New Sludge Articles

fish, i wouldnt even call whats on your valve train sludge. thats normal engine varnish, any car gets that from stuff in the oil sticking to hot engine surfaces. its totally normal and acceptable. i'd be happy if my engine is that clean at 120K.

even lawnmowers and small engines (2 strokes as well) get that varnish in them over time, infact its how the oil stains the plastic govener bits in some engines that we can deteremine age, level of use, and if its been ran hard or not. small engine oil temps really dont get high enough to sludge oil so those deposits arent really an indication of the oil getting too hot.

A statement made in "Toyotatruthseeker's" remarks, above, would appear to be completely untrue.It reads as follows: "IP addresses of the defamers (of activists) were tracked and found to be the same people doing the same postings under different identities".

 

If that is the case, and IP addresses were actually tracked--and individuals identified--this was a highly unlawful act by those who did the tracking and identifying.

That said, it isn't easy to get through Internet Service Provider firewalls, lawfully or otherwise.

There is only one way to do this --legally--one must convince a federal judge to grant a court order to do so.

It would have to be done through a law enforcement agency, if permission was to be granted.

Given the frivolous nature of any request arising from a situation as suggested in this instance, no judge in existence would ever grant such an order.

A fairly sophisicated hacker might be able to track to an ISP location, but these are large regional

servers providing intenet access to a very wide area of population. They don't provide individual locations under any circumstances, and won't unless ordered to by a court. The best most hackers could do would be to say a post came from "somewhere in a region".

Statements like that ridiculous claim are just meant to intimidate, and are nothing but meaningless threats.

I suggest that if something like this actually happened, (highly improbable that it did), then those who did it are guilty of a Federal Offence and can be prosecuted.

Those who are party to it are equally culpable, and equally subject to prosecution, so I would suggest if the author of that post had anything to do with it, best not broadcast it.

Either way, the poster is just blowing smoke!! This sort of bogus bravado was common during the sludge lady's heyday, and typical of how the campaign was conducted.

I had nothing to do with it and I disavow any knowledge of it's existence. I have no idea of the methods used or how the results were obtained. Far be it for me to to do anything of that nature.

"Far be it for me to to do anything of that nature."

Bikeman, you have nothing to be concerned about. That disclaimer was absolutely unnecessary.

Your integrity is without question here, and your constructive input in these forums is invaluable.

The only people who need worry are those who were doing what the sludge vixen claimed she and/or her associates have done, ie, "identifying" or "tracking" people she claims were using aliases or multiple usernames in various Toyota forums.

If they were doing that, those involved in "identifying/tracking" (aka illegal 'hacking') can be prosecuted.

The sludge lady herself was by far, the most prolific practitioner of using multiple usernames, and made no bones about doing so--except she would always "cry foul" when asked about it!! (she always insisted that her activities were beyond question!)

Doing so in and of itself isn't illegal, but it certainly speaks to the lack of integrity of the person who does it.

DB1 and Ellis, the information you have posted is quite valid because thousands of Toyota owners never got the infamous "sludge letter" even though their vehicles qualifed for the CSP "Engine Oil Gelation" program. Toyota itself admitted that it did not send out all of the first letters. What it has not mentioned yet is why the second letter did not go out to all affected Toyota owners.

It is difficult to attempt to get relief under a program for which you have no information whatsoever. Now that "The Complaint Station for Toyota" (hacked more than once according to the administrators) and Cartrackers.com forums (under "Toyota") are no longer active due to malicious manipulation, Toyota owners don't have many places to go to seek out information. Many owners think this is quite calculated and they wonder who is controlling the sites where owners go to complain about their Toyota problems.

The sludge fiasco was no hoax, nor was it blown out of proportion. Toyota came out with a policy in Feb. of 2002 and then a program in April of 2002. Many respected automotive-oriented magazines have published articles about this matter. No one person began the so-called "campaign" for customer justice, but several Toyota owners did link to make the issue more prominent just before the policy and program were initiated. As a matter of fact, the NHTSA got involved, too. Toyota appeased the NHTSA by coming out with the little-publicized program. There has been absolutely NO FOLLOW UP on this program to determine what Toyota is actually doing for its customers, however. Customers reveal that Toyota is slamming the door in their faces when the "sludge monster" hits. Can we say "Deja Vu" to this? Isn't that what got Toyota in all that PR trouble to begin with?

Many Corolla owners are having the sludge problem; many Corolla owners are finding premature engine failures which are unexplained. It is the belief of these owners that Toyota should include the Corolla in the sludge program. Unfortunately, Toyota has not yet mentioned the Corolla.

I believe that it is an inappropriate use of this web site to belittle other posters as has been done by some of the so-called "regulars" here. I ask the administration to DELETE the posts above that berate other posters. It isn't hard to see which posters are doing this on a continuous basis.

Thank you in advance, administration.

Charlene Blake

cblake@erols.com

I think this forum is supposed to be full of truths and actual owner experiences. I see no reason why it should include any type of character criticism. We need to stick to just the facts, so that we may form our own opinions and not be swayed, left or right. Let's be civil and just "tell it like it is".

