Amsoil Signature 5W30; 9820 miles on oil, 2016 Kia Forte

B

BBC489

Joined
Dec 9, 2019
Messages
6
Hi all,

First post here. This oil has about 9 months in service. Driving conditions, this is a 21 yo college student's car. Your guess is as good as mine on how she drives it. At the last sample the car had 121k miles on it.

Air filter is a Wix, oil filter is a Wix XP. Climate is northern Texas. Antifreeze and spark plugs changed 10/2022. Oil was last changed 08/2022.

Curious to see what y'all think about it. Thanks

Kia.jpg
 
fantastic said:
First of all welcome to your first post! This is an all around perfect report. The college student is doing fantastic & with a TBN of 2.9 could potentially stretch this out to 12k if you'd like to.
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No, I think the world is down with a TBN of 3.0 indicating time to change the oil. Also, not understanding the need for boutique oil in a prosaic car (where Mobil 1, Castrol, Pennzoil, QS would deliver all day long). Also, not getting reusing filters. While we are here, the economics of performing oil change analysis on this higher-mileage, econo sled are confusing.
 
I realize we're talking PPM but iron kinda stands out a bit compared to the other metals. I'm not saying it's "high" but it sure is present. Conversely, it could be viewed as "low" when the previous sample was a few k miles less and had a value of 15ppm. Is this engine a known iron shedder?
 
fantastic said:
First of all welcome to your first post! This is an all around perfect report. The college student is doing fantastic & with a TBN of 2.9 could potentially stretch this out to 12k if you'd like to.
Click to expand...
Excellent read.

People need to slow down on the over dependence on TBN.

Fe from 14 ppm to 15 ppm with an increase of 3600+ miles isn't trending UP, technically it's trending down in Fe ppm/mile.

Now I do agree, 21-24 ppm Si is not native, s/b 7-10 ppm or so. There may be a slow/small bottom end opening/leak allowing some unfiltered air in. Top end/intake seems tight with -4-5ppm Al,

Great use of Amsoil. I did the same with my daughter's Camry when she was at school. It did fine!
 
buster said:
There is no issue with TBN or Fe LOL. It's 15ppm with 10k on the oil.
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Exactly! My comment was looking at the whole picture not just the TBN. Although the silicon is something I would monitor it doesn't appear to be doing much. 12k is a real obtainable mileage with this report IMO. At this rate with 12k on the oil the Silicon would read around 29.32 PPM. That would be a good time to change it.

It would be a good idea to check the air filter box just to see if anything can be reduced.
 
fantastic said:
Exactly! My comment was looking at the whole picture not just the TBN. Although the silicon is something I would monitor it doesn't appear to be doing much. 12k is a real obtainable mileage with this report IMO. At this rate with 12k on the oil the Silicon would read around 29.32 PPM. That would be a good time to change it.

It would be a good idea to check the air filter box just to see if anything can be reduced.
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Thank you for the advice, next time she is home I will check the air filter box for leaks and condition of air filter.
 
Pablo said:
Excellent read.

People need to slow down on the over dependence on TBN.

Fe from 14 ppm to 15 ppm with an increase of 3600+ miles isn't trending UP, technically it's trending down in Fe ppm/mile.

Now I do agree, 21-24 ppm Si is not native, s/b 7-10 ppm or so. There may be a slow/small bottom end opening/leak allowing some unfiltered air in. Top end/intake seems tight with -4-5ppm Al,

Great use of Amsoil. I did the same with my daughter's Camry when she was at school. It did fine!
Click to expand...
Thank you for your advice, looking like an air box issue, or filter possibly? Will check both next time she is home.
 
TomYoung said:
No, I think the world is down with a TBN of 3.0 indicating time to change the oil. Also, not understanding the need for boutique oil in a prosaic car (where Mobil 1, Castrol, Pennzoil, QS would deliver all day long). Also, not getting reusing filters. While we are here, the economics of performing oil change analysis on this higher-mileage, econo sled are confusing.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your reply, I am learning and appreciate your time to reply to my post.

