The owner of this vehicle is known as a "bleeder". They buy a new car and then they bleed it for two or three years and then they dump it onto someone else. Then they buy another new one and start the whole process all over again.

One of the best videos on documented no or delayed oil change and sludge formation. Well explained and shown. It is sad to see that the owners can carelessly thrash and mistreat their cars.

It just gives me confidence that my RAV4 will serve me well for years to come given that I service it correctly.

I bought a car like this years ago. Cleaned out the valve covers and rocker arms, cleaned out the oil pan and pick-up. Then ran a quart of engine flush with cheap oil. Did three more oil changes with a quart of engine flush over the next 200 miles. Removed the valve covers and engine oil pan and the sludge was gone. Kept the car for another 50k miles with no issues. Can’t believe that the mechanic didn’t try to flush the engine first.

3 years !! Wow ... and its still running ? What a Toyota feeling !! I will certainly keep my Toyota rav4 forever . Great educational video thank you !!

You're better off having more frequent oil changes using store brand oil ( must meet manufacturers recommendations which most do ) then using expensive brands and go longer between oil changes. You'll never have issues no matter which brand you use as long as it's the right oil for your car . I do 5k and use synthetic walmart oil and my car is at 160k miles and still running strong. I bought it brand new 15 years ago and never had an issue with it.

Its amazing how new the engine compartment looks. Good lesson that things arent always what they seem at first glance.

A timely wake up call to inexperienced owners. I have great admiration for that engine it deserves another chance

It's a miracle this thing still runs. I abide by the old rule of 3,000 miles or 5,000 km oil changes. I recently changed my valve cover gasket on my 2014 RAV4. It was super clean inside. Oil is cheap compared to a new engine.

People who pay no attention to the engine they drive also pay no attention to themselves or anyone else for that matter. These people are best avoided. 👍

As a fellow mechanic, I'll say these super high oil service intervals are a real killer of motors. Especially with how hard customers beat there cars

What a shame. An almost new vehicle ruined by the owner because they wanted to save a few bucks or were too lazy to get it serviced. Thanks for a great video.

My dad has a 2019 rav4 le and that thing is still going strong with 175k miles on it. He drives Uber and does oil changes every 5k. That goes to show if you don't neglect the car it will take care of you.

Nice video Darrek! Very informative and interesting to watch despite feeling so sorry for that poor engine. I'm also surprised that the engine didn't seize up, quality build I guess! Thanks for sharing!

All good info - I loved the video showing how much sludge the engine builds up from neglecting oil changes -

I have 338.000 miles on my 94 Trans Am I bought new. 3000 mile oil changes. I have never looked at the oil cap. Its original to the car, so I went out and took it off, it looks absolutely clean, and looking down inside the engine all I saw was clean metal. Castrol GTX 10 30 is all thats been used, no synthetic. Engine runs great, sounds perfectly healthy! Uses no oil between changes.

First thing I do when I look at a used car...open the fill cap and look inside with a flash light. I've seen cars with 150k miles that look brand new inside. I've also seen cars with 20k miles that look like the engine in this video.

I have seen this with 3 engines I have had in 20 years. The first one I did an oil change and added a quart of diesel and revved it to 2-3k for about 30 mins… then changed oil and did the same thing.. then changed a 3rd time and out all oil in it. The second car I didn’t do anything and it blew up about 30 mins after leaving my shop. The last one I put diesel and marvel oil in and did the same thing as first car. The diesel oil cleaned the engines spectacularly and the first car has been running for more than 12 years since I cleaned the sludge out. The other car has been about 8 years running on original engines. The 1st and 2nd were Honda accords and the last was a Mazda 3.

I own a 2018 RAV and have seen many sludge buildup videos before. I wouldn't have thought it was possible to get the engine into this state in only a few years. Clearly it is.

It's always good to change the oil yourself, you have the confidence that your car is well taken care off.

I am glad I change oil and simply maintenance on my cars, I believe it was the sole reason my Honda Civic got to 300K+ and engine was still in a wonderful shape with no leaks, just two gear on manual transmission started to slip and I traded it.

The amount of abuse a car engine can take is amazing! Thanks for the video!

