2002 Cavalier; PC 5W-30 dino; 20,979 miles on oil!

[addyguy]

Got my fourth UOA back on my Cavalier - the one you're all waiting for!

This was a 15-month run from October, 2009 to January, 2011.

Driving was basically an equal mix of 'everything' - city, highway, short trips, long trips, idling....

2002 Chevrolet Cavalier, 2.2 OHV
153,688 miles on unit (245,900 km)

Petro-Canada 5W-30 'Supreme' dino
Purolator Oil Filter
4.0 litres initial fill; 2L top-off:

1L Castrol Syntec blend 5W-30 (SL)
1L Super Tech 10W-40 (SL)

20,979 miles on oil (33,567 km)

Code:


Iron 117

Chrome 1

Moly 123

Alum. 10

Copper 10

Lead 41

Tin 3

Titanium 0

Nickle 1

Silver 0

Silicon 44

Sodium 16

Potassium 0

Zinc 743

Magnesium 6

Phos. 687

Barium 0



Soot 0

Sulf. 38

Oxid. 40

Nitrat. 26



100C visc - 9.70

TBN - 2.0


Anti-freeze, fuel, water all 0

In general, not as bad as I thought.

 

[javacontour]

What were their comments?

 

[21Rouge]

The iron you can live with but don't you think the lead # is a bit troubling?

Of course this could have been avoided if you would choose not to play chicken with your oil

.

 

[21Rouge]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
What were their comments?


Toromont is generally are pretty reserved in their comments (as compared to BStone) but maybe this particular UOA did cause them to come out of their shell

. What say you Addy?

 

[Billy_D]

You need to scale back your OCI. If I was you, I wouldn't sweat it, you got over 154,000 miles on your vehicle. In my book, the cavalier paid for itself a long time ago.

 

[addyguy]

Toromont Comments:

Elevated levels detected. Fe, Al, Pb, Si, Sulfation, Oxidation and Nitration are higher than normal. All other readings are acceptable. Elevated
sulphation, oxidation and/or nitration readings may be due to high/low operating temperatures or extended oil service intervals. Elevated silcon
and aluminum may be possible dirt entry. Elevated iron and lead may be indicative of elevated wear. Recommend decreasing the oil change
interval and resample to monitor.

 

[addyguy]

MY comments:

I'm actually a little suprised by this UOA, on several fronts:

1. I actually expected lead wear to be higher, given the high Si and long interval. Not that I'm complaining, I just thought it would be higher.

2. I expected the viscosity to be a LOT higher - I thought with a quart of 10W-40 added, and a 20k run, this oil would be well into the 11-13cst range, not barely into the 30-weight range - and this car saw a good, solid 30-mile drive before this sample was taken - oil was HOT.

3. I expected additive levels, Zn and P, to be much higher - I added 2L of API SL oil, and the last one was a 10W-40, so I'd expect Zn and P levels to be 800-900, and possibly for their to be some Mg in the mix.

4. TBN I'm not suprised by - I 'dribbled' oil into this engine almsot weekly, and the last addition was only a couple of weeks before this sample - shows the 'power' of regular top-off oil.

 

[hate2work]

There was no calcium is this oil?

 

[21Rouge]

Originally Posted By: hate2work

There was no calcium is this oil?


Toromont does not test for calcium.

 

[addyguy]

...or boron.

Yeah, it sucks not to get the full pic, but they DO test for TBN at no additional charge, so it evens out.

Kits are a great value at $19.50 ea.

 

[Artem]

not bad for dinosaur leftovers. Haha.

 

[Artem]

Originally Posted By: addyguy


4. TBN I'm not suprised by - I 'dribbled' oil into this engine almsot weekly, and the last addition was only a couple of weeks before this sample - shows the 'power' of regular top-off oil.

Its true. The same can be said with soap. Add a tiny bit to a washing machine thats already cycling and it foams up like crazy.

I imagine the same applies to oil additives. Its like giving the engine a RedBull!

 

[webfors]

Ahh... the UOA I've been waiting for. Very interesting. Can you cut the filter open for us?

 

[addyguy]

Nope....long gone at Mr. Lube I went to.

Sorry!

 

[Artem]

I gotta say Addy, you are one brave [censored]. I would've dumped that oil at 3k and thought i ran it too long. Hahaha.

 

[Scienceman]

Mr. Lube? Loooong OCI's?
ban this untrue BITOG member!

Cool report!

 

[webfors]

Originally Posted By: addyguy
Nope....long gone at Mr. Lube I went to.

Sorry!


Booo... If you're in Ottawa next time come over to my place and we'll change her out and cut her open. I'll even throw in a jug of VWB or QSGB for your oil change, cause I know you'll get full value out of it

 

[21Rouge]

Originally Posted By: addyguy
Kits are a great value at $19.50 ea.


Addy do you want to buy my 4 or 5 remaining prepaid Toro 'kits'?

 

[GMFan]

My brother use to do this type of OCI on his beater 1993 Saturn SL2 that burned a quart of oil every few hundred miles while he waited for the next major repair before he junked it as it was unlikely to pass the next inspection. He would dump in a quart of oil every time he got gas...he didn't even bother checking the dipstick usually.

We have quit changing the oil on our terminally ill 1999 VW Jetta...right now it has Wolf's Head 5W30 and I just top it off with Havoline DS 10W30. We will continue to do this until the tranny or engine give out. It is too far gone at this point to do much else.

Addguy, any particular reason you ran this long? Are you figuring that you will get rid of this car soon?

Thanks for the UOA.

 

[Cutehumor]

addy, you KNOW you would have gotten much better results with synthetic.