Oil was in service for ~6.5 months (203 days). Driven roughly 20 mi per day (5 mi to work, then home for lunch, back to work, and back home). Some driving on the weekends, mostly short trips, but occasional highway treks. I had the head gasket done at 158k. By 163k the iron settled down to where it's at now at roughly 5-6ppm per 1000 mi. Prior to the head gasket, iron was 1-2 ppm per 1000 mi. I was not happy with the place that did the HG. I wouldn't be surprised if shoddy workmanship lead to the higher iron levels I now have. For the past 6 UOAs, iron has been steady at 5-6 ppm per 1000 mi. I guess this is my new normal. Car runs fine other than a slow leak at the main seal that the thicker oil has slowed down. With 5W30, I was adding 1qt every 2k mi. Now with the 5W40, it's 1qt every 4k mi. The previous oils on this report are M1 EP HM 5W30 and Pennzoil Euro L 5W30. The baseline (BL) line in the report is the virgin Castrol Euro 5W40. The air filter is a Honda OEM that has been in the car for 18k mi. Silicon seems fine so I'm leaving it in another 6 months. Any ideas why the iron has settled so high after the HG change?
Castrol Euro 5W40 | 3787 mi | '03 Civic EX 1.7L
- Thread starter himemsys
- Start date
Do you have a bypass filter you installed on this Civic (Filter Info)? What I find interesting is that Fe is going up 4 ppm each sample. Mg add pack has increased quite a bit for each oil sample. Fuel still reasonable & viscosity is no issue. Wonder when or if it will plateau. Si low like you said & no coolant contamination so not much else to do but rip it around & keep taking a peak of the oil. It is getting higher mileage & probably been a town commuter its whole life? You could look at it this way... 3 PPM Fe in baseline fluid so 21 PPM, Sample #2 could have had no Fe in virgin fluid and would remain at 20 PPM Fe so that would virtually be the exact same wear. I'd not worry about it just yet. Interesting to hear your oil consumption was cut in half. May have to bust out the BG engine cleaner & some R&P eventually, just not yet. 
No bypass filter. The filter used during this OCI was a Fram Ultra 7317. It had been installed a year earlier at 9/25/23. Had about 7700 mi on it. I replaced it with a Fram FE7317, which I'll keep on there another year.
On a PPM/1000mi level, the iron in the last 6 oil changes were: 5.97, 5.55, 5.64, 4.65, 5.67, 6.34
I'm trying to look at it as a normal range of 5-6ppm per 1000 mi (rounding to the nearest whole #), rather than going up by 4ppm each of the last 3 samples.
Mg is just a nature of the oil addpacks used. Pennzoil Euro L 5W30 = 18ppm, M1 EP HM 5W30 = 753, Castrol Euro 5W40 = 1121.
Another variable is I've been using a different oil type every oil change. That is changing as I'm using Castrol Euro 5W40 again. Previous 6 oils were: ST FS HM 5W20, M1 AFE 0W30, MaxLife 150K 5W20, PZ Euro L 5W30, M1 EP HM 5W30, Castrol Euro 5W40.
Last edited: