Mobil 1 5W30, 5000 mi, Toyota Camry 2.2l

[Mike O'Connor]

Vehicle is a 1999 Camry 2.2 Litre 4 cylinder.
(Yes, this is the sludgemonster engine but there's no evidence mine's afflicted.)
Oil used was Mobil 1 5W30.
Kilometres on oil: 8000 (4971 mi)
Total Kilometres on car: 108 000. (67108 mi)
This car lives in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Oil was in the car from approx. mid-September to mid-January.
Lab was Blackstone Laboratories.

TBN: 2.8

Aluminum 2
Chromium 0
Iron 4
Copper 1
Lead 1
Tin 0
Molybdenum 72
Nickel 0
Manganese 0
SIlver 0
Titanium 0
Potassium 2
Boron 57
Silicon 6
Sodium 114
Calcium 1465
Magnesium 5
Phosphorus 478
Zinc 515
Barium 0

SUS viscosity @ 210F: 55
Flashpoint: 390 F
Fuel% : Antifreeze%: 0.23%
Water%: 0
Insolubles: 0.4

When I changed the oil, I changed the coolant at the same time and used the same funnel.
Could this explain the antifreeze contamination and the elevated sodium, or do I have
a problem?

 

[jorton]

Do you have a coolant leak? After the new coolant level is full, you should only have to add a little(1/2 cup or less) once or twice a year. More than that and there's a leak.

I think you'll get positive comments on your oil report but you should probably do another UOA before starting extended drain cycles.

[ February 02, 2005, 08:53 PM: Message edited by: jorton ]

 

[Mike O'Connor]

No obvious coolant leak; I haven't had to top up the reservoir at all.

 

[Whimsey]

When I take an oil sample for testing I drain it directly into a dishwasher cleaned glass jar from the oil pan drain. I let the initial rush of oil, 2 seconds or so pass, then I collect a jar full. That way you don't get cross contamination. Your sodium may be from road salt, if they use it by you. In NJ in the winter they use tons of it, right in front of my house it seems

. Otherwise your UOA looks real good. You still had good life left in the oil according to the TBN. Though the viscosity is now a 20 weight and your flash point seems a bit low. But what I've seen with Mobil 1 5W-30 is that the flash point seems to drop from 455 to the higher 300 range fairly rapidly

. I think you can go longer with your OCI next time with the Mobil 1 5W-30.

Whimsey

 

[Mike O'Connor]

Thanks for the feedback. I should be clear though: when I sampled the oil I did it directly from the oil pan into the Blackstone sample bottle. The possible antifreeze contamination happened at the time I put the oil into the car. There would have been a cubic centimetre of antifreeze in the funnel at the very most, though.

I'm not sure if the 0.23% is by volume or not, but 3.5 litres * 0.23% = 8 mL or 1.6 teaspoons. That's not really a lot of antifreeze, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of wear going on in the engine according to this report, so I think I'll just run about 9000 km and see if the contamination gets worse.

 

[oilyriser]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mike O'Connor:
Thanks for the feedback. I should be clear though: when I sampled the oil I did it directly from the oil pan into the Blackstone sample bottle. The possible antifreeze contamination happened at the time I put the oil into the car. There would have been a cubic centimetre of antifreeze in the funnel at the very most, though.

I'm not sure if the 0.23% is by volume or not, but 3.5 litres * 0.23% = 8 mL or 1.6 teaspoons. That's not really a lot of antifreeze, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of wear going on in the engine according to this report, so I think I'll just run about 9000 km and see if the contamination gets worse.

---

A cc of sodium weighs about a gram, so if that cc of antifreeze were made of pure sodium, it would raise the sodium concentration in 3.5L of oil to about 317 ppm, assuming oil has a densiy of 0.9 g/cc.

 

[Hirev]

That looks real good as far as wear numbers. Mobil 1 and Toyota's seem to work very well together.

Seems like wear numbers would be higher if it did had a coolant problem.

What oil filter did you use?

 

[TR3-2001SE]

An excellent report for the time of year and milage. I have a feeling the antifreeze/sodium thing is from the funnel thing. Don't do that!

 

[Mike O'Connor]

Oil filter was Fram Extra Guard. That's what was on sale at the time at Walmart! I should probably use the OEM filters though, huh?

 

[ekpolk]

Mike:

If you're running another Fram, I would strongly encourage you to order a particle count on your next UOA. I did this on my last (GC and an M1 oil filter). It would be really interesting to see what results the dreaded Fram produces compared to the M1. Thanks for the info.

 

[Mike O'Connor]

Sorry ekpolk, I went to one of those quick oil change places (It was -25C and I didn't feel like crawling around under the car!) and they put in one of their house brand filters. I will try to find out what kind of filter they use. Does Blackstone Labs do the particulate analysis you want? I like Blackstone and want to continue using them- they were very friendly and prompt when answering questions and the emailed reports are very convenient.

 

[Patman]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mike O'Connor:
Sorry ekpolk, I went to one of those quick oil change places (It was -25C and I didn't feel like crawling around under the car!) and they put in one of their house brand filters. I will try to find out what kind of filter they use. Does Blackstone Labs do the particulate analysis you want? I like Blackstone and want to continue using them- they were very friendly and prompt when answering questions and the emailed reports are very convenient.

---

If you went to Mr.Lube, their house brand is Kralinator, which is identical to the NAPA Gold and Carquest Premium, which means it's a great oil filter! It uses a semi synthetic media and silicone ADBV.

 

[Drew99GT]

ZDDP and Calcium are way down from normal for this oil

 

[ekpolk]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mike O'Connor:
Sorry ekpolk, I went to one of those quick oil change places (It was -25C and I didn't feel like crawling around under the car!) and they put in one of their house brand filters. I will try to find out what kind of filter they use. Does Blackstone Labs do the particulate analysis you want? I like Blackstone and want to continue using them- they were very friendly and prompt when answering questions and the emailed reports are very convenient.

---

Yes, Blackstone has optional particle counts. I'm encouraging other members to order a PC with their UOAs. The basic UOA provides a lot of info, but it is fundamentally limited in that it tells you little about filter performance or whether the stuff that's in your oil has the potential for creating immediate harm. A high silicone reading, for example, might reflect some well dissolved additive component or material leached from fresh seals, in which case, it's probably harmless (totally dissolved, or particles way too small to hurt anything). On the other hand, some ground up dirt particles might well be in that range where they're just a little too small for a garden variety filter, while being plenty big enough to be causing damage. A particle count will tell you how many of what size particles you've got. I did it on my last UOA (posted here), and was quite pleased with the result. On the other hand, maybe my results are normal for passenger cars. I think it would be good for us to have some comparative numbers.

On the other hand, a PC costs another $19.50 on top of your basic UOA. An individual choice for each member.

 

[Mike O'Connor]

The quick oil change place (called oilchangers) used a Purolator filter. Is that a good filter? (I've been doing some reading about the Fram extra guard and the opinions are overwhelmingly negative.)

 

[Drew99GT]

Purolators are definetally a decent filter, especially for the money.