Yeah, This would be frustrating to me as well & there were several errors on their behalf. But with any business it's the unfortunate reality sometimes. Just try to stick with it & try your best.What's funny is after I sent my first sample in (PPHM VOA), I got this great welcome email that thanked me and let me know I could email them with any questions. I replied to that email with a couple of questions and didn't get a response for 9 days. And when I did get a response, they did not answer my questions. lol It's as if they glanced quickly at my email, waited 9 days, then replied without re-reading my email.
Then this issue. I thought Baseline Reference meant the first UOA that's been done on a specific vehicle. In my comments when submitting the sample, I told them (and they printed it on the report) that the oil had unknown miles, between 500-2000. Visually, the oil sample was obviously used (dark, dirty color). So they ignored the fact that the oil looked used and my comments about it having 500-2000 miles and still skipped the GC and Soot tests because I mis-categorized it as "Baseline Reference".
Thanks for your comments!
2013 Volvo S80 3.2l, 2000 mi, dealer bulk oil
- Thread starter himemsys
- Start date
PO has went downhill for several yrs now. According to my pirate ship email First class & Parcel Select have been combined & it's going to be called Ground Advantage (July 9th).Meanwhile, the sample I mailed to Blackstone at the same time (via USPS) has been "Moving Through Network, In Transit to Next Facility, Arriving Late" for 7 days now.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
So, reasonably low fuel. Oil is on the lower end of the xW-30 range. I agree, the TBN seems pretty low for the mileage, additive package is pretty light on detergents, which explains the low TBN.
You know, I bet the Volvo dealer that filled this oil used dealer bulk Castrol EDGE 5W30, which is A5/B5 rated. I don't know how this could be considered an A5/B5 oil though. I can't imagine starting TBN of 8 or being considered "extended drain" with the TBN where it's at after only 2k miles. I'd expect a higher SAPS for A5/B5 too, though technically SA only has to be less than or equal to 1.6. No minimum.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
This is definitely low SAPS with that additive package.
The calcium/magnesium levels kinda look like the Pennzoil Platinum 5W-30 one:
17 Civic 1.5T, 67K on odo, PP 5W30, 8,955 OCI
And the saga continues... a pretty boring story though... Yet again, I meant to change at 6K but forgot and ended up changing 3K later. Luckily it does not look like it hurt anything. Iron is just a tad higher than I might have expected. What's different this time does not show in the results...
bobistheoilguy.com
The moly level also lines up.
M1 triple action also appears to have similar levels of calcium and magnesium, but the moly is about twice as high:
UOA M1 EP 0w20 triple action formula version 2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo X
Tried the “triple action formula” version of M1EP 0w20 from 12/26/2022-04/08/2023 Daily driven suburban Illinois/Chicago mixed use city/hwy.
bobistheoilguy.com
My first thought was PP, but I think the Mg is too low on the PP. EDGE seems closest other than Ti being a little low and Bn being a tad high. But that could be explained by a dealer bulk formulation of EDGE. The other reason is Volvo officially recommends Castrol, so I'd assume their dealer bulk would be Castrol.
Castrol EDGE HM 5W30 VOA
Castrol EDGE High Mileage 5W30 (black bottle). I have to say, I was hoping for more viscosity, but other than that, it's a good-looking oil. The bottle says it's formulated to fight "emission system failure" which explains the conservative Phosphorus and Zinc. I wonder if the Aluminum came...
bobistheoilguy.com
Well, the sample finally delivered to BS on June 30th. It then took another week for Blackstone to unpack it. Current status on BS's site is "unpacked". Probably won't get results til next Friday, based on previous UOAs they've done. That's a super slow turnaround. I imagine they have an incredible backlog of samples and have not figured out yet how to process them in greater volume. Sounds like they need to be running 2 or 3 shifts. lolMeanwhile, the sample I mailed to Blackstone at the same time (via USPS) has been "Moving Through Network, In Transit to Next Facility, Arriving Late" for 7 days now.
