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New Member with Sludge in Engine

14590 Views 45 Replies 25 Participants Last post by  vml46901
Hello,
New member here. I have a 2015 Nissan Murano that has sludge in the engine. It only have 51,000 miles. And yes, I changed the oil.... At every start up, I get BIG puffs of white smoke. I really like Nissan, as this is my second Nissan vehicle, but this sludge issue is changing my mind. Has anyone else had or have this problem. Everyone tells me to trade it in. Nissan says I need a new engine. Any suggestions or fix?
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You may want to have it examined by someone else. White smoke sounds like a headgasket problem. Is your old black or is it kind of like chocolate milk?
Anyway its surprising on such a young engine that has not done incredible mileage. If it is sludge you can have the engine cleaned with seafoam or something similar.
You might also want to make sure the oil used is the right viscosity, and ideally use a full synthetic that will prevent sludge in the first place. Good luck. Let us know what you find out.
Hello,
New member here. I have a 2015 Nissan Murano that has sludge in the engine. It only have 51,000 miles. And yes, I changed the oil.... At every start up, I get BIG puffs of white smoke. I really like Nissan, as this is my second Nissan vehicle, but this sludge issue is changing my mind. Has anyone else had or have this problem. Everyone tells me to trade it in. Nissan says I need a new engine. Any suggestions or fix?
Are you getting white smoke only at startup? If so, then it's probably water vapor which may be caused by a blown head gasket or a crack in the head casting from the water chamber to the combustion chamber. Perform a compression test on all cylinder and then if you find a suspect cylinder, follow it up with a leak-down test which will pretty much nail down the actual defect spot.

However if the smoke is blue in color and is always there, then that's an indication of oil burning. A good way to test for oil burning is to first fully warm up the engine. Stand behind the car. Have someone rev the engine to around 4,000 RPM and hold at that RPM for about 15 seconds. If you see a lot of blue smoke come out of the tailpipe, the engine is burning excessive oil. If it's black smoke, then it may be leaking fuel injectors.

If it turns out to be ether a blown head gasket or a cracked head, the expense of that fix is considerably less then a total engine replacement.

If you plan to de-sludge the engine, step #1 - manually clean out the valve chamber area that's under the valve cover. Step #2 - drop the oil pan and clean out any sludge there; remove the oil pickup screen and clean it. Be real careful when using any sludge remover; run engine for some short period of time, then drain oil and replace oil filter; do this at least 5 times. Just use some cheap oil and filter when doing the cleaning. If you don't go through the drain/replacement cycling like I suggested, you could end up with a lot of loose sludge that could plug up some critical oil galleries and cause engine damage.
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Is it really “sludge” same issue 2015 Pathfinder only 47,000 miles and random white smoke puffs out for a few seconds then dissipates. Not just start up but anytime and not consistent. Nissan thought it was the catalytic converters and changed it but still it happens. My mr Janice can’t figure it out as the damn thing won’t do it when it in his shop and he’s been working on our cars for years, I totally trust him. Some posts say head gasket or rings issue, one forum even said a specific valve cover was to blame. I just bought this car...and I’m trying not to regret it as I love my platinum, it’s a great car but I’m thinking I might have to get rid of it and never buy a Nissan again. Please help me figure this out so I can keep my car ??????
Not mr Janice...my mechanic. Japanese Auto Specialists. He’s really good so I want to help him figure out what’s the issue with my car!!!!
New Member with random white smoke from exhaust

Update- so my mechanic says the “smoke” we bagged and provided as well as the videos we showed him leads him to believe a small coolant leak is happening and that Nissan will most likely argue with us as to what the issue is and prob not be willing to rebuild or replace the engine so I might want to get out of the vehicle. I’m so upset. I really really liked the pathfinder platinum. First time I bought a car with all the bells and whistles I wanted, 360 cameras, heated and cooling seats, leather throughout and red! I love red. I’m so very upset this has happened and that Nissan sells a piece of crap like this. 47k miles which is young for a Japanese vehicle. I’m probably going to get out of the car, can’t imagine Nissan will stand by their power train warranty and actually fix the issue. So devastated!!
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New Member with random white smoke from exhaust

Update- so my mechanic says the “smoke” we bagged and provided as well as the videos we showed him leads him to believe a small coolant leak is happening and that Nissan will most likely argue with us as to what the issue is and prob not be willing to rebuild or replace the engine so I might want to get out of the vehicle. I’m so upset. I really really liked the pathfinder platinum. First time I bought a car with all the bells and whistles I wanted, 360 cameras, heated and cooling seats, leather throughout and red! I love red. I’m so very upset this has happened and that Nissan sells a piece of crap like this. 47k miles which is young for a Japanese vehicle. I’m probably going to get out of the car, can’t imagine Nissan will stand by their power train warranty and actually fix the issue. So devastated!!
Hi I am having the same problem with my 2015 Murano 47k miles. Nissan says I need a new engine for $11,500. I’m so angry. I want to trash them all over social media. This is my 3rd Nissan. Never again.
Hello,
New member here. I have a 2015 Nissan Murano that has sludge in the engine. It only have 51,000 miles. And yes, I changed the oil.... At every start up, I get BIG puffs of white smoke. I really like Nissan, as this is my second Nissan vehicle, but this sludge issue is changing my mind. Has anyone else had or have this problem. Everyone tells me to trade it in. Nissan says I need a new engine. Any suggestions or fix?
Hi. I am in the same predicament. I have a 2015 murano 47k miles. Engine filled with sludge. Perfect service records with all oil changes required. Nissan said I need a new engine for $11,500. They have AWFUL CUSTOMER SERVICE. Never again...
Hi. I am in the same predicament. I have a 2015 murano 47k miles. Engine filled with sludge. Perfect service records with all oil changes required. Nissan said I need a new engine for $11,500. They have AWFUL CUSTOMER SERVICE. Never again...
Commenting because I see you replied only half a day ago. I’m in this same situation with a 2012 370Z. Bought the car used with 64k miles, threw a cam pos sensor code and wouldn’t stay out of limp mode by the time I got it home (3 1/2 hours later). Took it to Nissan, who told me the engine was sludged, and I’d need a replacement ($5,000 for an engine with twice as many miles as mine), or they could try to clean it (but they assured me it would never run the same again).

