Chevron Supreme 5w30 15185mi 95Prizm Toyota 7AFE

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Chevron Supreme 5w-30, 15185 miles, 1995 Geo Prizm 1.8 Liter 7AFE at 187,824

Summary:
Engine : Toyota 1.8L 7AFE
Filter : Purolator PremiumPlus L14476
Oil: Chevron Supreme 5w-30 SM-Grade
Sample Date: 09/24/08

Total Miles: 187,824 miles
Interval: 15,185 miles
Duration: 10/27/07-09/24/08 (~11 months)
Make-up Oil: 15 quarts
Blackstone Labs

This Sample / Vehicle Averages / Universal Averages

Aluminum 4 / 3 / 2
Chromium 1 / 1 / 1
Iron 21 / 10 / 7
Copper 4 / 4 / 4
Lead 1 / 1 / 2
Tin 0 / 0 / 0
Molybdenum 214 / 160 / 111
Nickel 0 / 0 / 0
Manganese 0 / 0 / 0
Silver 0 / 0 / 0
Titanium 0 / 0 / 0
Potassium 47 / 8 / 4
Boron 36 / 39 / 47
Silicon 10 / 5 / 7
Sodium 13 / 6 / 5
Calcium 2373 / 2433 / 2412
Magnesium 30 / 13 / 20
Phosphorus 790 / 750 / 747
Zinc 830 / 878 / 886
Barium 0 / 0 / 0

Viscosity-SUS 58.1 Should be 56-63 per Blackstone for this oil
Viscosity-cSt 9.68 Should be 9.1-11.3 per Blackstone
Flashpoint 380F Should be >365F per Blackstone
Fuel Antifreeze Positive
Water 0.0
Insolubles 0.7% FLAGGED
TBN: 2.8

Blackstone commented on coolant being present during this run, I had to change out my water pump a few hundred miles ago which is directly above the dipstick tube that had to come out and I must have got a little bit coolant in there. If that caused a little extra wear then these wear numbers are looking good to me. Consumption is remaining the same as it was during the last interval, I am still using my 59 cent/quart Chevron Supreme 5w30 but will likely raise the viscosity and run some high mileage oil next summer. The weather(from well below freezing last winter to the 90's of summer) and driving conditions(~90% highway) were in this interval, which included a 2,000 mile round trip to Toronto and back to the Minneapolis area of MN as part of this run. Consumption hasn't gotten worse than 1qt/1000 miles in this oil change, I think I will leave things alone as far as consumption concerns go. Iron is higher in this sample at 21ppm, moly is from the Chevron Supreme. I have no way of knowing whether or not the 21ppm change from my previous max of 12ppm of Iron is due to the longer run(last one was 6ppm at 10k) or from the coolant ingestion, which is what I am pretty sure it is the coolant causing this.

On a side note, the 2,000 mile round trip to Toronto had my 2 best tanks(one being 12.4 gallons out of the 13.2 gallon tank getting 530 miles) at 43mpg while traveling at the 70mph speed limit. The entire trip got me 40mpg+ for every tank. I'm also still running Pennzoil Syncromesh in the manual transmission which I just changed out along with this oil which has made winter shifting much nicer and possibly improved gas mileage too. I also just replaced my spark plugs at 189,470 yesterday which I ran for 45,137 miles which I forgot about and didn't realize it until I got a misfire on acceleration under high throttle at around 1500-2000 rpm, everything is fine with the new plugs. I'll post pics of the old plugs soon in a different thread.

Am I on track for another 15,000 mile run?
What do you guys think?
 
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You are changing your oil as you drive on one hand, on the other hand the engine will go forever like this.....(as long as you really don't have a coolant leak)
 
The weep hole on my water pump had left a puddle under my car and I lost about a quart of fluid through it for the week prior to replacing the pump. Now that it has been replaced I will be watching the coolant level very closely because there is no reason for it to go down now, if it does, it will be an early UOA to verify. Hopefully not, I do know for a fact that some coolant did drip in through the dipstick tubes hole when the dipstick tube was removed when changing the pump though.

I'm also nearly at 50k miles of ownership, which I will officially hit tomorrow at 189,699 miles on my trip out to Tennessee. The only thing that I have had to replace that wasn't related to routine maintenence has been this water pump, so I think that so far things are going well on this vehicle soon to hit 200k.
 
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yes, the coolant contamination would require extra concern. I wouldn't do another 15k oci. maybe do a 5k interval with a UOA to see if the sodium/potassium and the positive coolant test is out of the picture. if it's clear on the next UOA, by all means continue 15k oci with the makeup oil. no problems.
 