If this was mine, I would first remove as much sludge as possible from under the valve cover and inside the oil pan. Just doing this would probably remove 80-90% of the sludge inside the engine. Then, do some short oil change intervals to remove much of the rest. After doing these two things, it would probably be quite safe to do an engine flush to finish things off. Also, if lifter tick continues, it may be necessary to remove and clean or possibly replace the lifters.

A really clean engine without at least brown deposits everywhere is very very rare these days. I changed oil on a golf that looked like this. The guy had just bought it. It came back with a blown rod bearing a few weeks later. In the end this is a ticking timebomb. Every fresh oil or engine flush could break loose and plug oil channels...its good you document this. If cars break the people often think the last mechanic working on it messed something up...

Unbelievable car service neglect. How other people would grossly neglect such an expensive vehicle is beyond my imagination.

Kia and Hyundai did the same thing - they had just "regular oil for up to one year" but 12,000km or more. Now for my car they specifically said "very important" 7500k and/or 6 month quality synthetic - never listen to anyone that says you can go further or use lesser oil.

I bet MOST used vehicles are LIKE this. MOST Toyota dealers would use an engine flush, install new oil/filter & sell at an excellent conditioned RAV4 & sell it "AS IS". 🙄😡. I DO give you alot of credit for your thorough analysis/tear down. I OWN a 2019 Prius from new, change MY oil @ 8046 kms or 6mos.whichever comes first. Wasting money/oil? NOT ME. I owned a used 97 Camry that I changed every 4,828 km & oil on dipstick was STILL clean for 1,609 kms on it! Had 400,262 km on it and would STILL have if it had not rusted out. I live in the rust belt.

I did the sludge look on a Corolla I checked out for my son. I put the fill cap back on and simply said "this one's not for us." Best move I ever made on a used car. Toyota has statistically been best for me, but just because it's a Toyota doesn't mean you don't have a look. Thanks for posting this!

Sad to see a new car treated like this. I bought a used 1979 Celica Gt in 1987 to drive back and forth to work. The original owner had done 3 or 4 oil changes in 8 years. Surprisingly the car ran pretty good. The 20R engine was a beast. A trusted old mechanic told me what to do to clear some of the sludge. I drained the oil, changed the oil filter, added 2 quarts cheap oil and 3 quarts of transmission fluid. I drove it around for a couple of hours, not revving the engine. Drained the oil and was amazed at the chunks of sludge that came out. I did this once more in a month. I ran cheap oil in the car for the next 3 years. I was told that ATF had high levels of detergents. In 1990 I traded it in for a new Isuzu pickup.

Do your oil every 5k miles folks, simple and cheap maintenance that'll keep your engine running for a long time without issues

Just proves how tough Toyota engines are, imagine if you changed the oil every 3000 miles.

Been there, done that. Thank you. First thing I do. take off oil fill cap. 1st time I didn't I got stung! I was lucky, found an engine w/ 2k miles for 6oo usd. My neighbor was a Certified mechanic. I already owned an engine lift.

Some owners are hopeless.

The compression is good becasue the pistion rings are full of sludge making a great seal to the cylinder wall! :)

I dated a girl once who asked me to look at her car because it was “Driving strange”. I didn’t know a lot about vehicles back then but knew enough to ask her how often she changed the oil. She responded with “Change the oil to what?” I knew she had that car at least 2 years and had no idea it was possible for a vehicle to survive that long without changing the oil…didn’t really know it was possible for someone not to know the oil needed to be changed either though. 2012 Sonata…well built engines.

I think this just shows the durability of the engine to be neglected the way it has and still runs.

I do this on every used vehicle I look at. You never know how well someone took care of it until you look inside the engine.

This video is a testament to how incredibly well built and over-engineered Toyota cars are. Any other manufacturer with an engine suffering this level of neglect would have thrown valves, a con-rod or had severe ring blow-by (blue exhaust smoke). Not this Toyota. Perfect cylinder compression and clean spark plugs. It still runs, albeit with a "top end noise" as you say. Good luck with the engine swap and be sure to give the owner a slap upside the head. I'd be very curious to see the condition of the cylinder walls. The block might be reusable.

