Motor oil polymers in engine Toyota Yaris - cleaning??

[woodyallen78]

Hello guys,

I want to share with you some pictures of what happened to the engine of my Toyota Yaris Luna 1.3 liters, from year 2002 - 125,000 kms.
The symptom of this happening was a "Check engine" light on, the engine had problems starting when warm, and was resulting like "choked" at pushing of the throttle.
My car mechanic after a couple of sessions of scheduled maintenance, where he didn't notice ANYTHING at all, and replacing (with a huge money spending) in order lambda sensor, battery, air mass sensor, eventually decided to open the engine and this is what he found:

Link is removed

He said it was the oil pump, which wasn't circulating properly for years and years so the oil started to foul and polymerize locally on the crakshaft.

Does anybody have an idea of how to clean this?
Do you think the malfunctioning oil pump can be the cause of this?

Any comment/suggestion is welcome.

[vgames33]

I doubt that the oil pump caused that. Late 90s-early 2000s Toyota engines had sludge issues over here in the US. All I can suggest for you to do is to clean what's available and try some short service intervals with an oil cleaner. Do a little searching on Toyota sludge and see if anything comes up. I recommend a synthetic oil in the future to help prevent more sludge.

If that engine has VVT, its likely that the actuator is full of sludge and causing your issues.

[rustydogy]

pics look to me like you were using a straight weight oil ( 30w ) and paraffin based oils like ( Pennzoil ) I would suggest a good quality multy grade oil ( 15-40w ) like Castrol gtx...... I agree with vgames33 your oil pump did not cause that and you may want to invest in a synthetic oil

[woodyallen78]

Thanks guys for your replies. I checked the internet and apparently there is a an entire site for stories of people having sludge problems in their Toyota engines.

http://toyotasludge.com/victims

We're talking about engines which have been properly maintained (just like mine) with prompt oil change every 3000-4000 miles.
So probably it's not a fabrication defect but a design mistake of the engine itself. I came also across the fact that there was a lawsuit in the US against Toyota for this sludge problems. They lost and had to pay some millions of $.
The problem is that I'm in Europe and I will try to complain to Toyota, but honestly I don't expect to get anything from them ... they looks to be very stingy in this respect with customers

In the meanwhile I found a second hand (tested) engine with more or less the same number of kms, at one of this "car-recycling parts" places, and asked to replace, hoping that everything goes ok.

I just called and they told me that there was an electronic problem (engine light on) fault P0171 (system too lean) AGAIN!! they told me they will look at it.
Do you guys have any idea of what it can be?
Do you guys think it can be unsafe to drive my car after I have replaced the engine?

Thanks a lot again!


PS: Anyway ... it goes without saying that I will NEVER EVER buy another Toyota anymore

[vgames33]

Lean code could be alot of things. Leaking intake manifold, low fuel pressure, stuck injectors, bad O2/Lambda sensor, dirty/defective MAF, etc. I wouldn't purchase an engine without having at least removed the valve cover to check for more sludge.

Is your car drivable? Perhaps you could get a second opinion before buying an engine. The sludge may be a separate problem from your starting/running issue.