For the Car Expert...

[bleeb]

I had a regular oil change today and the guy suggested I do an engine flush at my current milage (82K) on my Acura Integra. It supposedly gets rid of all the sludge build up in the oil pan and throughout the engine. My question is, if this is necessary and worth 70 buck?

 

[woodie1]

Never, ever do that to your car.

 

[amdskip]

Not too bad of an idea but if you have kept up with your oil changes every 2-3k miles, you should be alright for a while I'd think.

edit: I'm just using common sense, why is it bad?

 

[bleeb]

he said that regular oil changes still doesn't do enough to stop the sludge build up.... sure it sounds good to be clean and tidy but I also don't want to be Doped into handing out more of my money to do a service that isn't necessary.

 

[aircooled]

They're probably just going to pour a quart of something in your engine and charge you for a "flush". Just keep your oil changed regularly and don't worry about that kinda crap..

 

[notfred]

It's not really going to do much. Imagine you've got a milk jug full of water. Every three months you pouyr out the old water and put in new water. The water doesn't always stay clean, and is often heated to several hundred degrees. Because of that, the bottom of the milk jug has a layer of dirt crusted onto it.

Now, here's the engine flush: pour soapy water into the milk jug. Pour it out again. Pour in clean water again.

You really think that's gonig to get it clean?

 

[Tominator]

Ripoff! This is NEVER needed.

 

[aircooled]

Also keep in mind that modern oil contains detergent that keeps it clean internally....

 

[speed01]

^ What they said...

Speed

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: bleeb
he said that regular oil changes still doesn't do enough to stop the sludge build up.... sure it sounds good to be clean and tidy but I also don't want to be Doped into handing out more of my money to do a service that isn't necessary.

As long as you change the oil every 3,000 miles, you'll never need to flush the engine. I put 217,000 miles on my old Accord (rusted into oblivion, engine still strong) and I never had to flush the engine. The only thing that is cleaned out by the flush is your wallet.

ZV