digiera

Hello,

Just bought a 97 ES 300 with 102,000 miles and everything looks and runs great. I decided to change the oil since the car has been sitting for a few months. Engine looks to be very well maintained with great hoses, belts, and very clean. The oil filter however, was a Firestone which was a letdown and when I opened the fill cap, I saw a buildup of crud on the inside surface and some varnish on the cap. See pics. Any cause for worry or additional maintenance required? I replaced filter with a Purolator Pure One and used Castrol Blend 5 W 30.

Comments appreciated.

ArmyofOne

You cant tell anything really by looking at that. You have to pull the valve cover. What I see seems to me like a typical motor that has not had synthetic oil over an extended period of time. Most of the rough surface is actually the unfinished surface of the inside of your valve cover. Most Automakers do not make them smooth and perfect because they are never seen by anyone except technicians. There is some carbon and buildup there, but with the pressures and temps created inside of an internal combustion engine, any pocket or cavity where buildup can occur, it will.

Which is why its so important to use a good oil and filter, and stick to your maintenance intervals. 3k for conventional and 5k for synthetic is my rule of thumb. What you are seeing in your engine there is normal. But if you are really worried, a sure fire way to tell in 30 minutes to an hour is pull your front valve cover off of your V6. If you get gobs of **** in there that look like black grease, its sludged and needs a good cleaning.

But i dont see anything immediately apparent in the pix. I would switch to a high quality oil, synthetic or not, immediately. If you dont go with a synthetic (you wont regret it) Like mobil1, Royal Purple or AMSoil, go with something like Valvoline Max Life High Mileage.

I always run synthetic and have never had an engine issue on one of my vehicles. If you do Synthetic oil changes, on your 3vz-FE V6 I would reccomend 5k intervals. But do 3k on the first one, and run some Seafoam through it before you change over. Search Seafoam on the forum to help you out.


Has the car had a Timing belt/Water Pump done yet?

digiera

Thanks for your help. I put Castrol blend in it today. Not sure about timing belt & water pump. I'll find out soon.

happy1977

^You can do more than 5K now if it's a 0w20. Do a research on it, you'll find out that you don't need to change it @ 5K on regular usage.

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

Why was a Firestone oil filter a let down? All Firestone stores use good quality filters and all of them use a synthetic blend Kendall oil as their cheapest oil change that actually gets pretty good reviews on oil analysis sites...

Hate to say it, but purolator filters are junk, and the Kendal synthetic blend is just as good as your Castrol synthetic blend...

SkipABeat

I bought a used 99 Nissan Maxima in 2004. I changed the oil a few days after just like you, and reaching into the oil filler hole I could literally scrape off carbon deposits. Dark brown in color, it must have been the result of poor maintenance. The oil dipstick had a brown coating on it that looked like it had been stained.

I have always used Mobil1 on all my vehicles, and after a couple of oil changes (10k) I noticed that the brown varnish on the dipstick was being cleaned off. I still have the Maxima today, and reaching inside the oil fill port my shop rag comes out without the sludge.

Any top shelf synthetic oil must have detergent qualities that can slowly clean your engine. Try it and see for yourself.

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

yup, that stuff that is in the pictures is actually caused by blow by - its the same stuff that will eventually coat your throttle plate and intake manifold, not necessarily bad oil... in that picture, you are actually seeing a plate that prevents oil from splashing against the inside of the oil filler cap...

switching to a full synthetic and its additional detergents will help get rid of it at least a little, but its most likely nothing to worry about at all..

ArmyofOne

Yeah, I know you can...but I dont...on anything. The only time i exceed 5k is on oil changes with long road trips, then my limit is 7k. Just personal preference is all.

digiera

After changing to Castrol Blend yesterday, and driving to work today (30 miles), I opened the oil cap and saw a noticeable reduction in carbon - not completely gone but definitely cleaner. Camera didn't pick up the difference but I'll get a shot of it in a few more days and post it for reference. I'll definitely be changing the filter and oil before 3,000 miles this time and then I'll switch to a full synthetic.

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

the detergents in oil are strongest when it is first put in the car... these detergents will diminish over time...

Gate

I'm starting to wonder if Royal Purple engine oil is worth the money. I did a partial change with it on my 03 Focus, seemed to work beautifully, but on the other hand, it was due anyways, maybe the performance was bound to increase even with a standard type of oil... either way, that stuff sure is expensive. I was glad at the time though and have no regrets.

I remember counting the miles one by one on that baby until it reached an exact interval of 3,000 miles. Then my girlfriend would finally let me change the oil. Her: "Don't waste your money, it doesn't need to be changed yet", Me: "but it's FUN!!!"

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

IMO, a synthetic oil is worth the money... Royal Purple is fine, but not significantly better than most of its competitors to justify additional cost...

luvrxxx

looks like one of those new beemers that don't have an oil dipstick(!?!?!?!?)...

sensor> warm up half hour> in dash display shows oil level.

UberNoob

you could seafoam it

v8soarer91

buy some cheap semi syn engine oil put it in and run it for 2.5k kms change with filter.

do it again.

then a 5k kms put the good semi syn with a good filter and change every 5k kms