15 quarts of make-up oil, holy cow!
crazy2.gif
 
I've been traveling a TON lately just got back from an 1400 mile trip and will be going on an 1800 mile trip which I am leaving for tomorrow, and at the end of next week I will already be nearly 4,000 miles into this OCI, even though the OCI started last week. 5,000 miles will be very soon, so if I pull a sample it will likely be less than a months worth of driving. Feels like a waste of oil when I have a pretty good feeling that the coolant in the oil was my fault from having some go in from the water pump replacement.
 
Let's see: 15k miles, 15 quarts make-up oil... You're on roughly a 4,000-mile OCI, right? Not bad, though the coolant in there was not helping you. Hope you got it fixed. Enjoy your Prizm!
 
Your someone who can't even take advantage of a MG or Frantz type oil filter. It would require you to consume even more oil ..and to what gain
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Assuming you left no residuals from the consumed quarts within the sump, you're probably at a mature sump in about 10k ..maybe less.

Is this a 4 quart sump?
 
Originally Posted By: ThirdeYe
15 quarts of make-up oil, holy cow!
crazy2.gif



My thoughts exactly! I would just change the filter once a year.
 
Originally Posted By: whitesands
Time for a rebuild or a new car...


A rebuild because of a quart/1000 miles consumption?
Bad economics IMHO - sounds like BITOG OCD.

If it's getting 30 mpg on gas at $3.50/gallon, gas cost = $117 per 1000 miles.
How significant is another $2 for oil?
 
Zactly,

One can buy a lot of oil for the price of a rebuild. We are talking about a 13 year old car with 190K miles.

Drive it as is until it won't run any more. Just check the oil every time you stop for gas to ensure it's not consuming more.

If the 7A-FE is like my 4A-FE, it's got a 3L sump capacity. So I'll top up when it's 1/2 quart low, not a full quart. One quart is about 30% of the oil capacity.
 
Have you changed the PCV valve recently? If not, it might help with consumption. My stepdaughter's '95 4AFE had the same 1qt/1,000 mile consumption issue. Did a tuneup on it and included a new PCV valve and it cut the consumption down to practically nothing.
 
Wow, 15 quarts in 11 months! And you have to add what you originally put in when you changed the oil. Sounds kind of expensive!

Okay, bud, but it looks like you are polluting the heck out of the environment... Better hope that you don't get hunted down and attacked by a pack of tree hugging lefties...
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Get the cheapest oil possible, buy it by the case and keep driving until she dies. I've got a 1998 Prizm with only 80,000 miles, I hope I can get as many miles out of mine as yours.
 
@Gary Allen - 4 quart sump

@harley145000 - I'd take it to the scrap heap if it wasn't the most reliable car I've ever had with only a consumption issue and a water pump as the only issues in 50,000+ miles of owning this car. This car just got 42 mpg on the highway on the way from Nashville, TN back home to Minnesota and it got 43 mpg twice on a trip to Toronto. I can't even find any new cars that can do this well unless I want a hybrid but I'd rather drive something that I don't have to pay 10k+ for. It also helps that insurance is wickedly cheap since I have no motivation to insure the car for collision or comprehensive that I could easily replace if something happened, the costs of insuring a new car are much higher.

@Pat in Speedway - I swapped out the PCV valve shortly after I bought the car but it didn't seem to make a difference. What brand are you using, is it OEM or are you using an aftermarket brand, maybe I'm using a bad brand of PCV valve.

@FordSVTGuy and chevrofreak - I've paid 49 and 59 cents depending on the deal I got at Checker Auto and all of the mail in rebates have come back to me. I can buy a case once a month for each of their rebate periods once I get the ad in the mail with the coupon offer. So total oil cost was roughly 10 bucks which is less than I spent on the $20 5 quart jugs wally world used to have.

"Okay, bud, but it looks like you are polluting the heck out of the environment... Better hope that you don't get hunted down and attacked by a pack of tree hugging lefties..."
The odd thing is that when I have a friend or coworker follow me somewhere I always ask for them to watch closely and see if they can see any smoke out of the tailpipe at all, everyone says there is none. One thing I know for sure is that there is no oil puddle in the garage where I park. So I suppose tree huggers won't be coming after me unless there are some looking for some random guy in Minnesota driving a 95 Prizm.

Al - Yes the possible catalytic converter issues have me a little concerned. How do I know I have a bad one, reduced acceleration, a bad smell, and declining gas mileage? It seems that there are plenty of low cost universal ones in case it fails, but I hope it doesn't.
 
@Pat in Speedway - I swapped out the PCV valve shortly after I bought the car but it didn't seem to make a difference. What brand are you using, is it OEM or are you using an aftermarket brand, maybe I'm using a bad brand of PCV valve.
As I recall, it was a Purolator I got from Advance Auto. The only other thing that I can think of that might've made a difference was switching to Valvoline MaxLife. Could just be that your engine is going to be the way it is.
 
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