hi

money well spent i feel.

oil analysis is good but should be done over time to compare samples. One random sample may not reveal as much as a trend over a long period.

hi

by all means, but you need to establish a baseline first.

there is scads of data to be gleaned from your first one such as if your choice of oil is cutting it at the change interval, if there is indications of a coolant leak or external dirt showing up in the form of elevated levels of si.

after you find your "sweet spot" in terms of oil, change interval, filters, etc, you can just do one ot two a year to keep an eye on things if you wish

At my milage rate, i only need to change my Mobil 1 out two times a year. Nice link though, i'll definetly consider it.

hi

how many miles do you do per annum ?

Got it last june. @ 106. Drove around so much in the summer cause it was new. Worked 5 days of the week.

Oct 6th, 110,000 miles
Jan 11th 111,000 miles

So during school i drive VERY little. This includes 4 150 mile round trips home.

However March 4th-March 8th saw 2000 miles slapped on, to meet up with some nuts (Rogue being one). But i figure less then 10k a year, and now I'm using mobil 1 super syn, and was shooting for 5-6k oil changes.

hi

as much as i love as group IV oil, which M1 and the high line Amsoil are, i wouldnt necessarily shoot for the 5-6k intervals.

it sounds like you make a lot of short trips which are notoriously hard on engine and oil due to moisture contamination. Since these short trips may not be generating enough heat to "burn off" the moisture that forms in the oil during the combustion process, it may be forming acids. these acids will attack soft bearing surfaces. M1, like any other oil, can become contaminated, and once the levels of harmful acids have over come the additive package, bearing surfaces are at risk.

also, if the engine is usually operating in warm up mode, one can expect greater than usual amounts of fuel comtamination in the oil.

i would suggest using Auto-RX to clean out the engine, then switch to a good quality dino, like penz 10w-30 which is rumored to have some moly in it, and change it several times at 2000 mile intervals. Then after the second or third 2k interval with Penz, do a UOA to see how things are going.

I use M1 and extended drains, because my car sees about 200 miles a day, with about 70% being interstate. The remaining 30% is city, but the engine seldom is run at anythign but op temp.

I also flush the trans once a year, and change the filter once a year combined with three "pan drops" which changes about 40% of the atf each time. fluid is cheap insurance coupled with my B&M trans cooler.


www.auto-rx.com

I don't do many short trips at all. If i'm going out, i go out for more then one thing.

hi

i made an assumption..lol

if those few miles were mostly highway, then perhaps M1 would be a good choice. but around town driving is quite hard on oil, so quality dino and frequent changes is what i would do.

it all depends on where and how those miles were accumilated.

i thought that high milage cars should only be running on dino oil, as you could get leaks with the synthetic stuff.