Did my first analysis on my wife's 2015 Honda Civic. When I changed it, the OLM was at 10% and had been exactly a year since I last changed it. This car is mostly short tripped and I didn't give the oil much time to warm up before I changed it. So unsurprisingly, there is fuel in the oil but wear metals still look good. My plan is to just follow the OLM and resample again when it's time to change the oil again.
2015 Honda Civic 1.8L - 6612mi OCI - Castrol GTX FS 0W-20
- Thread starter OneLonelyBurrito
- Start date
It's ridiculous that a place like Oil Analyzers can't determine the source of the Titanium when Castrol is well known to use it. Your Al is a tick high but you're right that all other wear levels are low. With 33k on this Honda it may very well still be breaking in seeing elevated Silicon & Al. Thanks for sharing this sample. Do you plan to test more in the future?
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I bet they stay silent when they do know so that you are more likely to pay for a VOA and stick it in there as a "baseline".
Probably, Money talks... You have a point there.Patented titanium technology is marketed on Castrol bottles lol
I do plan to test it again, when the next oil change is due. The AL might be a touch high on a per mile basis, as this car doesn't see that many miles. I'm thinking the car might average 25mph, so the AL might not be that high on a per hour of run time.
I don't feel like 3.5% fuel dilution warrants 6 month oil changes when the wear metals appear to be in check and the oil properties also appear to be inline.
When I filled out the form for the oil analysis, I thought I had only used Magnatec. Looking back, It probably had about a quart of Magnatec and 3 quarts of GTX FS in it.
The base number didn't stay strong though. At least, use Edge or Edge EP
I think this is the new norm.
What do you mean?
There was some recent discussion about it in the Passenger Car section, but basically TBN is less of a consideration nowadays due to the lower sulphur content in fuels and better oxidative stability of the base oils. That is why new oils are sometimes starting as low as 6 and you will see them stay at 2-3 for the duration of the drain.
Here is an older thread about the rationale of lower TBN's: https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/can-i-have-too-much-or-too-little-ash-in-my-oil.367503/
Lake Speed also touched on it in a recent video.
OP, what grade fuel are you running in the Civic?
I wish all passenger vehicles included an hour meter.
Your wear metals total is 18 / 6.612 = 2.72ppm per 1000 miles. That's really good. Typical norms I see are between 3 and 8. But yeah. Keep an eye on the aluminum going forward to make sure it drops. You could probably find a Blackstone UOA of your engine type to get an idea of universal averages for that engine, but in my book, you're in good shape. Viscosity held up despite the fuel, so all is good.
Silicon and fuel might have contributed to the high aluminum. Check your air filter for leaks or dirtiness to be sure. Might just be the last of residual sealers since it's only got 33k miles.
Silicon and fuel might have contributed to the high aluminum. Check your air filter for leaks or dirtiness to be sure. Might just be the last of residual sealers since it's only got 33k miles.
It just gets regular fuel. I don't see a need for anything more, this engine is N/A and PFI.
Same, I tried looking to see if I could put Run time off the ECM like I can on my Mazda. But unfortunately, I didn't see any option for it. I may need to look harder next time.
My understanding was also that newer oils had lower overall TBN and that it's less important now than in older oils. Given that this oil had a TBN still above 2 and the oxidation/nitration appear to be within the normal range, my take is that the oil is still in okay shape, basically the OLM is accurate for these driving conditions. It would be nice to have a baseline for the oxidation/nitration values so see how much they actually changed.