Great top view camera shot! First time i'd seen anyone do it this way. Great idea!

It's great to see people sharing important information about car maintenance and awareness! Engine oil sludge can indeed be a concern for any vehicle owner, and the Toyota Rav4 is a popular choice for many. It's always helpful to know what to look out for to keep your car running smoothly. Regular maintenance and staying informed can make a huge difference in the longevity and performance of your vehicle. Keep up with staying informed and proactive about car care! 🚗💡🔧

I agree with whatever is said about need for timely maintenance. Compression is good, engine is running and some oil did drain out. If it were me I would put quality synthetic oil and do couple short interval oil changes and gradually increase oil change interval. You would be surprised how clean the engine would get without tearing it down and cleaning it after few oil changes.😊

I purchased a 2004 Highlander (in 2017) with only 75k miles. Took to shop for timing belt, valve cover gasket, etc. They took pictures of the valve train, cover, pan and sump which looked like this, even worse as it was also chunky and hard packed. Likely the previous owner used very cheap oil combined with consistently short trips. Mechanic's advice was clear, "Get rid of this car..." As some of the comments suggest, I felt I had nothing to loose at that point. Ended up trying the suggestions which generally recommend the following: Change oil and filter, including adding quart degreaser (kerosene, diesel, trans fluid, Seafoam, motor flush). Run/drive briefly. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. (Lots of trips to the oil recycling dump.) Since then I started using high quality synthetic oil without fail at every 5k miles/6 months (Toyota spec). I also still run the (Motor Medic) motor flush (5 minutes only) just before each oil change hoping to continue flushing out any remaining gel. So fortunate that at 170k miles it still runs quiet, smoothly and burns no oil. In this case, glad to have tried something which has worked so far.

It really depends on the design of the valve covers. Engines models that place oil baffles below the filler cap (this is common) will look sort of like this even when maintenance has been good. The main red flag here is the color of that stuff. The more it looks like a chocolate milkshake the scarier it is for concerns about a failure of a seal somewhere that is allowing coolant and oil to mix. SOME of that however can happen just due to cars used only for short trips. You have to try to figure out what the car's story likely is from all the clues.

HOLY CRAP!!!!! WOW!!!! and people don't seem to think its necessary to change the oil in their car when the light comes on.

Yea if it was me I'd give it a few flushes and fresh oil. Compression is OK so the only issue is the top end - no way would I be throwing in a new engine at that stage.

It seems when you tell people they drive the most reliable car in the world , they get sloppy ........... Why should I worry , its a Toyota man !!!!

Awesome tube channel mate!! I appreciate your tips and tricks. I hope Toyota have realised the benefits of information like yours. Looking forward to becoming a Guest at your dealership.

Very good discribtion of WHY people should keep up with maintiance of their vehicle. You did good Pal.

I had a friend who thought cars just ran on gas and yearly inspections 😂 He didn’t change oil for an entire year once. Some people just have no clue in life

I had a vw golf come into work at similar km to this (65k) still had the 1000km basic check service on the windshield, had engine lights on, but the customer only came in because the brakes were making a bad noise (pads worn out and on metal) nothing was said about a service just fix the brake noise, just wow...

Wow, I didn’t know this could happen with modern oil. Cars from the 60’s would look like that when I got them as a youngster.

it doesnt mean the engine is bad. clean and hope 😍 engine needs some love

The key to engine failure is lack of maintenance, and since only 25 percent of people do regular maintenance, only 25 percent of used cars are worth a tinker’s damn.

I can't believe that people spend the big bucks on purchasing a nice vehicle and refuse to pay $210 for a capped price service. I'd hate to think how much a new engine and labour cost would be. Very sad....

A testament to Toyota engineering!

