A friend of mine recently bought a 2003 jeep liberty with 180,000 miles on it. The sticker states that it had been over 20,000 miles since the oil had been changed. The car was running fine till the oil was changed then the compression on one side (3 cylinders) went way down. There was a bunch of thick black pieces in both the oil and and around the fill cap. Can he run some cleaner through the engine or is it done? He is wondering if the junk floating around has affected the valve performance or something.
A very old trick was to add sufficient STP to the engine oil to hide the fact to seal the rings on worn engines in order to get rid of it. May I suggest that your friend take the vehicle to a trusted mechanic and have the engine thoroughly check out. It may be something a lot cheaper than bad compression due to rings.
The Chrysler dealer said it needs a new engine to the tune of $7,000 bucks!The car is only worth $3500 if it’s running good. My ummm friend was thinking about changing the oil again and running some Gunk or STP etc through it then Changing it again. If the engine is already bad it’s not going to hurt anything.
Why would you go to a Chrysler dealer? Find a good, local, independent mechanic. Have them price used engines from salvage yards and give an estimate for getting & installing a used motor.
Went to the dealer simply to have diagnostic done. Had no intention of having them do any work. The costs of a good used engine installed is still over two grand. That’s one reason I’m hoping there is another solution.
Have the timing belt checked.
I ask out of ignorance. Why would that affect the compression of 3 cylinders?
I had an old mechanic tell me once to add some tranny fluid to the oil in order to clean things up. Anybody know of that trick? Or any other?
“The car is only worth $3500 if it’s running good.”
Only in your dreams…
Your only choice here is to install a used engine purchased from a salvage yard if the rest of the vehicle is in good enough shape to justify that investment…Many yards will do the installation or arrange to have it done…
By your leave… It’s a chain driven cam and unlikely to drop one cam out of time.