Let me just say, if Nissan tells you this, don’t believe their bullshit. I got the car back as my uncle wanted to do some investigating. He found the cam pos sensors were replaced with aftermarket sensors that didn’t fit the same as the OEM sensors. About $150 later, the sensors were replaced and she ran great.

This isn’t to say Nissan was wrong about the sludge - I did an engine flush and a couple oil changes, and it did seem to clean out lots of sludge. The car blew a lot of exhaust smoke afterward until I found a PCV valve was so gunked up you could no longer shake it and hear the internal components rattling around. I replaced both, which helped the issue, but a week later it began to misfire due to a spark plug being fouled. I took it to a shop who ran a compression test on the cylinder with the fouled spark plug (which came back great) and changed them all out for me. Now I’m seeing a lot of improvement in the smoke, and I suspect after my next oil change it may disappear completely as my oil is already quite dirty. I believe sludge is still being loosened and mixed into the oil, especially as the valve cover and oil pan weren’t manually cleaned. The shop I took my car to said they have seen a Pathfinder do this same thing because of sludge build up in those areas, and after cleaning (and replacing the valve cover gasket), the problem stopped. The dealership planned to do that had I let them proceed with cleaning the engine, but since they tried to make me believe my engine was toast, I decided against letting them touch anything further.

Long story short - these engines are very reliable. Your issue is likely not catastrophic. I think my car has needed TLC for awhile. The shop which changed my spark plugs told me the strut bar appeared to have never been removed. The dealership tried to convince me they were sure a previous owner had gone 20k miles or more without an oil change. The fact they even said that to me with such confidence despite knowing no history of the car tells me it was a scare tactic.

FUCK the dealership, just do as much maintenance as you can, and if nothing works or your problem worsens, then look into more expensive options. My car went from blowing awful smelling blue smoke almost every time I fired it up and after short periods at idle to now, which is that I hardly see any smoke at all except a bit after a cold start. Also be sure to keep an eye on your coolant and oil levels.

Hope my story provides some insight into your issue - it’s been an extremely frustrating month dealing with this. I have faith your engine will be okay.
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Hello,
New member here. I have a 2015 Nissan Murano that has sludge in the engine. It only have 51,000 miles. And yes, I changed the oil.... At every start up, I get BIG puffs of white smoke. I really like Nissan, as this is my second Nissan vehicle, but this sludge issue is changing my mind. Has anyone else had or have this problem. Everyone tells me to trade it in. Nissan says I need a new engine. Any suggestions or fix?
What ever came out of this?
I have a 2017 Murano and the same exact thing has happened. I have less than 60,000 miles and they are telling me I need a new engine.I have the extended warranty and they are telling me that it is probably not going to be covered because I serviced the car outside of the dealership.
I am so upset. I have never had this happen to a car of mine before. This is my first Nissan. The Customer service has been horrible and making it seem like it’s my fault.
Hi I am having the same problem with my 2015 Murano 47k miles. Nissan says I need a new engine for $11,500. I’m so angry. I want to trash them all over social media. This is my 3rd Nissan. Never again.
I feel the same way! How can they get away with this!!! Never in my life have I had a car that needed a new engine with less than 60k miles!
Hi. I am in the same predicament. I have a 2015 murano 47k miles. Engine filled with sludge. Perfect service records with all oil changes required. Nissan said I need a new engine for $11,500. They have AWFUL CUSTOMER SERVICE. Never again...
after cleaning out the sludge there is still smoke. Does anyone know how to fix this? Or what the issue is?
after cleaning out the sludge there is still smoke. Does anyone know how to fix this? Or what the issue is?
Nissan tells me I need a new engine! I am still never warranty but they said it was due to neglect. I have always had oil changes but they were not at the dealership so they are not accepting my receipts as proof. So frustrated.
I did the engine flush on my car and it did not work. The dealer says I need a new Engine. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. I changed the oil the car only has 58k miles an oil light never went on to say it was low and then this happens. Very frustrating.
I am just going to do oil changes every month and keep driving it. Who knows how long it’s going to last. Pretty embarrassing when I start up a 4 year old car but not much I can do at this point. I am not spending 11k to fix a car that I am still paying for.
I did the engine flush on my car and it did not work. The dealer says I need a new Engine. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. I changed the oil the car only has 58k miles an oil light never went on to say it was low and then this happens. Very frustrating.
I am just going to do oil changes every month and keep driving it. Who knows how long it’s going to last. Pretty embarrassing when I start up a 4 year old car but not much I can do at this point. I am not spending 11k to fix a car that I am still paying for.
It takes several flushes to get the sludge out. Just be patient; it'll clean up.
It takes several flushes to get the sludge out. Just be patient; it'll clean up.
They told me that I had a long block issue. Or the head gasket is blown. I don’t think flushing it will correct that would it?
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