Great to see a professional at work. And an amateur owning a car

I’ve bought several vehicles just like this for very cheap due to being diagnosed needing a new engine even though the compression was good. I warm up the engine, dump the oil and filter, add the cheapest required oil and oil filter, do normal driving for about 10 minutes. If the dumped oil is still looking bad but getting better you can skip the oil filter change to every other time and increase the time between changes. Just keep repeating as necessary the process of oil and filter changes plus increasing the time between changes eventually to hours and then days as long as you see progress. I rarely use an engine flush additive on newer vehicles which have very small oil passages being worried too much sludge will be dislodged too fast clogging up and causing catastrophic failure plus new oils have plenty of detergent additives already in them. If the oil is looking better after several oil changes and after pulling the valve cover you find sludge in many corners and tight places you can choose to use an engine flush additive then. On the very worst vehicle (a small truck with 137,000 miles) I worked on,,,,the owner bought new and believed you didn’t ever have to change engine oil and that as long as it had oil all was good, you just add as needed. This was the worst case I’ve ever seen. The oil was as thick as hot grease. So I added diesel fuel instead of engine oil to it, ran it for a minute before dumping it, had to repeat the process twice before using standard engine oil flushes. Even as bad as it was it came out successfully and sold it with a warranty having no call back. This method has worked effectively for me on many different vehicles,,,only down side it is time consuming. Lastly use your best judgement on which methods and cleaning/flushing fluids would be proper for your situation and vehicle design. There is not only one way to get the job done.

It's sad to see how this owner treated their car, their house probably doesn't look any better. Excellent work showing how important regular oil change is !

I really enjoyed this video. Thank you for taking the time to make it and post it. Nice music too.

I own a 2019 Rav4 Adventure, i change the oil every 3K miles, at 40K miles i changed the original Toyotire open country's they lasted 3 years! 🤯 it currently has 65K miles and i will be changing the transmission fluid very soon, only 2 issues i had were the low pressure Fuel pump recall and currently the key not being detected forcing me to manually open my car. That's it 💯

The opening video showing a sludged up RAV4 2019 is quite simply shocking.

Fill the crank case with diesel fuel and run the engine for awhile and it will dissolve the sludge

Nice job on the video, showing the lack of maintenance, Toyota is the best brands out there

Sir very well documented and the little fact of either 5k or 6months in changing oil is key.

Cool video. Even cooler comments. Quite a few people are saying sludge can be cleaned by putting a mix of diesel and oil, idling it for a while to get it flowing, and repeat this flush a few times. I've never done that before but I'll try to keep that in mind if I ever find myself facing something weird like this. I wonder what the oil filter looked like.

If there's no bottom end knock then a BG restoration is worth a try. We've saved an engine that was worse than this and it cleaned up a treat!

Never taken my car in for service since I bought it (2nd hand). I don’t wait for a specific interval, as soon as it starts looking darker or dirty at all it’ll get a change whether interval is up or not usually with. Chemical treatment before changing. Only use full synthetic. Transmission has been flushed twice with new fluid too.

The best oil contamination video i have ever seen!

Don't buy a car where they've religiously followed Toyota's maintenance schedule. 10,000 mile oil changes are BS. Change at 5000. Don't care if it's synthetic or not.

I don't understand how someone with a 2019 model year vehicle can claim they did not know they had to change the oil. You have to make a conscious decision every time you start your car up to ignore the bright warning message on your dash saying maintenance is required.

Wow. I had no real idea that the time interval was that critically important. Will be changing my ways. And my oil.

Amazing the engine is still working

This engine looks like a good candidate for a BG Dynamic Clean! It may even take two BG services as bad as that sludge problem is. 😊👍

I’ve bought many abused cars like this,I just changed the oil and went. They really clean themselves up with several early oil changes.

I purchased my 2021 Yaris from this dealership. No regrets whatsoever. I'm amazed that anyone would not bother to do the required maintenance. It's so cheap and they'll even lend you a car for the time that the service is being done.

I have never seen sludge that bad but I’m not a mechanic. I have a relative who told me that she had never changed the oil in her car. Her brother-in-law finally changed her oil and he said it was very thick and dirty.

EXCELLENT VIDEO!!! Exactly the sort of detail I was looking for to educate others on this subject...well done! As a piece of constructive feedback, I feel it would be helpful to insert some text (around the 2:40 mark) warning of the potential risks associated with using a pressure washer to clean the engine and engine bay area if care is not taken. And if I may add a personal concern: Some hybrid vehicles may have a higher risk of oil fouling & dilution where the gasoline engine only operates for a small portion of each drive and fails to reach ideal operating temperature on a regular basis.

