Mobil1 5W30ESP VW1.8T EA888 Alltrack, 5077 miles

Status
Not open for further replies.

JOD

Joined
Sep 10, 2009
Messages
3,577
Location
PNW/WA
there are 11,500 miles on the car, 5077 miles on the oil. I dumped the factory fill early, 1,500 miles--with ESP, then changed it again a bit after 5K w/ ESP. This is that oil.

I was curious to see 1) how fuel dilution looks with the stock tune, and 2) how the low saps oil held up. Car split time between CA and WA, 50/50. So, half low sulfur fuel, half maybe low sulfur fuel?

Questions and thoughts:

-I thought Oil Analyzers used GC to measure fuel dilution, but it says "estimated"? Did they change their methodology here?
-the low saps ESP looks like it can easily make it to 7,500 based on this UOA. One UOA, obviously, but the oil is in good condition
-wear metals seem quite low, guess the break in metals are all gone

The big elephant in the room is obviously Si. Given the wear metals, I'm going to blame the brand new (and cheap) fluid transfer pump. I'm guessing I got some dirt in the sample, otherwise wear metals would probably be elevated.

Anyone else ever seen this or have any thoughts on Si? Air intake/filter are stock. I really didn't want to disturb the air box (and let dirt in, ironically), but I guess I should check it out and make sure the air filter is in there correctly, and that there's not a giant hole in the air filter. Given the high Si, I'll sample again and just pull the sample from the stream while draining the oil. I'm still betting the sample got contaminated.

Silicone aside, it seems that a low saps oil is certainly capable of reasonable drain intervals, despite what I've read on the internet.



 
I believe elevated silicon is from gaskets and sealants used in manufacturing. Check your air filter JIC, but they should level off with future oil changes.
 
Originally Posted By: CleverUserName
I believe elevated silicon is from gaskets and sealants used in manufacturing. Check your air filter JIC, but they should level off with future oil changes.


While I wondered that, I had changed the oil twice prior so I would have thought it would be out of the engine by now, but I guess that's a possibility. Nothing externally obvious on the air filter but I'm going to pull it out today.



Originally Posted By: LotI
All petrol in the US is low sulfur since the beginning of this year.

EPA


I think the answer there is "maybe". You're right, it's the rule and I'm willing to bet that most gas out there is ultra low sulfur, but 1) there are some workarounds which include paying a fine on gas that is over the threshold, and 2) I don't think EPA enforcement is really much of a thing these days (not getting political, but that's the reality).

Even prior to this year, US fuel didn't have the crazy levels of the 80's and 90's, so I kinda expected this result--but I wanted to post this mostly so folks could see how a 504/507 oil holds up in a gas engine. There aren't a ton of UOA's out there that I could find.
 
Last edited:
Not bad! I can't wait to see what my first UOA with this same oil looks like. I'm most interested in seeing how well it hold's it's viscosity in my Corvette. I think this oil is a seriously under rated oil (it probably flies under the radar because it's priced too high though)
 
if the viscosity measured is within the range they don't run GC FD test. you need to request it in the comments section while submitting the sample, or just call them and they'll run the test (they keep the remainder of the sample for 30days)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top