UOA should I? '00 VW Vr6, 60k mi; M1 0w40, 8250 mi, a-rx.

[alchu]

Background:

2000 VW Jetta VR6
Purchased car feb '04 49950mi
changed oil to M1 0w40 at 52000 mi
Not sure about previous maintenance, the car was leased.

NYC non daily driver, no stop and go... but most trips less than 7mi.

At 4900 mi, I changed the filter, and added .75qt make-up oil. Took a sample then (from the filter housing) to send to blackstone. Results below (no TBN).

At 6750 mi (1850 mi later), I changed the filter, added .75qt make up oil and 12oz Auto-RX.

At 8250 mi (1650 mi later) I drained the oil and took a sample.

Was all set to send it in to be analyzed (Dyson?) but am now thinking that it might not be all that useful to know what's going on at this point. Thinking that maybe I should just hold off, testing whatever oil I put in after the rinse phase.

Thoughts? Advice?

Allan


Key: samp [univ avg]

Aluminum 5 [4]
Chromium 1 [1]
Iron 19 [21]
Copper 6 [5]
Lead 1 [2]
Tin 2 [1]
Molybdenum 52 [39]
Nickel 0 [1]
Manganese 0 [3]
Sliver 0 [0]
Titanium 0 [0]
Potassium 1 [1]
Boron 107 [60]
Silicon 5 [6]
Sodium 6 [5]
Calcium 2644 [2177]
Magnesium 12 [225]
Phosphorus 746 [764]
Zinc 939 [912]
Barium 0 [8]

SUS Visco @210: s/b 65-76, actual 68.9
Flashpoint: s/b >375, actual 395
Fuel: s/b Antifreeze: s/b 0%, actual 0%
Water: s/b Insolubles: s/b <0.6%, actual 0.3%

 

[Eiron]

I didn't test my A-Rx cleaning sample for the same reason(s) you're holding off. I felt there'd be too much debris to get a true picture. Same decision on my rinse oil.

Now I'm in a 20k mi run of M1 0W-40 & need to decide when to test it. I was planning on only 10k mi & 20k mi, but now I'm thinking I should do 5k, 10k, 15k & 20k. Regardless of UOA frequency, I'll still change the filter at 10k mi.

 

[Al]

Yea..I don't think I would send it in. It looks like everything is pretty good. And since you put in the AutoRx, that's another reasn to wait.

 

[Alan]

It's not worth it to run a UOA on it with the RX.
You may want to try a thinner weight oil like M1 10W30 to compare with your current results.You probably would get better MPG's too.