Thanks for the video, need to book my car for a service

I have never ever seen an engine be this abused and still run like this one does. This person is very lucky if a lot of oil changes clean it out and there is no damage. At the very least they probably have cut the life of this engine a specific percentage. My car I sold a few years ago was a 2006 Saab 0-3 with about 200,000 miles on it. The engine is fine and now the second owner is maintaining it with oil changes every 5000 miles. It now has 245,000 miles on it. This I doubt will make it to 200,000 miles.

People neglect their car this much don’t deserve to be driving

The customer of this Toyota doesn't need any vehicle, get a bicycle.

It’s a credit to Toyota that the engine has survived this punishment.

Amazing Toyota build quality

It's a Toyota, spray the top and lower end down with brake cleaner and wiper all that sludge out drop in fresh oil run it 1000 miles with some marvel mystery oil, change out the oil and put in fresh with some STP engine treatment with Zinc and she'll be good as new.

Its like an Oil field in there. Crazy 😂

I ran a high detergent diesel oil in a motorbike to clear a sprag starter clutch that regularly clogged up. This not only cleared the gear, but the rings also. It started, idled and ran more smoothly afterwards. I would recommend this way to anyone with this problem. It worked for me.

I had an Elantra I bought like this and it ran perfectly

Don't need a new engine, I'd just drain and refill the engine several times with a sludge treatment additive. Compression is still good as is the oil pump and pickup. I'd do about 5-6 oil changes with an additive running the car for half an hour at a time. You'll be amazed at how many chunks of sludge will break down and come out the sump plug opening. Being a Toyota, it is a very well built engine that would probably go on for another few hundred thousand kilometres with proper maintenance and oil changes every 5000kms. Can't help but think that this Toyota dealer is being a bit hasty in replacing this engine. An engine like this is probably going to cost at least $7-10k including labour. 5-6 oil changes might only cost $300-$400 for the oil and filters.

this is EXACTLY why you change the oil every 5k miles !! or 8000 kilometers regardless of what toyota says

This is why you always open up the oil cap and flash a light & try to see the best you can.

I do my oil changes all the time and never let exceed 5,000 miles and always using the best filter and synthetic oil available. My cars run like new.

If the plugs look good the compression is good and there's no obvious sign of engine damage just use the BG total engine restoration kit that will dissolve all that sludge and flush it out should be good to go.

This is only a 3 yr old car with 65,000km. Amazing!

I like the nice sprinkling of glitter here and there in the chocolate sludge. Its very nice;)

It has definitely been neglected on the part of the oil change at either the dealership or what ever vendor has been taken to, this RAV4 sounds like it has a DIESEL ENGINE, yet the sludge for such low miles it’s huge, hope the owner can fix it, and learns to do it yourself, that way he can make sure his oil and filter are changed, good luck sir.

These are vey good engines from Toyota. I've got one in my 19' Camry hybrid, it runs strong. I would have changed the oil and ran it if I got that vehicle on the cheap. That would have never happened if I were the one to own it from new. Those engines do make some noise up top, its normal for them.

If you really love your Toyota and want the engine to last like a Toyota engine should, I suggest oil changes every six months or 10K, which ever comes first. As the man said, oil is cheap compared to replacing engines. By the way Derrek, may I suggest a great channel for you to watch (if your'e not already watching!). It called the The Car Care Nut. Ahmed is a Master Toyota tech who has opened his own shop (like most outstanding tech's do one day). Some really fantastic content all about Toyota's and how to diag and fix 'em. Cheers from an old Toyota guy and keep up the good work.

Tjankyou for your advise it is to remember it is advisable to look at a cars engine

5k miles oil change, 50k miles coolant change, 60k transmission fluid flush and 60k brake fluid flush. follow this interval on every toyota and your car will last 300k miles with no issue.

I had a girlfriend in college who, with all sincerity, thought she didn't have to change her car's oil until her check engine light came on (this was before the days of engine maintenance lights). 😱 She was insulted when I told her that was one of the stupidest things I had ever heard....... she wasn't my girlfriend for long. 😏