And another with varying states of tune over its lifespan:
2015 BMW N20 X1 UOA 5K MILES NON-EURO OIL: ROUND 2
- Thread starter KEVINK0000
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OVERKILL
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So far, all of the ones you shared have higher viscosity than yours. Most have fuel.
Yes, this generation of QS was always SP. Its the SP, GF6A stuff.
Yes, and there was one that got Euro delivery and the factory fill was clearly a 20w. I will try to find it. This engine is now spec'd by BMW for 0W-20, FWIW.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Not surprising, there have been plenty of engines back-spec'd in the pursuit of improving fuel economy. Ford was doing that around 2000, back spec'ing to 5W-20. But BMW does have their own approval process for the 0W-20, on top of the ACEA approvals, and the oxidation test is part of that. These oils also still have higher levels of AW additives. Mobil's ESP X2 0W-20 for example, which is ACEA C6, Porsche C20...etc has 880ppm of phosphorous/950ppm zinc while their SP/GF-6A 0W-20 has 760/830.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Interesting, because clearly, boron stands out here as being different from this VOA (as does Calcium, but less so in terms of magnitude).
Boron appears to be an additive that depletes with use. I've noticed it on several UOAs where I've also got a VOA. Starts high, and the more use the oil has, the lower it gets on the UOA.
edit: https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/t...mi-2014-mazda-3-with-2-0l.352414/post-6056224
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I have a bunch of UOA and VOA data with B.....will have a look today and see if your observation holds true with my data.
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/boron-depletion.330713/
Although I cannot locate the article that's mentioned. If "depletion" is occurring then the element is being deposited somewhere, either as an ever growing film or in a precipitate that isn't being decomposed by the ICP.
Edit, I found the article:
https://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/854/oil-analysis-tests
Which is actually about the limitations and specifics of different analysis methods. It's a good article with many important points.
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Yes, emissions spectrography can sometimes be used to detect certain impending failures but not always. However, I thought this whole post (and the previous one) was that a UOA can be used to show that an ILSAC oil is "as good" as one with BMW Longlife approval? Did that change? You've got two topics going here.
D
Deleted member 89374
He's derailing his topic on purpose as he still hasn't answered at least the one question as to why he is doing this.
Other uoas in a vacuum really aren’t helpful.
Only thing interesting is swing in universal averages, tends to suggest a fairly small sample size.
Looks like engine is hard on oil.
Agree run on approved oil would be interesting, not necessarily meaningful, but interesting.
Also would like to see what filters look like.
Only thing interesting is swing in universal averages, tends to suggest a fairly small sample size.
Looks like engine is hard on oil.
Agree run on approved oil would be interesting, not necessarily meaningful, but interesting.
Also would like to see what filters look like.
Nope.
My two cents.
This UOA is largely irrelevant because euro certs are based on long drain intervals and this oil was not in service long enough to even fulfill that requirement. So all this UOA tells us is that from a viscosity perspective you can run a run of the mill 5w30 in a BMW N20 for 6k miles.
This is old news.
Wear over time is in part a measurement of oil performance. The OP could probably run conventional 5w30 or 5w40 every 3k miles and be fine. So what. Doing so clearly doesn't mean that Euro certs are irrelevant.
If the owner of the vehicle were bold he could run the oil for the full OCI and then take a peak at viscosity.
This UOA is largely irrelevant because euro certs are based on long drain intervals and this oil was not in service long enough to even fulfill that requirement. So all this UOA tells us is that from a viscosity perspective you can run a run of the mill 5w30 in a BMW N20 for 6k miles.
This is old news.
Wear over time is in part a measurement of oil performance. The OP could probably run conventional 5w30 or 5w40 every 3k miles and be fine. So what. Doing so clearly doesn't mean that Euro certs are irrelevant.
If the owner of the vehicle were bold he could run the oil for the full OCI and then take a peak at viscosity.
If you look back on that thread, the oil report did not show anything amiss. The owner spotted shiny particles in the drain contents. I see shiny particles in every drain I do, regardless of vehicle. BMW said it was plastic (yes plastic) from the guides. The guides at this point would have been anything but shiny. They gave him a partially paid goodwill update out of warranty. I believe it was used as an excuse (by the BMW dealer) for BMW to get into his engine and fix the known problem with the guides, and extend some goodwill to the owner, since the warranty had expired very soon before the service was done. The point was the repair was done before anything was noted on the UOA. Which actually goes to the point you tend to make, pretty much everywhere.
UOAs are more about the oil and trending than mechanicals.
As mentioned earlier, plenty of OK UOAs on blown up motors.
I get it being a hobby though, pretty much that’s the only reason I do and post mine at this point.
I still don’t really understand what exactly you’re trying to prove or how, but if it has anything to do with relative performance, you’re going to need to inspect things like deposits.
Though, I think with the thickening with high fuel we have some idea that this oil is not the best choice.
As mentioned earlier, plenty of OK UOAs on blown up motors.
I get it being a hobby though, pretty much that’s the only reason I do and post mine at this point.
I still don’t really understand what exactly you’re trying to prove or how, but if it has anything to do with relative performance, you’re going to need to inspect things like deposits.
Though, I think with the thickening with high fuel we have some idea that this oil is not the best choice.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Yes, good point. However, if we look at the rate of depletion, it appears to be twice as high compared to Artem's if this is all just due to that.
Kevin - 108 -> 34 in 5,200 miles = 14.2ppm/1,000 miles
Artem - 61 -> 35 in 3,739 miles = 6.9ppm/1,000 miles
Which then brings us to @kschachn's point about if this is depletion, where is it going?
Either way, metallic particles in the oil do not show up on emission spectrography without some sort of sample modification. When I ran UOA in college for our fluid power department some rather catastrophic failures (particles in oil) would not affect the analysis unless an acid digestion was performed. ICP does not measure particles in a sample it measures elements in solution. This is why I noted that sometimes a UOA can be indicative of certain impending failures.
I have a VOA and a couple of UOAs with ST FS HM 5W20 that I’ll dig up when I get a chance. They should be posted in the appropriate forums here if someone has time to look them up before this evening.
According to that article it is reacting with water and precipitating out as an insoluble at the bottom of the pan, assuming this is the same mechanism for this particular boron compound. Elements don't "go" anywhere of course, they have to be there somewhere or else shot out of the tailpipe.
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