I agree with you that the aforementioned oils would work just fine, in fact Mobil 1 and Pennzoil were used before the switch to Amsoil. My reasoning for using Amsoil in my daughters every day ordinary car, (although she might disagree with that description she loves her car) was that she is 4 hours away at college and I am not seeing the car nor her as often so I decided to use an oil that could possibly give me more leeway in oil changes which this oil apparently is.

I like doing the maintenance on my vehicles. Me performing the maintenance gives me peace of mind knowing that the work was performed the way that I wished and more economically than paying someone to do an oil change.

I am not sure what you are meaning by reusing filters. I have not changed the oil, and this filter should still be good, even possibly filtering a bit better according to my limited understanding at this point?

I can understand your confusion on performing oil analysis on this car economically, however, when extending the mileage between oil changes it makes perfect sense to me. $20 or $30 dollars to check the oil's service life vs cost to replace/rebuild an engine I think justifies the price.

I am curious about your thinking on picking an oil. When should boutique oils come into play? Is there a minimum dollar amount on engine cost before they should be used, or another justification for using boutique oils?
 
himemsys said:
Is no one going to mention the potassium? Combined with the sodium increase, we might be seeing the beginning stages of a head gasket going out. For sure something to monitor closely until you know for sure one way or the other.
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Not something that I wanted to see. :)

New plan, change the oil, air filter and double check the air box for sealing when she comes back home taking another oil sample then. Will monitor Na+ and K+ from there to see if it changes, or continues to increase along with coolant showing up in oil.

I do again thank everyone for taking the time to reply and educate me on my oil samples and what may be happening in the engine.
 
BBC489 said:
Not something that I wanted to see. :)

New plan, change the oil, air filter and double check the air box for sealing when she comes back home taking another oil sample then. Will monitor Na+ and K+ from there to see if it changes, or continues to increase along with coolant showing up in oil.

I do again thank everyone for taking the time to reply and educate me on my oil samples and what may be happening in the engine.
Click to expand...
ALSO - Check to make sure all PCV hoses and such are tight. As I stated, your Al is not high so, I have some doubts the leak is in the air intake.

You might consider a cooling system pressure check and a very close monitoring of the coolant level. Maybe start with a fresh cooling system flush and refill.
 
BBC489 said:
Thank you for your reply, I am learning and appreciate your time to reply to my post.

I agree with you that the aforementioned oils would work just fine, in fact Mobil 1 and Pennzoil were used before the switch to Amsoil. My reasoning for using Amsoil in my daughters every day ordinary car, (although she might disagree with that description she loves her car) was that she is 4 hours away at college and I am not seeing the car nor her as often so I decided to use an oil that could possibly give me more leeway in oil changes which this oil apparently is.

I like doing the maintenance on my vehicles. Me performing the maintenance gives me peace of mind knowing that the work was performed the way that I wished and more economically than paying someone to do an oil change.

I am not sure what you are meaning by reusing filters. I have not changed the oil, and this filter should still be good, even possibly filtering a bit better according to my limited understanding at this point?

I can understand your confusion on performing oil analysis on this car economically, however, when extending the mileage between oil changes it makes perfect sense to me. $20 or $30 dollars to check the oil's service life vs cost to replace/rebuild an engine I think justifies the price.

I am curious about your thinking on picking an oil. When should boutique oils come into play? Is there a minimum dollar amount on engine cost before they should be used, or another justification for using boutique oils?
Click to expand...
I thought you were changing oil without changing filters. Got that wrong. I can relate to your situation. I sometimes go months without seeing the cars my children use, and they are oblivious (unable to check oil, tire inflation).

Agree completely that you doing the maintenance yourself, carefully, is far superior to quick lube, and more economical than anything else.

I think on this car, with this mileage, the likelihood of an oil analysis revealing information that would stop a catastrophic event is low, but do agree that you can see if your oil is still working on extended intervals: TBN, contaminant/wear metals. Or, you could go to a 5k or so interval.

My opinion on your oil choice is that the good brand names, or even the Supertech, Amazon products are well-designed, engineered products. Very often, most often, cars disintegrate around a still-running engine.

Best wishes.
 
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