Mobil 1 5W-30 EP, 15436 miles, 2006 Acura MDX

[quadrun1]

This SUV has about 52,000 miles on it. Engine is spec'd for 5W-20 but I couldn't find any M1 EP in that viscosity at the time. Oil filter = M1-110 extended performance, one filter used for the entire duration.

COMMENT: For an oil run more than 15,000 miles, this one looks pretty good. Universal averages show typical wear levels for this type of engine after about 6,000 miles on the oil. Your metals are still mostly around average, except for iron and we expected that element to be higher. It tracks with time on the oil and will increase the longer you leave the oil in place. The TBN was still good at 2.0, and no fuel, moisture, or antifreeze was present in this sample. Silicon shows good air filtration, and insolubles show good oil filtration. We'd try 18,000 miles next. Nice engine!

Aluminum 5 (avg: 4)
Chromium 2 (avg: 2)
Iron 30 (avg: 12)
Copper 14 (avg: 23)
Lead 1 (avg: 1)
Tin 3 (avg: 0)
Moly 113 (avg: 78)
Nickel 1 (avg: 0)
Manganese 3(avg: 1)
Silver 0 (avg: 0)
Titanium 0 (avg: 0)
Potassium 4(avg: 1)
Boron 52 (avg: 44)
Silicon 15 (avg: 12)
Sodium 11 (avg: 24)
Calcium 3208(avg: 2193)
Magnesium 21(avg: 37)
Phosphorus 824(avg: 652)
Zinc 1296 (avg: 798)
Barium 0 (avg: 0)

SUS Visc @ 210F 63.4 (56-63)
cSt Visc @ 100C 11.16 (9.1 - 11.3)
Flashpoint 385 (>365)
Fuel% Antifreeze% 0 (0)
Water% 0 (0)
Insolubles% 0.3 ( TBN 2.0

 

[buster]

Excellent. Viscosity is perfect and with a Tbn of 2.0, 18,000 miles is not out of the question. Nice results!

 

[FL_Rob]

Mostly highway? or what percent city?

 

[daman]

I don't remember cal and zinc being that high with this oil?

great report the M1 bashers will love this one!

 

[Audi Junkie]

Not bad.

 

[stubbakatt]

Seems like the Mobil 1 filter did a nice job.

 

[tig1]

Couple of weeks ago I changed the oil for a friend in his 03 Windstar. It had M1 5-30EP and M1 filter with an OCI of 15,000 miles. We didn't do a UOA but the oil still looked great as there was no grit in the oil change pan after draining and the oil had that dark amber colar.
Yours is a good report.

 

[jstutz]

Concerned about the Zinc, it should not be that high, maybe measurement error but it is normally around 800ppm. This is even too high for HM M1. Not sure what is going on there.

 

[stranger706]

Aluminum 5, lead 1. Not bad!

And as B-S said, iron tracks with time on oil and that was still well in the ballpark.

6,000 mile average for iron is 12.

15,000/6,000 = 2.5
30/12 = 2.5
Right on track.

 

[steve20]

Zum Zing is up here-as previous posters noted-looks like a ZDDP boost may have occurred
As far as city/highway-LI traffic rivals any other metro area-unless your commute is off hours


Steve

 

[addyguy]

Looks really, really good - M1 EP is good stuff!

Agree that the Zinc is weird - did you top-off with a HDEO, maybe? Magnesium is also 'high' as there isn't any AFAIK in M1 EP.

 

[webfors]

Originally Posted By: buster
Excellent. Viscosity is perfect and with a Tbn of 2.0, 18,000 miles is not out of the question. Nice results!


Nice report. However, I wouldn't extend my oci with a TBN of 2. 15k max seems to be right for this application.

 

[quadrun1]

Not sure why the zinc is high, I did top off with a random unopened bottle of regular M1 5W-30 (not EP) at about 7,500 miles (age unknown, found it sitting on the garage shelf)

Was zinc higher in older formulations?

I use Shell V-Power gasoline, could this have anything to do with it?

Usage is about 75% highway and 25% city, somewhat off-hours and reverse-commute but I don't baby it.

Right now I'm running Pennzoil Ultra 5W-20 for 7,500 miles. I'll have it analyzed and if it looks good I'll try an extended interval on that.

 

[daman]

Cal is high too shouldnt be that high on this oil.

 

[EMPIRE]

Originally Posted By: webfors


Nice report. However, I wouldn't extend my oci with a TBN of 2. 15k max seems to be right for this application.

+1

 

[tig1]

Is this your opinion or do you have info we need to know where you have seen engine damage with TBNs 2 or less?

 

[quadrun1]

FWIW I'll probably stick with 15k because it's convenient:

-It's exactly twice the recommended oil change interval (as compared to conventional oil)
-It's the factory recommended change interval for the oil filter

 

[sbergman27]

TBN should be fine all the way down to about 1. Of course, at that point you are trusting the accuracy of the lab. Couldn't one just dab a litmus paper on the dipstick periodically and change the oil as soon as the PH starts to go acidic?

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: quadrun1
Not sure why the zinc is high, I did top off with a random unopened bottle of regular M1 5W-30 (not EP) at about 7,500 miles (age unknown, found it sitting on the garage shelf)

Was zinc higher in older formulations?
. . .


I thank everyone who goes puts out the time and expense to share their UOA. That said, I'm afraid that the topping off with another oil, albeit a related one, severely compromises, or eliminates outright, the ability to draw any solid conclusions about this oil from this UOA. Now, it's not as if you poured in quart of Wesson cooking oil, but still, now we have a blend of different add packs, probably different base oil mixtures, and so forth. Obviously, what's in there has remained pretty true to what we'd expect from M1EP in a Honda engine, run for this duration, but still, there's now some doubt.

All this said, I'd be very happy if this were my car.

 

[sbergman27]

Originally Posted By: ekpolk
I thank everyone who goes puts out the time and expense to share their UOA.

Especially those enthusiasts with the intestinal fortitude to actually go the 15k miles that XM has stuck its legal neck out enough to officially claim and print on the bottle. The XM legal department is no doubt like other large companies' legal departments: Anal enough to shock the socks off Sigmund Freud, himself.

These long OCI reports give us a view that the shorter ones just don't. Look at the iron. It works out to an average 2ppm increase per 1000 miles. That's trivial even by BITOG oil obsessor standards.

Even more instructive is this 18,000 mile UOA series.

Oh my God! At 1000 miles, iron's already at 10! By 18,000 miles it'll be at 180 and the engine will self-destruct! Right?

Well... no. The oil started out with 2ppm of iron. And so the first 1000 miles only added 8ppm. And then the increase drops off considerably. By 18,000 miles, it's only up to 47. An increase of 37ppm over an 17000 mile period. 2.2 ppm per 1000 miles. And in the last 10,000 miles, the rate is down to a 1.2 ppm increase per 1000 miles. Strangest "wear" rate I've ever seen.

Without long OCI UOAs and long OCI progressions like PG's we'd all just assume that M1 was feces, and eating our engines from the inside out. Not that the iron levels even in short M1 UOAs is really significant to anyone outside of this forum. The OP's 2 ppm/1000 mile overall rate works out to about 0.5g of iron over a 100,000 mile period. ;-)