This is the first UOA I've had done for our 2007 Saturn VUE. It has a 3.5-liter V6 engine that GM calls the L66, but it was manufactured by Honda who calls it the J35A3. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_J_engine#J35, the only difference is that the L66 utilized the cast-iron crankshaft from Honda’s J35A4 rather than the forged-steel version of the “true” J35A3. This is what Blackstone's comments are referring to when they talk about cast-steel versus cast-iron. Additional information on the engine is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_L66_engine.
The vehicle is used as the proverbial “grocery getter”. It’s mostly exposed to stop-and-go city driving conditions, used for relatively short trips to the store, taking the kids to school, etc. Though, this particular interval included 4 “family trips” of about 500 miles each.
This was the third straight fill of Pennzoil Platinum 5W-20, so there shouldn't be any mixing or cross-contamination issues affecting the results.
The vehicle is equipped with an oil life monitor. It’s a simple “dumb” type that has a light that comes on when it advises an oil change within 600 miles. It came on 5,961 miles into this interval and I then drove an additional 308 miles.
The current fill is Valvoline SynPower 5W-20 and the next will be the same. I'm undecided whether I'll run it longer (e.g. 7,500 miles) and get another UOA done or stick with the OLM which comes on around roughly 6,000 miles. I'll be under warranty for another 2.5 years and don't want to risk any warranty-denial problems if I encounter an engine problem during that time.
The vehicle is used as the proverbial “grocery getter”. It’s mostly exposed to stop-and-go city driving conditions, used for relatively short trips to the store, taking the kids to school, etc. Though, this particular interval included 4 “family trips” of about 500 miles each.
This was the third straight fill of Pennzoil Platinum 5W-20, so there shouldn't be any mixing or cross-contamination issues affecting the results.
The vehicle is equipped with an oil life monitor. It’s a simple “dumb” type that has a light that comes on when it advises an oil change within 600 miles. It came on 5,961 miles into this interval and I then drove an additional 308 miles.
The current fill is Valvoline SynPower 5W-20 and the next will be the same. I'm undecided whether I'll run it longer (e.g. 7,500 miles) and get another UOA done or stick with the OLM which comes on around roughly 6,000 miles. I'll be under warranty for another 2.5 years and don't want to risk any warranty-denial problems if I encounter an engine problem during that time.
