5
Tried running a cheap oil flush on my 2012 F-150 at 120k miles
Grabbed that $8 bottle of engine flush from AutoZone in Cleveland last week. Followed the directions to the letter, 5 minute idle then drain. Next thing I know the oil pressure light flickers at every stop sign and I got a bad knock from the passenger side. Learned the hard way that sludge can be holding your engine together on high mileage motors. Any of you guys had a flush turn a runner into a parts car?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
jana5098d ago
...actually read something similar on a mechanics forum a while back, a guy ran that same cheap flush through his 3.5 EcoBoost and ended up with a seized turbo about two weeks later. The sludge had been blocking the oil feed line to the turbo, and once it cleared out, the line just dumped all the oil pressure into the crankcase instead of the bearings. Seems like those cheap flushes are more trouble than they're worth on any motor over 100k miles, especially if you don't know the full service history.
3
That $8 bottle from AutoZone is usually just kerosene and a few detergents mixed in, not some miracle cure. Your 2012 5.0 actually has a pretty good oiling system if you kept up with changes. But at 120k miles, if there was any neglect, that sludge was probably the only thing sealing the timing chain tensioners and the VCT solenoids. Did you check if the knock is coming from the passenger side head or down near the oil pan? Sometimes that's just a collapsed tensioner that needs a new one, not a whole parts car situation.
1
david_walker978d ago
Had a buddy who did the exact same thing with his 2014 F-150, same 5.0 motor. He used that cheap flush stuff, drove it around for 15 minutes, dumped it, and within a week his engine was knocking hard. He thought he was being smart cleaning it out. Turns out that sludge was literally holding his timing chain guides together. They crumbled and dropped the chain. Had to pull the whole engine and replace everything. His truck was at 130k miles and he'd skipped a few oil changes early on. That flush basically finished it off. So yeah, I'm with you on this one. Sometimes that gunk is the only thing keeping an older motor from eating itself.
2