Have a car that'd been minimally used for the past three years, so only was putting about 300-500 miles a year on it, but was changing the oil annually. I have three separate oil samples from each change that I never sent in. What's the thinking on mixing them well and combining them into one sample for a UOA? All three changes were the same exact brand, type and viscosity of oil. Would the combined "sample" be reflective of the cumulative miles on all the samples from a wear (metals) standpoint? Three ~500 miles samples = ~1500 miles of use? Or, am I completely defeating the purpose of a UOA by doing this? My thinking is that 300-500 mile oil samples just isn't enough miles to really show much individually.
Mix 3 Very Low Mile Samples?
- Thread starter miraCRD
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It certainly wouldn't show the additive depletion associated with 1500 miles of use, and might not show anything useful about wear metals either, but that's a harder question.
Unless you have any reason to expect a problem, I wouldn't waste the time on a UOA of 500 miles, and I definitely wouldn't mix them as it'd be hard to draw any real conclusion from that. If you really wanted a UOA, I'd just send in the most recent sample and call it a day.
Unless you have any reason to expect a problem, I wouldn't waste the time on a UOA of 500 miles, and I definitely wouldn't mix them as it'd be hard to draw any real conclusion from that. If you really wanted a UOA, I'd just send in the most recent sample and call it a day.
I think the above advice makes sense. Consider---if there was a problem with sand in the first sample, it would pollute the clear sample that was more recent; likewise, if you do have sand in the latest one only, it would be diluted by a clear sample from the first one or two samples taken.
