20,000 Mile Oil Analysis

[Pete44]

2013 Lexus CT200h with 85,000 mi on 1.8L (1.798 L) 2ZR-FXE Toyota engine. This is the same as many Prius engines.

I decided with decreased duty cycle (hybrid), a 20,000 mile OCI would be reasonable. I drive fairly easily but mountain roads in Colorado, lots of highway. Climbing hills a lot, but also going down them, where engine isn't working. I assume there's probably 30% less work load from hybrid compared to "standard" engine.

Oil: Mobile-1 Annual Protection 0W-20 (from what I can gather, this had added base package to neutralize acid accumulation over time)

Filter: Purolator PurOne (these are now Purolator One filters), which is reported to have over 99% efficiency at 20 micron particle size. I do not know filter "holding" capacity, but this is a smaller cartridge filter which goes inside the plastic canister (canister is part of engine and is reused)

Here is Blackstone Labs Analysis:

 

[Donald]

I would go with a filter designed for extended oil changes. Amsoil or Mobil 1 but not what you used. You can send oil filter to be tested also.

But a decent UOA.

I would not go above 20K.

Another alternative is to change the oil filter half way through.

 

[haggler]

I had this car for over a year and a half and when I changed the factory fill at 10k the oil still looked great.
I agree - use the mobile 1 filter that they advertise for 20k. On the hwy the engine for this car seem always to be on. Great city commuting car.

 

[jayjr1105]

Stupidly good UOA. Fram Ultra, Mobile 1, RP, or better filter next time though. Puro One blue cans are only good up until 10K. People here would kill to see that filter cut open with Puro tearing issues and all. Clearly wasn't a problem for you however.

 

[ad244]

Amazing numbers honestly for the run time. Dont listen to the haters, its obviously working well for you. Obviously the filtration seems to have worked any chance you have the filter to cut open?

Iron in your 20,000 mile run is less then that of a a 4,000 mile run on a GM vehicle.

 

[tundraotto]

Stellar report.

I guess everyone missed where you said that this was a cartridge filter....got any pics of the used filter, or already gone?

 

[buster]

One of the best UOA's I've seen on this board. No makeup oil either. Perfect viscosity and low wear metals. With a Tbn of 3.2 and no sign of oxidation this oil technically had more life in it.

 

[D1dad]

The jeep guys rave about 0-20 Ap as being one of the best. I don't know much about numbers but the comparisons I saw to 5-30 had the AP looking pretty tough to beat.

 

[4WD]

Fantastic run - have a big stash of that and have to decide how brave to get

 

[JHZR2]

Wow that's great. My accord hybrid, which gets more of a mix of short commutes and highway trips, doesn't show as well on M1EP.

Wonder if AP is the secret?

 

[kschachn]

Originally Posted by JHZR2
Wow that's great. My accord hybrid, which gets more of a mix of short commutes and highway trips, doesn't show as well on M1EP.

Wonder if AP is the secret?

Or other than TBN how much of the good report is actually due to the oil as opposed to the specific engine and operating conditions?

 

[krismoriah72]

You might want to redact your personal info.

 

[Pete44]

Hey Guys, sorry I haven't been on in a while. Appreciate all the feedback and yeah, I should have probably not put my personal info on there (mods took it down) but I'm not really sure how people would use that against me. I'm just not a very paranoid guy, but probably a bit naive and uneducated as to what can be done with that.

Very sorry to have thrown the filter out. It looked good. I didn't cut it apart, but did spread the pleats and didn't notice any tears. Filter looked to be in good shape, but certainly will take pictures and cut it apart (even though it's a cartridge filter, I could cut the media away and spread it out on a table) and post next time.

In regards to type of use, good point made that my good numbers may have a lot to do with how I manage the engine. Although I live in the mountains of CO, I keep the car garaged and so it's never started below about 45-50 degrees F. Also, I try to let the engine warm up for a minute or two before I drive and often drive really easily in the first few minutes to really let the engine warm up gently. I think this has a lot to do with my numbers, since most of these miles are highway. Austin, TX but working in San Antonio for the first ~12,000 miles, several long trips to Amarillo and then CO to Tucson, AZ and back twice in the last month before the oil change. Also, commuting 8 hours / week highway (through the mountains for 3 hours of that) every week during the last 8,000 miles.

So really, there has probably been a pretty high duty-cycle on the engine with, guessing, 75% highway miles and some of that done on interstates at 80mph (when limit is 75). The Colorado miles in the mountains are slower, but up steep grades...although the downhill grades are largely engine-off.

My research said Purolator One had really good (? 99% @ 20-micron) filtration, which is why I went with it, but I hear everyone on the break-down concerns. Would really like to figure out what would be best going forward. Another Purolator One is on there now.

Anyway, sum total, thanks for taking my personal info down, thanks for all the great feedback and celebrating with me (must admit, I was a bit nervous...but fairly confident I'd come out well).

I think warming an engine up gently, and having a lower duty-cycle due to hybrid drive, are probably the two most important things I did to get this great result. I'm not taking Blackstone's advice and trying for 23,000 miles next time. I'm just going to stick to 20,000 and probably research a better filter. As for changing the filter and not the oil...I just am not that confident I could collect the oil cleanly enough, not getting any contaminants in it...and with all the trouble of getting under there and changing the filter, I figure I'll change the oil at the same time.

 

[Revving2Redline]

I was using the ap 0w20 m1 and consumption was unacceptable. Only 2500 miles on this oil change and it needed almost 1/5 of a qt. Using Redline 0w20 prior so I can expect everything else to not hold up as well. Drained only crankcase and refilled with M1 0w30 and a dash of lubegard. I'm guessing having the higher mileage and revs are part of the issue. So far the 0w30 has held up and the idle is better like when I ran redline.

 

[Pete44]

I thought, in the interest of thread discussions, it would be useful to have the Blackstone data posted up again. I removed all my personal info this time.

 

[buster]

Excellent report.

 

[mdv]

Great report. Glad to see these motors still put out stellar numbers even when running on the highway more. I was curious how these cars handled long highway runs. For comparison purposes, I did 15k in the city/suburbs on a few runs and it looked great as well. https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/foru...1-prius-15k-oci-amsoil-0w-20#Post5267360

 

[Gasbuggy]

Impressive report, thanks for reposting.

 

[tundraotto]

Fantastic results. I would not change anything, except maybe try a Fram Ultra filter.

 

[zeng]

Would not an EP or vanilla M1 0W20 deliver similar acceptable 20,000 miles wear performance ?