Here is the latest UOA done on my hybrid Highlander, for about 6000 miles:
This is a link to the first UOA done on this vehicle.
I want to give a thanks to Gina Fishbeck & Pennzoil, as they provided the test kit for this sample. Currently in the sump is Pennzoil Platinum HM 0w20, which they have also provided a test kit for.
Given how low wear metals were in the first UOA, I wanted to extend this OCI farther than 6000 miles, but I noticed for the first time with this vehicle, oil consumption. It had lost around a quart in 6000 miles. I know this is not much at all, but it felt kind of silly, adding an extra quart so the oil wouldn't drop below the add line (it was about 3mm above that mark when I drained the oil), to extend the OCI another 1000 miles or so. If you are replacing 20% of the sump (1 quart out of 5 quarts overall) how great a picture does a UOA give you of the oil's condition? So after I get the next sample (with the current fill), I'll decide how far I want to take this in the future. If I do want to continue sampling & UOAs beyond this current fill, I might extend the OCIs to 10K, but I might just limit it to 7-8K if I decide to not pay for more UOAs to support a 10K OCI. FWIW, Toyota corporate recommends 5K on this engine, regardless of whether synthetic or conventional is used. But 3 of the 6 nearby Toyota dealerships when I called them, told me they recommend 10K on synthetic oil changes for this vehicle.
As an irrelevant bit of trivia, I'm glad to see silicon was not off the charts. After being careful to take the oil sample midstream, and then taking the tube of oil over to my porch where it could cool before placing the lid on it, I dropped the lid onto a dusty object before tightening it down. Silicon was 19 in the previous sample and 18 here, so I guess there wasn't much dust contamination from the lid, if any.
This is a link to the first UOA done on this vehicle.
I want to give a thanks to Gina Fishbeck & Pennzoil, as they provided the test kit for this sample. Currently in the sump is Pennzoil Platinum HM 0w20, which they have also provided a test kit for.
Given how low wear metals were in the first UOA, I wanted to extend this OCI farther than 6000 miles, but I noticed for the first time with this vehicle, oil consumption. It had lost around a quart in 6000 miles. I know this is not much at all, but it felt kind of silly, adding an extra quart so the oil wouldn't drop below the add line (it was about 3mm above that mark when I drained the oil), to extend the OCI another 1000 miles or so. If you are replacing 20% of the sump (1 quart out of 5 quarts overall) how great a picture does a UOA give you of the oil's condition? So after I get the next sample (with the current fill), I'll decide how far I want to take this in the future. If I do want to continue sampling & UOAs beyond this current fill, I might extend the OCIs to 10K, but I might just limit it to 7-8K if I decide to not pay for more UOAs to support a 10K OCI. FWIW, Toyota corporate recommends 5K on this engine, regardless of whether synthetic or conventional is used. But 3 of the 6 nearby Toyota dealerships when I called them, told me they recommend 10K on synthetic oil changes for this vehicle.
As an irrelevant bit of trivia, I'm glad to see silicon was not off the charts. After being careful to take the oil sample midstream, and then taking the tube of oil over to my porch where it could cool before placing the lid on it, I dropped the lid onto a dusty object before tightening it down. Silicon was 19 in the previous sample and 18 here, so I guess there wasn't much dust contamination from the lid, if any.
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