This is Why I Don't Change My Oil

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Well, maybe. The idiot reference is aimed at guys on the threads that choose not to have their oil analyzed but instead change it ridiculously often and thus remain oblivious to what's actually in it.

How much does the test cost??? Walmart changes the oil in my car for $25 every 5000 miles...

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

How much does the test cost??? Walmart changes the oil in my car for $25 every 5000 miles...

But do they tell you if you have an unusual upward swing in your wear particles that will red flag a problem? Or if you have antifreeze in your oil when you never had it before? Why wouldn't you want to know that when a beautiful FE engine is a good $20k investment nowadays? Why would you just blindly change your oil without examining the evidence as to how your engine is doing? And btw, Blackstone charges $35 for the UOA and ten bucks more for the TBN. Jeez, if you've got to squeeze twenty bucks a year out then you're in the wrong hobby.

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by patrickt

But do they tell you if you have an unusual upward swing in your wear particles that will red flag a problem? Or if you have antifreeze in your oil when you never had it before? Why wouldn't you want to know that when a beautiful FE engine is a good $20k investment nowadays? Why would you just blindly change your oil without examining the evidence as to how your engine is doing? And btw, Blackstone charges $35 for the UOA and ten bucks more for the TBN. Jeez, if you've got to squeeze twenty bucks a year out then you're in the wrong hobby.

It's just a Honda CRV with 26K miles on it. I've got OCD but not on car oil.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

It's just a Honda CRV with 26K miles on it. I've got OCD but not on car oil.

Well I agree with that. I don't do it on my regular cars either. If the engine seized up on one of them I'd use it as an excuse to buy a new car.

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Well I agree with that. I don't do it on my regular cars either. If the engine seized up on one of them I'd use it as an excuse to buy a new car.

It's a 2015 and we only drive it around town and the things we need most are only two miles away. The low duty cycle, high ambient temp (Vegas) and the horribly dusty air are why I change it at 5K. The new engines do get to operating temp much faster so even with the short drives it's at temp before we get there (stop lights that are always red add to the time). I look at the oil before and it's always clean as new. Honda says 7500 miles and their built-in "oil life" usually says 65-70% and that "system" supposedly accounts for the type of usage.

[hauss]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Well I agree with that. I don't do it on my regular cars either. If the engine seized up on one of them I'd use it as an excuse to buy a new car.

Now I know why you do not change your oil. You are saving for a new car. I would like to see your new oil, compared to you used oil, test results .That would be better .

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by hauss

Now I know why you do not change your oil. You are saving for a new car. I would like to see your new oil, compared to you used oil, test results .That would be better .

This was a VOA of Brad Penn that I had performed back in 2007. I recall that sometime after that there was some discussion that Blackstone was not measuring Zinc/Phos correctly for several manufacturers of oil (this was when the cam lobe failures were going on), of which BP was one, and those numbers went up across the board for several manufacturers. BP has always stated in their literature that their Zinc/Phos numbers were and are, as I recall, closer to the 1500 mark. Regardless, I always add a bottle of the original GM EOS. GM changed their formula maybe 15 years ago but I have a couple of cases of the original stuff. That is why in my UOA you will see my Zinc/Phos numbers a bit higher along with some of the detergent numbers. My used oil analysis from last year, which was four year old oil, was in the very first post of this thread.