Originally Posted By: Edmond
Originally Posted By: glennc
I do think you can conclude from these numbers, trend or no, that this engine is not wearing very well. There must be a cause.
From the numbers, how bad do you think the wear is?
I'm using a EaO filter.
Just much higher than normal for well-maintained cars, going by what is normally seen in UOAs posted on this site. Ppm numbers in single digits or very low double digits are common. Your total wear metals are well over 100ppm, and assuming a crankcase capacity of 4-5qt (maybe 4l or 4000cm^3) that is not an inconsequential volume of metallic wear. Looking at it another way you have here the equivalent wear to perhaps five or more oil intervals or 20-80k miles on many engines. Also, the wear metals are probably originating predominantly from certain wear surfaces in the engine, and those surfaces must be experiencing an even higher proportionate degree of wear. Not to mention that some of the wear is probably already caught by the oil filter, meaning again that the total wear is even higher than it appears.
On the other hand, it's possible that your sampling technique, whatever it was, led to an outsized quantity of wear metals ending up in the sample.
The one thing I'd say for certain, beyond that, is that the wear here is enough that if I wanted the car to last I'd be paying lots of attention to it.
- Glenn