Oil testing for cars (free test offered)

[dkmech]

The one you sent emailed us from i believe. Coz I had that stored, it should be the same as on the sheet i believe. Unless someone else sent a gt4 too and i mixed them up

[gobbo]

Thats weird, not received anything. Was the address amrobinson AT ntlworld DOT com?

[dkmech]

Ah, lol, it was at nerdshack. Coz i saw the first part was the same i didn't pay attention to the rest. I'll send a copy to ntlworld too.

[CocoPops]

Yep, got mine

So all is ok then

[gobbo]

Received it now! Thanks, do'nt make much sense but aslong as its ok!

[dkmech]

Well you got your one word summary, which can either be "satisfactory"=green, "marginal"=amber, "Critical"=red. Then there are brief explanations, say:
State: Marginal.
Findings: Abnormal silicon levels with resulting wear.
What to do: Inspect unit for damage/proper operation, Find source of contamination, change oil to remove contamination.
Retest: Resample at reduced intervals to verify problem corrected.

So this explains the results in easy to understand terms. In your cases it was.
Satisfactory. Normal. Continue in operation. Resample at regular intervals.

This was because it was all fine. No point bul****ting if there's nothing in it

If any of the results were out of ordinary there'd be a star there like so* And we'd mention that in the diagnostics.

You can read more about the tests in the leaflets you got with the packs.

Any questions - ask away. If one of you wouldn't mind we could post a copy of the report as jpg (take off personal details obviously) and talk a bit about the results.

[Howard]

Post mine if you like Or do you need me to?

[Zak33]

I love this thread....

It's ACE

[CocoPops]

Ok...
Here goes..


There were graphs on the excel spreadsheet, but all were blank....?

[SilentDeath]

I was trying to get the sample tonight... I didnt have long but I couldnt get any oil into the syringe, the tubing might be too long but I think more likely I didnt have the other end fully in the oil.. hard to tell.....

[dkmech]

The graphs fill up as we build a history of tests for a unit. Since yours is a one off they are blank, but they help to trend the changes in tests such as wear metal elements and such.

So in the table we see information about the sample (date, hours/miles etc). Then there's the list of elements present in the oil (in parts per million). The ones near the top are common wear metals - i.e. constituents of alloys used for metal parts in say an engine. Which ones are high would indicate whether its say piston rings or bearings or whatever else is wearing. They are all low in your oil.

Then there's a group of elements such as Zinc, Phosphorus and Calcium which are common additives into the oil. There is a much higher concentration of those, but they have been added by the oil manufacturer.

The stuff towards the bottom is the contaminants - such as silicon (e.g. dirt), Sodium and Boron (often indicate water ingress and particularly coolant leaks, but in your case most likely part of the additive package), etc.

Then there are the physical tests - ISO cleanliness code gives an indication of the number of wear or contamination particles in the oil for a range of sizes. Engine oils are often dark so we don't do this on them. PQ test quantifies the general amount of magnetic debris - mainly larger ferrous particles.

Then we have water content as either % or ppm levels. For engines we do a quick hot plate test, but for fancier stuff like turbines we use special equipment.

TAN and TBN are acid and base levels - during combustions acidic products are formed - they corrode the engine, to remove them the engine oils are packed with base additives - thats the TBN level. When TAN gets high and TBN gets low its time to change the oil.

Viscosity for engines we measure at 40 and 100 degrees. 40 is the industry standard, 100 is what the SAE ratings are measured at (thats what the engine approximately runs at). As you can see viscosity changes a lot with temperature. Some oils are designed to keep this change to a minimum - so that oil is runny enough when cold and viscous enough when hot.

edit: P.S. For industrial customers we provide software for storing and reviewing the results - they can see the history of each unit they test, see the graphs and also can find results quicker.

[dkmech]

Zak, when are u gonna mail me your address

P.S. Yes I can see you

[joshwa]

Posted my sample off today

[J4MES]

dkmech, my missis managed to bin the attached paperwork to send off with the sample - any chance of an e-copy or should I send it with the make/model, mileage etc.?

edit: thanks - that was quick!

[th0r0n]

Is it too late to sign up for this? I'd like my bike oil tested!

Thanks! T

[Shad]

I took my sample of 1500 mile old oil (looks blacker than I'd have hoped) earlier - I was right to do it just after giving it a good drive wasn't I? Engine was hot, had only been off for a matter of minutes before taking the sample.

Will be in the post tomorrow