when should I do a UOA?

[berge]

hello, just switched both cars to mobil 1 5-30(was using regular oil before). first is 92 acura V6 with 50K that's used for nothing but short distance driving. less than 2 miles to the office and back in the evening. second car is a 94 accord 4cyl. with 110K that sees regular use with a 10mile trip to work daily, but, all city driving. neither car rarely sees the highway and both are parked outside. we're in toronto and it's not exactly warm in the winters here. 1-will a UOA be a waste since I just switched to synthetic, should I wait till the second change with mobil 1? 2-does 5000miles sound reasonable for the first UOA on these cars? thanks.

 

[Al]

Well-for the second car '94 might be O.K. (the high milage makes me a little nervous though) But for the first (94) I think 5000 miles might be a bit much. You might to limit the interval on say 6 months or 5K whichever comes first (for both). I think a Used oil analysis would be very appropriate. That will act as a guide for future comparisons. Just an opinion though.