A young friend of mine had his Christmas ruined by a $2100 bill to "desludge" his 2001 Dodge pickup engine (39,000 miles). Shades of the FSS thing, or what? Is this common, does anyone know, or has he been gouged by the place doing his oil changes (yes, he changes the oil).

Reason I ask is that the company I work for has used the oil change place he did for 20 years, and we have always gotten 300,000 or more miles out of our vehicles with no problem, and the oil is indeed fresh (he claims they put used oil in instead of new). I've checked, it's clean when changed (dipstick has clean oil on it, I'm suspicious by nature).

I've heard rumors of sludge problems on vehicles other than those MB has had with the FSS system -- those appeared to be related to using oil with insufficient life for extended use. This shouldn't be the case here.

Thanks!

Peter

__________________
1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!