Oil Analysis Test

[rspi]

Has anyone sent oil in to be tested? I know oil technology has improved a lot in 18 years and I'm thinking I may change my oil change interval if the life of my oil is better than expected. I use Mobile 1 full synthetic and usually change every 5,000 miles. If oil quality is better than 30% after 5,000 miles I may extend.

I also read that some labs will also report of other issues that may be creeping up like head gasket, wear and/or PCV issues.

http://www.edmunds.com/car-care/when-sh ... eid=164688

[cn90]

I do oil analysis ($15) on and off.

When my 2007 Honda Odyssey van drank coolant like crazy (1qt every 300 miles), I knew something was wrong.
Engine misfired, engine oil looks like milkshake.
It took Honda dealer some 4 days to diagnose the problem that I diagnosed in 1 day.
I sent the oil sample to a local company (Heavy machinery dealer such as Caterpillar, Case earth digger because they do oil analysis on these big machines all the time due to their op conditions) and sure enough there was some coolant in the oil.
As it turned out, the cylinder head Aluminum became porous after some 50K miles, allowing coolant to enter the combustion chamber.

Back to your question, if car runs fine, I would not bother.

But for high mileage engine (150K+), an oil analysis here and there can tell you quite a bit:
- engine wear (lack of lubrication)
- fuel dilution (leaky fuel injector)
- coolant contamination
- viscosity breakdown
etc.

I'd do an analysis after 5K oil change so you can learn something about the engine.

[jblackburn]

I sent some in for the Chevy and will do it again with the Toyota. I used Blackstone Labs.

With 8,000 miles on Mobil-1 Extended Performance, the oil still looked good in the Cruze and they said it would be good for another 3-4,000 miles. Would I run it 12,000 miles? Nah. But it's good to know that a 7,500-mile change interval is just fine on today's synthetic oils in a high-strung and hard-working little turbo motor. I'm not easy on my cars.

I never bothered on the Volvo because it leaked or ate so much that I added a quart in 3,000 miles anyway. But I usually changed at 6-7,000 on it, and I also drove it a lot more. Any time you add oil, you're replenishing additives, and a bigger sump capacity also helps for extended OCI's.

[rspi]

Well, I don't want motor wear but I'd like to extend oil changes a little if I can. Some are running full synthetic and still changing the oil every 3,000. I'd like to change it with 10 or 15% of good life left on it.

[jblackburn]

Changing synthetic at 3,000 or even 5,000 (in under 6 months) is just throwing away money. Most high quality synthetics or even semi synthetics will be good til 8000-10000 mile intervals if you don't do a lot of short trips or idling.

It's worth sending in an analysis at 7.500 miles and seeing what they say.

[rspi]

I usually do every 5,000. I burn about 1 quart every 2,500. I skipped an oil change once last year. I took two road trips, one of 2,000 miles and the other of 1,600 miles so I figure those miles were pretty easy on the car (I averaged about 72 mph on those trips). I don't get into boost often so I don't blow a lot of evap gases into the motor.

I think I'm going to try Blackstone at 5,000. If they say I have more than 25% left I'll go to 7,500 and test again. I started to think about it because some guy was telling me that he has oil testors in his new truch motor and he was running extended life full synthetic and at 12,500 it was saying that his oil had about 65% life left. He's looking at 20,000 mile change cycle. Heck, I switched my 960 to 7,500 cycle when I switched to full synthetic in it. Back when they produced that car in '95/'96 oils were not as good and they claimed that the 960 could go 10,000 between changes on dyno oils. So the synthetic could have gone 15,000 maybe.

Do you think 6 months is necessary or do you think full synthetic could go a year? I was thinking a year if the Mann filters could hold up. I use to put 40,000 miles per year on my cars (about 30,000 on my dd and the rest of the other cars in the fleet). Last year I only put about 22,000 on my DD which is now my only car. I was forced to resign from work due to my wife's health so I need to save money where ever I can.

[jblackburn]

Do you think 6 months is necessary or do you think full synthetic could go a year?

It'll go a year if you don't drive a whole lot (or whatever mileage you hit first).

6 months is what I'd recommend for someone who only does really short trips (3 miles or less) without ever letting the oil get a chance to warm up. Too much condensation and raw fuel would be in that oil.

[cn90]

At this age/mileage (160,000 miles for me), it is a good idea to do an oil analysis to check on the health of the engine.

Let's say there are leaky injectors, it will show as fuel dilution.
Or let's say there is internal coolant leak, glycol will show up in the oil.

I recently did a Stage 0 tune-up (new spark plugs, cap/rotor, Bougicord, new fuel filter, FI cleaner etc. etc.). You can tell the oil analysis looks good after 5,000 miles. See the report!

I use NAPA Synthetic Oil (supposedly made by Valvoline):

CNOilAnalysis.JPG (85.77 KiB) Viewed 1824 times

[abscate]

The Admirals BMW is now at 135000 with no burning or consumption. running Castrol synthetic changed every 15,000 miles. That is the factory recommendation.

But, oil change intervals top religion and politics for internet forum warp core meltdowns...

[jblackburn]

The Admirals BMW is now at 135000 with no burning or consumption. running Castrol synthetic changed every 15,000 miles. That is the factory recommendation.

But, oil change intervals top religion and politics for internet forum warp core meltdowns...

That the Euro spec Castrol?