UOA on oil

[haley10]

I want to do a uoa on my oil to see how it is performing. Car has 72,000 miles and I feel I should change the spark plugs.

I have never done a uoa. Will this skew the results? Oil has only 1K now. Should I wait after next change or will any contamination be obvious or minimal??

I'm wanting a good uoa on Mobil 1 10W-30 to include bother Winter and moderate conditions. I just don't want the results skewed by routine maintenance.

 

[TR3-2001SE]

I would guess spark plugs would have no effect unless the ones you have currently are really shot. I would just wait till after the UOA as spark plugs usually don't quit working just get less effecient. I change spark plugs in my toyota after 100,000 miles and seems to be very little ware with platium plugs. In my Miata I changed at 30,000 and could see some ware on the copper ones. If you have a high fuel content in your UOA changing spark plugs would help I would think.

 

[Patman]

The one thing I would worry about when changing plugs is that there is the possibility of getting some dirt into the cylinders, which could then get into the oil. So I'd do a plug swap a day or two before an oil change, so if you did get any dirt in there and it got into the oil, then you'd get it flushed out.

 

[Al]

If you can get to the plugs O.K. and are careful to avoid getting stuff in the cylinder then I would just go ahead and change. I'm pretty fanatical about avoiding getting anything in there-so it a non-issue for me.