oil pump intake blockage due to sludge in the oil pan, stuck pressure relief valve. Unfortunately, none of these problems will be cheap to fix.

You may have clogged oil passages due to sludge build up. If you had the newer 2.7 or 3.5 liter engine I would say for certain. But these 3.3. liter engines from around 1996 don't have the terrible reputation for sludge the 2.7/3.5 does.
I would have your oil pressure checked by a mechanic with an external gauge. If the pressure is bad, suspect the oil pump. If it is good, I would run some valve medic or other internal engine cleaner to try and clear the oil galleyways. Follow the directions carefully on these products!
Throw a new PCV valve on there as well, it's cheap and takes 15 seconds to change. Good luck and keep me posted!

There are no hard and fast rules for curing an engine of sludge buildup. If it's really bad, flushing the engine might be the only cure.

If you do decide to do an oil flush, first drain your engine of all it's oil, but leave the old oil filter in place. Next fill it up with flushing oil and run it at a fast idle for about 20 minutes. Finally, drain all this off (and marvel at the **** that comes out with it), replace the oil filter, refill with a good synthetic oil and voila! Clean engine

The check engine light and lack of acceleration may be due to a defective solenoid that controls the camshaft that advances or retards the valve timing (thereby physically causing an earlier or later opening and closing of the valves) on either the left or right bank of the engine. One bank will malfinction at a time and the solenoid that Nissan uses is not of the quality of Honda's V-TEC or Toyota's VVT engines. We had the same symptom on our 2001 Pathy with the same engine.

Have Autozone read you the codes (for free!) that the system is reporting and the codes, when looked up, will tell you which side is malfunctioning. The smell of something "electrical " may be due to the solenoid burning out, its wiring shorting out, or the smell of engine oil sludge that may have built up over time under the relevant valve cover due to heat and that heat possibly causing the solenoid to burn out, as well as cooking and eventually damaging the valves. The Pathy 3.5 V6's are high output motors and they get pretty hot pushing a 4,400lb Pathfinder around. The manual calls for plain old mineral (Dinosaur) oil which begins to break down due to heat on the day it is put in. If not changed out under the ridiculously short oil change interval recommended, sludge will build up and fresh dinosaur oil does not have the chemical strength necessary to remove it.

Recommend that if you find my educated guess as to what the problem is to be correct, that you make your next oil change using Shell Rotella 5W-40 synthetic with a new Purolator Pure One oil filter. Keep the oil system topped off. After six months of cleaning with the superior "diesel" detergent package, which can remove sludge, replace the oil with fresh 5W-40 Rotella Synthetic again and another new filter, or switch to Mobil 1 5W-40 Turbo Diesel Truck. You could also use Mobil 1 5W-30 Truck & SUV for gasoline engines but the detergent package is not nearly as capable and if the system is sludged, you will need more than one oil change to remove the majority of it. If sludged and cleaning is not done, the engine will be ruined in another couple of years.

Nissan's oil recommendations are old school obsolete and stupid. Synthetics is the way to go because they are superior lubricants, have superior resistance to heat, do not sludge up an engine because they do not contain parrafin (wax) and also allow the oil changes to made every 15,000 miles or once a year with a quality filter changeover done at the same time.

Our 2001 was sludged and that is what caused the solenoid to burn out. The dealer attributed the failure to the sludge. I attributed the sludge to the dealer's inferior selection of oil (only place we took it) but the Nissan spec calls for that inferior oil that cooks inside the engine and the expectation is for the owner to have the oil changed very, very frequently to combat the effect. Big $$$.

After we paid the $550 to replace the solenoid on one bank of the engine (it was 2005 and the Pathy was out of warranty), I make all oil changes myself and I use pure synthetics, changing the synthetic oil and filter once a year. It is much cheaper than going to the dealer and we haven't had a mechanical or electrical failure since this solo instance.

The 3.5L V-6 in the Pathfinder pulls a lot more weight than the 350Z sport car. Both should require synthetic oil, not mineral oil and both should have oversized 7-8 qt pans (like Audi and BMW) to give the oil a chance to cool off and provide a margin of error for when the system is not topped off. Just as Nissan did with its On Board Diagnostic system (OBD), it made specifications that assures the dealers with an income for "service" and assures Nissan of an excuse if there is a premature failure under warranty.

Take charge of your car's maintenance and assure that it no longer gets inferior lubricants that require an oil change interval that you have difficulty meeting. Use synthetics and extend the oil change interval to a more reasonable frequency. You will save the engine and money making these changes. Good Luck.

In most cases, this will be due to restricted oil flow that can be caused by motor oil sludge build up. this will happen if you don't change your oil regularly for a long period of time. i would drop the oil pan and, have a look inside of the pan. if you notice a black gum or thick sludge build up on the bottom of the oil pan, this will confirm sludge build up in this engine. this is very bad and, it can keep the vital parts form receiving proper lubrication during run time. This could also be bad rod bearings or worn crank shaft sleeves as well. main bearings could be worn also. This sludge can ruin a engine very fast and, it is almost impossible to remove. if you are noticing any smoke coming form the tail pipe, this will confirm this.

Absolutely - the 1.8T engine is known for sludging issues. If they diagnosed oil sludge then your engine is covered no matter the mileage. The oil sludge builds up in the 1.8T no matter how well cared for it is, and the sludge can block the oil pickup screen on the oil pump (it's an extremely fine mesh), causing oil starvation and taking out the engine in the process.

Go to www.audiforums.com and do a search there for "oil sludge" and the information will come up. You can learn all about it there. But if your engine has the sludging, and you have receipts proving the oil was changed at the proper intervals, you will get a new engine free of charge - one of the members there is an Audi technician and I remember him posting that he'd changed out a 180k mile engine under warranty due to sludge.

My 2003 1.8L Passat at 62K indicated Oil Pressure, Stop Engine. I had been low on oil for longer than I realized, though the car didn't indicate to me anything. I added a quart 5-40 synthetic as usual, and about 300 miles mid way on a road trip is when the warning lit up!
I had been to the dealer last year and there was a mention of sludge developing in these cars. They suggested I bring it in to remove sludge but life got busy, and it never happened. Evidently this model Passat is notorious for this oil sludge problem.
My Passat needed a new oil pump $800 later half way between destination and home. Luckily I was in a town with a 30 VW mechanic who was very good. The sludge (carbon deposits) had blocked pump pickup. Oil level was good. The computer didn't show anything, but the oil pressure test discovered PSI went down when RPM's went up. Not good.
This problem is very serious as it has ruined engines. I guess I was lucky in the fact that nothing else was damaged. So you may look into this build up. It sounds terribly familiar.