Skip to main content

Read our primer articles on Oil Analysis and Tribology

Closed6 replies

6.4 F450 oil sludge

R ranchopowerMember
I recently had failure on a truck I serviced, F450 2008, high speed turbo failed, exploded and turbo drain seal burnt off.
Ford dealer refuses to honor warranty due to the discovery of oil sludge in engine.
I had to go to the dealer and pull a UOA and wait for the results.
The dealer says oil sludge from lack of oil changes.
UOA results came in with a 450ppm sodium and flagged for coolant contamination.
Ford dealer says that is not the cause of sludge.
They say the use of non CJ-4 oil caused the sludge.
I see the game here but fact is the oil condition is still good with 10.4 visc@100
and a 5.86 TBN reading, just no good due to coolant contamination.
why do I have to school the experts at Ford?
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

L lamontbdumontMember
You have to school Ford because they have a dog in this fight - they are going to find a way not to pay a legit claim. Most of my tech service work was industrial, but of the few automotive incidents I've worked, coolant contamination (via a damaged head or intake manifold gasket) was the most frequent root cause.

The vis tells me there has not been significant oxidation, sodium says there's almost certainly a coolant leak, coolant in oil causes sludge. Looks prety airtight to me. When you pulled this apart, was there any physical evidence of the leak? That might help build your case.

Somehow, no matter what they find, it's always Our Crappy Oil that caused the problem...

Or not.
R ranchopowerMember
thanks for the reply! this particular vehicle was owned by a good friend, still is.
Unfortunately He did not follow my advice in the beginning, to take UOA evey 5000 miles.
then when he had failure he called the dealer first.
He calld me after the truck was at the dealer for weeks.
So he stuck himself in the mess.
to give an update, he fixed the Turbo himself.
2 weeks later he siezed the engine when a injector washed down a cylinder...

Javier
Post

Membership Required

We're sorry. You must be signed in to continue. Sign In or Register
×
Are you sure you want to remove from your Block List?
×
Loading...
×
When you block a person, they can no longer invite you to a private message or post to your profile wall. Replies and comments they make will be collapsed/hidden by default. Finally, you'll never receive email notifications about content they create or likes they designate for your content.
Note: if you proceed, you will no longer be following .
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×