To add to your comments Bikeman (you are quite correct, BTW), I also suggest it's inappropriate to use this forum as a platform for Political Activism of any sort.

As you said, this is supposed to be a place for individual owner experiences and inquiries.

As I understand, this forum is currently visited by a well known activist whose cause is also well known, and whose participation in this forum and others consistently reflects that cause.

Whether the the intent or purpose of the activism is right or wrong is not the question.

It's the use of alarmist, manipulative, and politically stylized rhetoric, always slanted toward the activist's objectives which becomes the issue.

Using forums like this for promoting organized public or personal vendettas is wrong, and I believe it violates the rules we all agree to when we become participants.

To be fair to all participants, this is not the place where that type of activity should occur.

Individuals thus involved in consumer activism should create their own sites, not use sites like this one to promote their causes.

Ellis -- i followed your links and most of your info is good. Sorry but it is correct that some (not all) of the links are not working. One link that is very interesting because it reflects some of the comments i see here is on the Liquia blog link. Below i have a quote from that link.

August 25th, 2005 As I mentioned, my post on the Toyota problem had attracted the attention of a dissident, who was quite strident in his support of Toyota. I had hoped that he would bring some real evidence to the table, but alas, what little evidence he had was delivered among profanity and insults. I’ve had to remove a few of his posts to keep the tone civil, but have otherwise let him be.

 

But yesterday, the dissident (one George Jones, apparently from Canada) took a step too far, and impersonated the author of a critical petition, claiming her work was all a fake.

The comments are still there; I have no intention of removing the evidence of this person’s vileness. But I did contact the target of the fraud, Charlene Blake, who was happy to pass on information regarding the petition and the extraordinary harassment campaign she’s endured.

Jeff, I went briefly to check this George Jones….can’t post now….BUT……he is LYING! I have NEVER added one name to the petition, nor have I signed the petition more than ONCE….the first one! You have someone committing libel on your site!

Also, some more interesting information: the petition signatures Jones asserts were fake turned out to be, in fact, fake. But not in the way you might expect:

My petition has had many (see all the “deleted” lines) attacks from the SAME individuals who job it is to STOP me. They have not succeeded, however.

Get that? They tried to fill the petition with bogus signatures, and then cite the very deletions as evidence that the petition is bogus. Here’s an example of one such deleted “signature” she forwarded to me:

MORE PHONY NAMES!! COMPLETE FAKERY HERE!!!! GUESS WHAT? CHARLENE BLAKE HAS RETURNED FROM THE TRIP TO FLORIDA AND HAS STARTED POSTING PHONY NAMES AGAIN. NOTHING WAS HEARD OVER THE HOLIDAY UNTIL YESTERDAY, AND NOW THE CHARADE STARTS UP AGAIN. AFTER NO ACTIVITY FOR ONE ENTIRE WEEK, NAMES START APPEARING TWO AT A TIME. WHO DO YOU THINK WE ARE CHARLENE BLAKE—YOUR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS???

This appears to be one battle in a long war against Ms. Blake, in several car forums.

Now, I have nothing against Toyota. As I mentioned before, as long as you know what you’re getting into, Toyota vehicles can be a great choice. No one’s perfect, and Toyota certainly has done better in this regard than some. (I note, with glee, that Ms. Blake cut her teeth on Chrysler before taking on Toyota; if only she could have helped me with my trouble-mobile!) I don’t necessarily endorse everything Charlene Blake has ever done, or claim that Toyota is never the victim of deception perpetrated by dishonest customers.

But harassment as a response? That’s dirty pool. And when my own blog is used as a conduit of some of that harassment, I get downright angry. Maybe Ms. Blake is the one at fault on all those other car boards and petitions, but I know what happened here, and I know who I’m inclined to believe based on both personal experience and past performance.

And what’s worse, these people are meddling in affairs that are none of their business to try and prevent others from getting restitution from harm done to them. If these owners are trying to defraud Toyota, do we really think poor, hapless Toyota is doomed without net.trolls to come to their rescue? Certainly not! And what if the net.trolls are wrong, and they are helping a company defraud innocent private citizens who lost good money over lemons? It would almost be better to learn that the trolls are paid company shills–motivated by mere greed–than to consider that these people did it for the sheer depraved, sadistic pleasure of hurting people.

For this post only, I’m modifying the comment policy. Anyone–anyone at all–posting here with even the slightest hint of slander against me, Ms. Blake, or anyone else will find their comment text deleted and their identity exposed to the best of my ability. Don’t like it? Post on your own blog, with whatever comment policy you can stomach. This is what happens when people use my site to perpetrate vileness. And further comments will be disabled on the original post.

UPDATE (2005-10-10): Well, that was fun. I suppose I’ve underestimated the tenacity of the “Charlene-Blake-Is-The-Devil” cult. Playtime’s over, kids; time to stalk Ms. Blake somewhere else.