2005 Chevy Impala - Bulk 5W-30 - 4 months/1700 miles

[JustN89]

I did an early OCI (normally 12 month/3,000ish miles) on the Impala due to some seepage I found in the valley near the power steering pump- a common place to see seepage when lower intake manifold gaskets start to fail. I cleaned it up and so far the area has stayed dry, but I wanted to do a UOA just in case. Everything looks fine, although copper is somewhat high compared to other 3.4L reports I've come across. Not nearly high enough to cause concern, but it's something that I'll keep on. I plan on doing another UOA at my next OCI, as I just want to make sure I keep an eye on the status of the LIM gasket. Otherwise, the bulk oil looks fine, and it did it's job well enough. I replaced the bulk oil with 4 quarts of Driven 5W-30 from the 12 quart deal on Amazon last year.

 

[PimTac]

For 1700 miles, iron seems a bit much. Lead is present.

It's just one analysis. I would watch it though to see if any trends develop.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

You live in ZFW..... where's that?
Who's bulk oil is this?

 

[JustN89]

ZFW= Fort Worth ARTCC.

The bulk oil came from a dealer not far from me. I did notice that they got the interval wrong on the analysis- it was 1700 miles, not 3500.


I'm not too concerned about the wear metals as the 3400 isn't exactly known for low wear numbers, nor was that necessarily the intent behind the UOA. I wanted to look for coolant contamination, but fortunately, the oil looks clean in that regard. The copper is a little unusual, but not enough for them to flag. Still, it's something that I'm interested in. I'll sample again at my next normal interval and post a follow up.