Silicon, exactly what they said dirt getting past the air filter. The universal average for that motor is 12 and it had 25, elements in parts per million.

Copper, don't know where it's coming from but the universal average for that motor is 5 and it had 11, elements in parts per million.

All of the universal averages are for that motor, a 2.4 liter after about 6,500 miles so the oil went almost double the miles. Know aluminum and iron and the units are 3 universal average for aluminum and it showed 3 and 13 for iron with a universal average of 8. Almost all are a little higher but considering it went almost double the miles it's all within reason, guess anyway.

Will more than likely get it done another time after 12,500 miles and see how it reads and go from there. Winter is a concern but everything that is read says the same thing, Mobil 1 sets the industry standard, after 12,500 miles, see what the report says.

 

This was Blackstone? Check the report. I thought their "universal average" values were averages over all engine types, not just yours. Also all oil types. So that universal average includes smallblock chevys with WalMart oil, & everything else.

Another example I had high sodium but a thread on BITOG talks about sodium being part of a new-ish additive package in Castrol GTX so they said don't worry about it.

 

Yes Blackstone and universal average says " all the samples we've seen from this type of engine " so no on all types of motors but yes on all types of oil.

New to this but they had nothing but good things to say except for the copper and silicon and the TBN is 2.6, still active additive left, if the TBN was 1.0 or lower it is time for a change, granted the copper and silicon were high so really, it was time for a change, don't want it to become abrasive. Run it 12,500 and see what it says. Also, when the sample was taken, it only drained for a second or two, maybe not even that and a sample was taken and they want the middle of the flow, do it again the right way and see what it says.

 

OK, so I guess I didn't remember exactly what that said. I must've assumed it means all gasoline engines (not including diesels or jet-engines or transmissions).

I usually grab the sample pretty early during draining. But that's after driving around so the oil is hot & well-mixed.

I'd say you're doing good because you're thinking about silicon & airfilters. There's many things that can show up to make it time to change oil. So your silicon comes up faster than the TBN goes away, but now you know about it. If the silicon was high enough for panic, I bet they would have said so.

In winter you might have a bit more gasoline (from cold-starts) & probably the TBN goes away more quickly from moisture condensing in the crankcase.

You don't have the fancy oil-life monitor (2006+ cars?) so you need to allow some margin for driving habits to change. You can't pretend your mixture of driving & climate is always exactly the same.

 

Thank you, still need to look at the air filter but will get around to it and yes winter is a little concern but as long as there are times every once in a while when the car is driven at highway speeds for thirty to forty five minutes, all the moisture and whatever else can accumulate because of cold weather should be taken care of when it gets up to temperature for thirty to forty five minutes, what do you think? When you look under the hood of quite a few premium cars and see the Mobil 1 sticker, that says something, you know. It's a 95 so yeah no oil life monitor, how reliable are those anyway, have you changed it when the monitor said to and then sent it in for testing, was there any difference in results? Thanks again and take care.

 

I did an analysis on one of the 2007 Civics & it said I could've left the oil in awhile longer. Too cheap to do analysis on EVERY oil change, but I'll probably keep doing them "occasionally".

But I do like the idea of the oil monitor. It keeps a "driving diary" with all that detail about how many times I start the engine, what temperature it is all the time, etc...

During winter moisture condenses in the crankcase, becoming a bit acidic. Even though it evaporates back out, it will have "used up" some of the TBN in the process. I probably don't understand that completely, but I think it works something like that.

 

Personally I use synthetic and change it every 3,500-4,000 tops. Probably overkill but it just makes me feel better. Like it's been posted before, it's your engine do what you want. I totally ignore the oil monitor and change it at the interval I've said. I do feel synthetic is better for your engine, think what you want. Everyones opinion will vary, such is life...