3 year 21K mile, engine oil abuse, UOA worthy or waste of money?

[RavenTai]

So I changed the oil in my 239K 1999 LS 400 in feb 2017, M1 EP 10w-30, drove my long commute for about a year and then had to park it in the yard spring of 2018 with 260K, because of brakes tires and starter issues (that starter was a pain to change) had a lot of time at home lately with this covid thing, finally getting it put back together. very humid Florida enviornment. its been run occationaly when parked never driven further than up and down my own residential road. going to change the oil before driving to get tires. it starts and runs, not codes, everything still works, other than needing a bath and developing a slight exhaust leak it seams just fine after sitting.

Part of me wants to UOA it to find out what happened, this will be a serious edge case and might be interesting, part of me thinks it a waste of money to find out what I already know, that this was a horrible engine/oil abuse.

Thoughts?

 

[JC1]

Personally I have never done a UOA. I think you should just change the oil at this point.

 

[oldhp]

If you don't provide evidence.........they can't charge you with neglect. Shred the oil filter and burn the oil.

 

[Bryanccfshr]

Meh, just change the oil and get the vehicle back on the road.

 

[RavenTai]

Originally Posted by oldhp
If you don't provide evidence.........they can't charge you with neglect. Shred the oil filter and burn the oil.



LOL!

 

[billpace1956]

Hello! I think if you do the uoa, it will comeback much better than you might think! I went over 21,000 miles on my 2008 Toyota sienna and the uoa came back and they said I could go 23,000 miles! This was with M1 EP 5w-30. This was with Blackstone labs. I think that you can go way over the 15,000 miles and still be fine. I'll be watching for your uoa! Thank You! Bill

 

[fdcg27]

I think this would be a very useful UOA.
What does the oil look like after all of this?
I for one would love to see it.

 

[tundraotto]

Oil analysis and filter opening would be very interesting.

My guess is it could look pretty good - except for maybe some fuel dilution.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Please, DO IT!!!

This is the forum. People like things that are out of the norm. A 7k, 7k or 10k UOA is just meh. We have seen those until we are bored with them.

But doing a UOA for 21k, YES! Itg makes for something new and interesting than a normal 7k posted by someone. What can really be interesting about a 5k or 7k oil change when compared with a UOA of 21k? Do it, if money is not your problem. It would be interesting for us to read.

I will not lie, I will more likely click on a UOA of more than 15k than I would one with less than 7k. So, yours would really be interesting to read.

Please, send it and share with us.

 

[RavenTai]

I would have higher hopes for a halfway passable UOA if it had been taken right at the end of active driving, the two years of sitting on top of the miles I think are going to make a mess of things. if it did have an ok result from a wear metal perspective that would be amazing but I think it is going to be ugly. not sure how much this kind of abuse carries over to other vehicles, most aren't sitting on their used oil for 2 years.

I do cut my oil filters and will definitely be posting that.

oil is dark and has an odd feel, like it does not want wet the paper towel, just kind of sits on top.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

You let your oil level get that low?

 

[tundraotto]

doesn't look weird on the towel or on the dipstick (don't know about the level)...that's why you should do the UOA.

 

[Chesterr]

I could never let oil get to minimum , way too ocd for that so hopefully it never got below that....half qt over is better than half qt low....Probably ok and I just would buy a jug of supertech and change it

 

[SeaJay]

You can't change the past, so just change the oil and then drive!

 

[Gebo]

I wish I had back all the money "I" wasted on UOA's. Not talking about "you." Talking about "me." Probably did 15 in my lifetime back in my 20's-30's.

For kicks, I guess you could do one if you have that much expendable money lying around.

I'd throw some mis-direction info in the sheet you turn in with the sample.
For example, use more normal mileage info. Say, 8K in one year. May prove to be interesting.

If it were me, I'd just change it now and change it again in 3K or 6 months.

 

[tig1]

With M1 in the sump your engine is fine. I know guys that run that kind of OCI (15-20K) as their normal with M1 oils, even reg M1.

 

[gathermewool]

I'm surprised by how much this forum has changed. This is the perfect case for a UOA! A UOA may not tell you anything about your engine, but it for sure will tell you how the oil held up. Just make sure to at least spend a little extra on TBN.

Originally Posted by tig1
With M1 in the sump your engine is fine. I know guys that run that kind of OCI (15-20K) as their normal with M1 oils, even reg M1.


This is my guess; however, we don't know the exact number of times the OP ULTRA-short-tripped or just started-up and let it ran at idle. That produced the majority of the degradation over its storage period, I'm sure.

 

[Kira]

I do not know (nor could even guess if I wanted to) but I think the "stagnant" oil in your sump will be polluted, diluted and funky.

As we all know, a UOA is the only way to know. What you might be paying for is badly skewed info.

Or it might just be another routine oil analysis.

Got budget?

 

[UncleDave]

Standard old oxidized dirty oil.

If you have money laying around and you are curious - sure why not, but it won't tell you much about your engine - it will tell you about the oil.

If it were mine I wouldn't bother Id do a cheap oil and filter change of dino then another in short order with the good stuff.

If its a choice on how to spend a little money Id have the engine leaked down(or do it yourself) to see how much longer you really want to hold onto it and then decide how to spend those dollars. Maybe pull a valve cover after the oil change and take a look - maybe.


UD

 

[RTexasF]

Just change it. With that many miles who cares what the UOA says?