Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > Interests > Tilted Motors


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 12-29-2005, 03:02 PM   #1 (permalink)
Junkie
 
SirLance's Avatar
 
Location: In the middle of the desert.
Bilstein engine flush... Should I, or shouldn't I

I have a Chrysler sebring with 140K miles. I'm thinking about doing this, but someone whose opinion I respect thinks it might actually be bad and introduce oil to areas that wouldn't handle it well.

I'd like to regain performance and extend the life of my engine.

I'm religious about maintenance and change my oil every 3 - 5k miles.

Any advice?
__________________
DEMOCRACY is where your vote counts, FEUDALISM is where your count votes.
SirLance is offline  
Old 12-29-2005, 04:31 PM   #2 (permalink)
Unbelievable
 
cj2112's Avatar
 
Location: Grants Pass OR
well the car talk guys have this to say
Quote:
Dear Tom and Ray:

While having my 1996 Toyota Camry (45,000 miles) serviced recently, the service technician handed me a brochure and told me it was time to have my engine flushed [redtruck.gif] (to the tune of $129) by something called the Bilstein R-2000 Engine Flush System. I politely declined, saying I would consider it next time. The brochure says it should be done every 12,000 miles. In my 30 years (and my husband's 30-plus years) of driving, neither of us has ever heard of such a recommendation. Is this the latest attempt by dealers to "extort" more money from we unsuspecting drivers? Is such an engine cleansing REALLY necessary? I would appreciate your comments, please. -- Marilyn

Tom: I suspect this device is known around the dealership as the Bilstein R-2000 Wallet Flush System. And, in fact, my brother has already called Bilstein about leasing one.

Ray: What this thing does is pump a heated solvent through your engine, presumably to wash away any sludge that's built up on the valves, rings or other engine components.

Tom: And it's really quite unnecessary. Particularly for a car with only 45,000 miles on it. Changing the oil serves the same purpose -- de-sludgification, if you will -- and if you change the oil every 5,000 or 7,500 miles, you shouldn't HAVE any significant sludge that needs to be washed out.

Ray: While it's possible that such cleaning may help the engine last longer, the engine on a Toyota Camry should easily last 150,000 miles without flushing. And if you followed the advice in the brochure and flushed the engine every 12,000 miles, you'd spend $1,600 on engine flushes in 150,000 miles. That's almost enough to buy a rebuilt engine!

Tom: This is what's known in the business as a "profit center." Something the garage can use to beef up the amount each person spends per visit. So unless you've got a very old car, and are trying to solve a specific, sludge- or carbon-related-problem, I'd skip the R-2000.
I'd say it's probably not really gonna do much for your engine, but i don't think it'll do any damage either.
cj2112 is offline  
Old 12-30-2005, 04:22 PM   #3 (permalink)
Junkie
 
I don't know about Chrysler, but I know GM issued a tech service bulletin a couple of years ago strongly advising dealers to not do any Bilstein or similar type flushes, since the chemicals used for the flush may be incompatible with bearings and seals. Of course most of their dealers have these in place for reasons listed in the above article. If you change the oil every 3-5k miles like you do I can't imagine there would be any sludge buildup to worry about. Also, one of the first things I was taught in auto mechanics class is that if there is sludge in an engine, do not disturb it, unless you are doing a complete top to bottom engine overhaul. The reason for this is you may not get all of it out and then some residual sludge ends up finding its way into the bearings and wipes out the engine.
laconic1 is offline  
Old 12-30-2005, 05:00 PM   #4 (permalink)
Junkie
 
SirLance's Avatar
 
Location: In the middle of the desert.
I that clarifies what my friend was trying to tell me. He is an engineer who designs jet engines. What about cleaning fuel injectors? Is that a ripoff too?
__________________
DEMOCRACY is where your vote counts, FEUDALISM is where your count votes.
SirLance is offline  
Old 12-30-2005, 05:20 PM   #5 (permalink)
Go faster!
 
DEI37's Avatar
 
Location: Wisconsin
No. Fuel injection system service can be very helpful. Over time, deposits may be left in the injectors, or something of that nature. Properly done, they can be restored to like new condition. Throttle response, fuel economy, and power are all helped in this scenario.
__________________
Generally speaking, if you were to get what you really deserve, you might be unpleasantly surprised.
DEI37 is offline  
Old 12-30-2005, 06:31 PM   #6 (permalink)
Junkie
 
Fuel injection service is good. In addition to what DEI37 mentioned it can also help prevent misfires and if the injector were to plug up completely it would then have to be replaced, which costs a bit more than a fuel injection service. Since there really isn't any preventative maintenance on the fuel system other than changing the fuel filter, there isn't any good way of preventing these deposits from forming.
laconic1 is offline  
Old 12-31-2005, 10:00 AM   #7 (permalink)
Junkie
 
SirLance's Avatar
 
Location: In the middle of the desert.
OK, well I'm definitely gonna pass on the engine flush and have the fuel injectors serviced.
__________________
DEMOCRACY is where your vote counts, FEUDALISM is where your count votes.
SirLance is offline  
Old 01-04-2006, 10:58 AM   #8 (permalink)
MSD
The sky calls to us ...
 
MSD's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: CT
Quote:
Originally Posted by cj2112
well the car talk guys have this to say:
[article]
I'd say it's probably not really gonna do much for your engine, but i don't think it'll do any damage either.
Yes, going 5000-7500 on an oil change is an excellent idea. You will become intimately acquainted with oil sludge and the damage it causes. If you change the oil, start the car until the oil pressure warning light goes out, and the oil on the dipstick is not the same color as the oil that came out of the can/bottle, you have sludge buildup. We do motor flushes on cars all the time at work when they're thousands of miles overdue for an oil change, and I can both see and hear the difference in the engines before and after.

I wouldn't use a heated solvent in a pressurized system, what we use at work (it seems to be pretty good,) is a gallon jug of cleaning solution (kerosens-based, I think,) that we pour in after draining the oil and changing the filter, run it for ten minutes with the engine hot, then drain it and change the filter again. The stuff goes in clear and comes out in a range of colors from light brown to as dark as used oil.

Unless you're doing a rebuild, hooking up any thing pressurized to the engine anywhere other than the intake* is a bad idea. A quick lube place (where I now work, ironically enough,) blew the engine on my mom's car with a pressurized injector cleaning system.

* - only use filtered, compressed air and/or cleaning solvents intended for intake/throttle body/manifold usage
MSD is offline  
 

Tags
bilstein, engine, flush

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 12:45 PM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360