Now wait just a minute there, guy…
What if the Oil Bob guys at that old school weren’t looking at engine wear data when making an educated guess on oil life? What if their way of thinking was…
“Ok, so this oil started out with TBN additives
(the good guys) @ 2x that of the natural acidic nature of all these chemicals blended together = TAN
(the bad guys). When the ratio decreases to a 1:1 and the bad guys are now going to start outnumbering the good guys, it’s time to call it done and end this battle before someone becomes a loser”
There’s nothing wrong with that conclusion, in my opinion. I’m sure the oil does start to degrade from that point and is now no longer at acceptable performance levels that the Oil Bob guys were willing to accept, because their goal was… say… 95% or better.
This worked just fine all these years, hasn’t it? Too many million mile owners shouting from their worn down drivers cushion “I’ve been changing the oil every 3,000 miles on the dot, sonny boy”
Fast forward and a new generation of Oil Bob’s are born and these guys are examining thousands of UOA data from thousands of different engines and driving conditions and are going based off of WEAR.
“Who cares if there’s only 1.0tbn good guy(s) left vs 4-5tan bad guys if in the end, this last Spartan is their best fighter and he does some Jackie Chan stunt and takes out all the bad guys and WINS!!!” (Think, zero engine wear increase @ 10,000 miles (new age) on the oil vs dumping it at 3,000 miles (old skool)
I hope all of that made SOME sense. It did in my head.