Oil analysis not accepted

[Kuato]

Very true that a single UOA isn't very valuable , except for.checking condition of the oil and arriving at the correct OCI.

But a series of them can be quite useful. Case in point for my '99 Grand Cherokee. This is one of the years the 4.0 suffered from the 0331 porous head casting. UOA showed higher than average wear and coolant. Without having the series of 3 UOAs done I might never have known and ended up on the side of the road, but was able to take action.

Further, aircraft engines are sampled and UOAs performed in commercial applications. This practice has caught many failing internals before they caused an emergency situation, and is required in many cases.

 

[Trav]

Originally Posted By: tig1
This is just one more reason UOAs are a waste of money, with the rare exception of checking for a suspected coolant leak or other oil contamination.


+1 I have no use for them for an engine that has a stable coolant level and runs well.
In some known problem engines i might do it once in a while.
IMHO your better served putting the cost of the UOA into a better oil or a case of beer with a pizza.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
^^^X a dozen. UOA's are tremendously over-valued here as some kind of holy grail when in reality they are just another data point at best...


Add me to that list. It has some value very little IMO though.

 

[MinamiKotaro]

UOAs are mostly for fun, imho. They can give you an idea of your interval being too long for that particular oil (sheared way out of grade, TBN way too low), but they don't give a good indication of wear.