Oil analysis frequency, every time or ...?
 

For anyone that's had oil analysis done, how often do you get it done?

Is it a one-and-done sort thing? Just to ascertain the health of the motor or maybe every 5 years.

Do you get it done with every oil change? That seems excessive to me, but I think there are folks that go that route. I would think that if you stick with the same oil and oil change intervals that you shouldn't really need every oil change, especially if that is 3000-5000 miles and 3-5 times or more per year.

Or maybe once every year or 4-5 oil changes is a good period (assuming same oil and oil change intervals) to monitor the health of the engine over time.

Every oil change. I just consider it an additional cost. Since I do my own changes it is still much cheaper then letting a dealership do the change.

Who are you using? Blackstone or Speediagnostix or...?

Are you taking about at-risk engines, like those with an IMS bearing, for example?

Sure, IMS or bore scoring or other vehicles. I guess your answer would depend on the possible issues.

I believe with the IMS bearing, early detection is critical before the motor is totaled. I've heard listening to the motor can be the best way to catch something even earlier.

Are you talking about a particular car or in general?

Blackstone for last 20 years, but both have a great reputation.


2000 Boxster S so looking for any early indicators

Have any of the reports ever had anything to be concerned about?

In general really.
I just did my first using speediagnostix on both of our cars, my '08 boxster S w/90k+ miles (IMS not super likely, but bore scoring somewhat likely) and my wife's 2018 3.6L Outback w/118k miles.

Nice. Wow 20 years of data!

I do mine every year, last one Mobil 1 must have changed their additives as the numbers were way off. I contacted them but they wouldn’t comment on their formulation…smh

Do you change your oil more than once per year?

Tribology is about trends in the change of the oil sample contamination, viscosity & chemical composition over time.

Tribology, the study of the interaction of sliding surfaces. It includes three subjects: friction, wear, and lubrication. There is a difficulty in that friction is generally characterized as a branch of physics or mechanical engineering, wear is part of the material science of metallurgy, while lubrication is a branch of chemistry.

It amazes me that oil can do what it does.

The results from my boxster
What's interesting is that I was previously running Mobil 1. In a 5000 mile oil change interval, I would have to put in probably 2 quarts. When I switched to Driven DT40, it seems like I only put in 1 quart and that was at 4000 miles. I didn't keep track of when I added oil, so I could be wrong.

This doesn't look bad. I also added a magnetic drain plug and it was almost completely clean. Of course, there's not tons of iron in these motors that is going to wear, I think, just the cams and coating on the skirts of the pistons (which is the important bit).
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1751744998.jpg

No just yearly, but 3 Porsches

Nothing yet. Have noticed small changes between oil brands but nothing that would lead to an issue (knock on wood)

OK, so technically every oil change.

That's another thing that I've wondered about, how often do oil manufacturers change their additive package? You get an oil that you like and works well, but then they change it and is isn't protecting like it once was. Without the analysis you don't know.

Which Mobil 1 are you using? I've always hated buying M1 because at the store there are usually half a dozen different versions and there's no clear indication exactly what makes them different other than the marketing stuff (high mileage, extended coverage, European cars, etc...)

I found this Mobil 1 link a couple of weeks back that is supposed to have more info about the additives (specifically the Phosphorous and Zinc levels (aka ZDDP), but they don't list the levels of molybdenum which is important for our Aluminum based (pistons and bores) motors.

I've also heard that not all of the versions of Liquimoly oil have molybdenum in their additive package.

What oil are you using?