Oil sample analysis

Original Poster

35,203 posts

214 months

Sunday 4th February

Has anyone ever done an oil sample analysis, and if so do you think it was useful and who did you use?

I'm half tempted to do one at my next oil change.

Cheers.

Original Poster

35,203 posts

214 months

Sunday 4th February

Hoofy said:

A friend does this every year for his Porsche Boxster to check for metal from the IMS bearing.

Who does he use? If you could find out I'd be very grateful. It's only just had an oil change but I would like to do it next time around.

Original Poster

35,203 posts

214 months

Sunday 4th February

ian332isport said:

I get mine done periodically. I use Millers oils for the analysis.

https://www.millersoils-shop.co.uk/oil-analysis-ki...

Thanks. They do race/high performance or passenger vehicle, I assume I'd go passenger, or would it be worthwhile to do the race/high performance one?

I can't find a sample analysis report on their site, don't suppose you have one or know exactly what it checks for?

Many thanks

Original Poster

35,203 posts

214 months

Sunday 4th February

Smint said:

I once had an analysis done by Millers.
It was mainly to check for possible fuel contamination.

In the report they didn't go into too much technical detail, which would have been gibberish to me anyway, but they added a summary explanation in laymans terms which put my mind at rest.
As i was a regular Millers Oil user, presumably Millers products showed up during testing to confirm, they waived the charge.

If you still have that report could you share it please? I'd be interested in seeing.

Original Poster

35,203 posts

214 months

Sunday 4th February

Thanks for that, Catfood12, very informative.

Original Poster

35,203 posts

214 months

Sunday 4th February

Panamax said:

HJG said:

Fuel content is not always included but is one of the most useful tests. The oil viscosity will drop around one SAE viscosity grade per 3 to 5 % fuel dilution.

Your point is well made.

"My car never uses any oil."
"Well maybe, or perhaps your oil is filling up with fuel from all those cold starts".

At the end of the day who cares about a bit of fuel in the oil, so long as it doesn't go too far. Get some heat into the engine reasonably regularly and the fuel should evaporate off (as should water condensation), helpfully recirculated through your CCV system. It's mainly a problem for short distance commuter cars that never get hot.

Thanks. The car has been taken out of being used for commuting which was short trips, it's only used for trips of at least 15 miles now, but can go 1-2 weeks without being used so it always gets up to temperature. On the days I do use it it often does a 15-20 mile drive, and the same back before it fully cools down anyway.

Cheers.

Original Poster

35,203 posts

214 months

Tuesday 6th February

I have been in touch with a company that I'm willing to use to give this a go. However, they have said to get meaningful data you need regular samples and ideally a baseline sample too (ie fresh oil) and to send in samples, initially, every 2k miles or so.

I'm happy to do this but I'm not sure how I would extract enough oil from the car to do this? The car, stupidly, doesn't have an oil dipstick so couldn't be syphoned that way.

Any thoughts?

Cheers!

Original Poster

35,203 posts

214 months