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Re: 9-3 synthetic oil change interval after rebuild? Posted by Sondeen [Email] (#796) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Sondeen) on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 15:12:30 In Reply to: 9-3 synthetic oil change interval after rebuild?, 900Fun, Tue, 17 Jun 2014 12:04:33 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
The general consensous from this board is that 10k mile oil changes are too long for that car, 5k changes are recomended. However there are many variables to consider, and I would not necessarily say run away from the car. Is this the only concern with the car?
The bright side is that the seller has been changing the oil with full synthetic - does he have records? is he using the right weight and grade? a top name oil like Mobil 1?
Heat and short trips are a contributor to sludge formation. I think is it likely a car used for fequent city driving in the South is more sludge prone than a car used for highway driving weekend road trips in the North. There is no exact science to predict what is happening with this car. Best bet is drop the oil pan ($$$) and/or pull the valve cover off ($) to inspect for sludge. But this might be costly for a used car of this age. If the price is right, perhaps you roll the dice and implement a change to 5k change intervals going forward.
My story, take it for what it is worth, is that I bought a CPO 2001 9-3 in 2004. It had 25k on it. I initially was going 8k to 10k intervals on my first few oil changes with Mobil 1, knowing that for most cars that is perfectly fine, as high quality synthetic oil is good for these long intervals. I do mostly highway driving in the northeast. Then I started reading about the sludge problems with the 9-3 engines. I really had no idea what the first owner did for oil changes. I began to get concerned as when I brought the car to the dealer for an oil change, I needed to make a special request for full synthetic, it seemed they were ready to use standard oil otherwise. As luck would have it the dealer dropped the pan at 50k to chase an engine noise. They were checking for sludge and pump starvation. (noise ended up being bad alternator, not sludge) While the pan was dropped they found a the oil pick up screen partially clogged with some sludge, an some sludge in the pan. I got a new screen installed and the pan cleaned under CPO warrantee. Since then I have only run Mobil 1 with 5k or 1 yr. change interval. At 105k now all is still ok. So in my expericence, long change intervals and perhaps not using full synthetic for the first 2 changes will lead to some sluge formation. I was fortunate to get in taken care of before it caused problems.
->Posting last edited on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 15:14:18.
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