[zeppelin]

just back from getting a few things fixed at my saab man.in his garage were six saabs,four all had same problem, oil had crystalized on strainer blocking it leading to oil starvation.all four were turbos...one 95,one aero,one cse and a 93 with only 30,000 mls .he showed me the strainer from the 95 and it was 90% BLOCKED.NOW THE BAD NEWS FOR ME .he took a scraping from inside my sump and guess what,same crystalising,and on sat. i set off for kent.if i make back the first job is the sump off.anybody got any idea why this is happening only to turbos [apart from the extra heat of course]

 

[chucktv]

My 87T has 141k mi. and I've recently had the oil pan out to re-seal it. I didn't see anything much in the pan or the strainer other than a few metalic flakes. I don't know how oil can produce anything crystaline at all. Poor quality non synthetic oil is my only guess.

 

[zeppelin]

but,and i can only speak for myself,i only use synthetic or semi-synthetic/i would agree with the cheap oil theory but this does not apply to my car. i will in the next couple of weeks try to post a pic. of the strainer to let you all see.

 

[chucktv]

I'll be anxious to see the pic. It is certainly an odd phenomena. By the way, I wasn't trying to imply you used cheap oil I just couldn't imagine what it could be.

 

[zeppelin]

well,ive seen it and it is scary,the only common denominater[i think] is all cars are serviced with same semi oil/ [expletive deleted] oil bought in good faith as good semi? sat.morning i will drain and put in mobile syn.30 quid[70 dollars] but i am gonna feel a wee bit more comfy on my 1000 plus mls. the other anomaly is it has not happened on older turbo cars/smaller turbo,more heat,no oil cooler?

 

[injectie]

Zeppelin This crystalising of oil is what over here is called Black sludge. In my experiences it comes only on cars that use Semi syntethic oil. Doesn't matter which brand. Also A bad crankcase ventilation system seems to help on getting this problem. Many short distence runs on car's also seems to get it. Happens on all petrol engine N/A or turbo's.
And another sympton it only occurs on petrol car's. Diesels and LPG are perfectly clear on this item. Very strange indeed would like to know what is the exact reason but then again almost the entire automotive branche wants to know.
So we can give an good advice. on how to prevent is from happening.

 

[injectie]

Originally posted by zeppelin:
[qb]well,ive seen it and it is scary,the only common denominater[i think] is all cars are serviced with same semi oil/ [expletive deleted] oil bought in good faith as good semi? sat.morning i will drain and put in mobile syn.30 quid[70 dollars] but i am gonna feel a wee bit more comfy on my 1000 plus mls. the other anomaly is it has not happened on older turbo cars/smaller turbo,more heat,no oil cooler? [/qb][/b]

Zeppelin try to get hand on Forte Engine treatment for black sludge this seems to disolve the most of this stuff so it is flushed out with the old oil.
Not related to this company but have good experiences with the stuff.

 

[zeppelin]

my mechanic uses all the forte stuff,engine flush,power steering etc.but strangely havent seen him use it recently.

 

[Simon Rogers]

This is something that has been on my mind since buying my 9-5.

On all my previous cars (mainly VW's) I've dropped the sump at around 100k miles and always been glad I did as invariably the strainer has been partially blocked and lots of sludge in the sump itself.

There's no Haynes manual for the 9-5 so I'm a bit in the dark but it looks like the downpipe needs to come off before the sump can be dropped. I assume the later 9000 is the same. It also looks like there is no gasket just face to face with sealant.

Grateful for any advice guys. I assume late 9000's are similar.

Thanks

Simon

 

[i773440]

I've had 3 Saabs over the past 10 years, and my father has has 2 others. 4 Turbos, 1 non turbo. Each has been retired with over 300,000 miles on original engines. Never had a valve job, new turbo or any major engine work done. We've both always used Mobil 1, changing the oil only 2x per year (spring & fall), usually with about 15000 miles between changes. Don't get me wrong - my mechanic shakes his head in disgust every time at the way I change my oil... but with somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million miles total doing it that way, and having never had a an oil related issue (okay... we've had to replace timing chains... I guess some might argue that may be related) I plan to keep doing it that way. I'm a firm believer in the synthetic oils - specifically the Mobile 1.

 

[Aerohead]

I have had similar experience with Mobil 1 over the last 15 years on a variety of vehicles, changing oil annually or at 12,000 miles. Only downside is the fantastic price charged for the stuff in the UK.

 

[zeppelin]

well,that is me back from kent[1000 mls] and no problems.i decided to just run with the semi- synthetic but now i dont know whether to flush and put in mobile or drop the sump.the car has done 202,650 mls and oil is changed every 4000 mls.