Why get a Used Oil Analysis?

I have followed many of the threads on oil. (I am not proposing to debate oils in this thread.) And, I know that many of us have a UOA done when we change the oil in our cars. I have gotten a UOA when I first changed my oil, and now with my second oil change. I recognize that it is nice to see the various measures of metal contaminants or additives in the oil. But, other than finding out that you could have waited till 5,000 to change your oil with no issues, or that you should stick to changing your oil at 3,000 miles, what is the benefit of the UOA? If I find that there are more wear metals in the oil, can I do anything to stop that additional wear? (Except for changing the oil more frequently) Or, is it just a warning to "sell that sucker quickly" before something really important goes wrong? On this oil change, I have switched from M1 0W40 to M1 5W50. I have also put magnetic drain plugs in the crankcase and oil tank. We'll see what kind of debris, if any, they pick up. I also plan on going to 5,000 miles on this oil change. Other than that, is there any benefit I can gain? Is there anything that I can do to minimize the wear components, or to improve the lubrication, or lengthen the life of the engine? If not, maybe spending $25 every few months is just a waste of money, except that it makes you feel good. I welcome any remarks and comments. larry

I get my oil analyzed annually. If/when any metallic particles show up in the filter, I'll get the IMS+clutch replaced. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it. relinuca

I've been doing UOA's with Blackstone for a few years. I like the data collection. One test will tell you nothing, other than a base-line. It is the cumulative knowledge gained from the reports over a period of time and miles, that will give you a data point on the health of the engine. In the case of my Boxster S (have done since new) the reports have been pretty mundane, but excellent results. I've recently changed to Mobil One 5W50 after 3 years of Red Line 5W40. I am anxious to see the 1st and 2nd reports on the Mobil to see if my wear metals go up, down, or hold steady. Let's say if they go down, I'll be very happy with my oil selection. What if they go up? Probably due to my oil selection, and I may need to rethink my selection. How would I have ever know this, if I was not doing UOA's? That's one of the benefits, I see. For some owners (or major fleet operations) I am sure the UOA's give data regarding the maximum number of miles they can put on the oil prior to the oil breaking down. For me that's not the point, since I am not about extending the life span of the oil. I am all about extending the life span of my expensive motors. In the case of my Turbo, the car has lived on a steady diet of Mobil One 15W50 or 20W50 based on the car's history and complete receipts from prior owners. I did a UOA right after I bought it and also used Mobil One 20W50. I researched oils best for the air-cooler turbo, and trusted Rennlisters recommended I use Mobil 1 V-Twin 20W50. Well, the next 2 UOA's showed that my wear metals were cut in half. Very happy with the results and my oil selection. Again, I would have never know unless you are doing UOA's Someday, when I go to sell the Porsches, I am sure the next owner will appreciated the reports and value the data collection. It becomes part of the car's completed history report. Lastly, Larry, if you were doing oil changes, at say the 3K mark and the UOA looks great and now you do oil changes at 5K and they are still very good, the additional 2,000 miles easily pays for the $25 test. I change the oil at a minimum yearly, or every 5,000 miles for the Turbo and every 7,000 miles for the 987S.

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A regular UOA I believe has no real benefit. But I admit I had a UOA done early in my Boxster ownership experience just to see what it was, what the numbers looked like. I also admit I learned something from the UOA and that is these engines collect water in the oil. Now this was an 02 Boxster, with IIRC 4K miles on the engine and oil and at the time I was living in the midwest and driving the car in the winter months. However, I was driving the car what I thought was a lot of miles -- sometime a couple of hundred miles per week and most of these at highway or freeway speeds -- and I was completely taken by surprise with the amount of water in the oil. I vowed there and then to ignore the 15K mile oil service (and the 30K filter service) interval and instead change the oil & filter every 5K miles. The problem is I am not going to spend no little money and time and go to the trouble of removing some oil from the engine just to sneak up on when it is time to change the oil. At the oil analysis place I was told the proper procedure is to remove the oil filter and pour out some oil and analyze it (the facility had an oil analysis machine on site). If the oil came out ok to replace the oil filter with a new one and then top up the engine oil level. For big rigs (which this place specialized in servicing) a filter change is a quick operation and the filter is on hand. Besides the truck engine may hold gallons of oil so there's some considerable incentive to postpone an oil change until the oil is closer to requiring changing. But I remember talking to the tech and he told me about half the truckers had a UOA and used the results of this to decide to change the oil and the other half just changed the oil every month or so (after approx 25K to 30K or more miles of driving). Anyhow, the problem is for the Boxster the oil filter change represents a considerable additional expense. There's the filter and of course the o-ring to buy and have on hand. Then if the oil was found bad since this place didn't want do Boxster oil changes (and I wouldn't have let it do the oil change even if it wanted to) that means I would have had to replace the old filter with a new one, drive the car home, then remove and replace the just replaced filter, then of course drain/change the oil. So, I have the trouble time and expense of having the UOA done and the extra expense of the filter. Since I change the oil in my Boxster myself (most of the time) the UOA cost represented a considerable sum of the total cost to me of doing an oil change. I felt that I was on solid ground and timing to just adhere to a 5K mile oil/filter service schedule. Since my 02 Boxster now has almost 244K miles on its original engine I believe my lack of regular UOAs and the regular oil/filter servicing has been the right course for me to follow. (My 03 Turbo just passed the 67K miles mark and has received 5K mile oil/filter changes and the engine runs better now than ever and when I bought it the engine had just 10K miles.) Even if I were to do regular UOAs (though why I would want to do these I do not know) I'm certainly not going to wait until wear metal sign shows up. If the UOA turns up bearing metal or other wear metal in high percentages the oil should have already past its replace by date. Wear metal in oil is a sign the oil is breaking down or corrosion is high and the oil should have been already changed. Waiting for the UOA to turn up wear metal before changing the oil is like waiting to feel the fist hitting your face before ducking the punch. Not a technique I'd want to follow. As for getting an early heads up/warning about pending IMS bearing failure (or other failure) well, in almost all cases I'm aware of the IMS bearing doesn't go from good to only bad enough to put some metal in the oil that would be detected by an UOA. IOWs, the IMS bearing goes from good to bad in a very short time and unless its failure happened to coincide with a UOA the chances are the bearing would be bad long before (or after) a UOA. It would be a matter of luck more than anything if a UOA gave one sufficient warning of a pending IMS bearing failure. Sincerely, Macster.

Thanks for your comments. You have mirrored my thoughts. It seems that UOA is a good idea to set a baseline, and to determine the expected period between oil changes. In that situation, the wear components in the UOA will tell you that you haven't waited too long, or Oops, should have changed it earlier. In my case, I have also just added drain plug magnets. I'll post another thread on that, but the iron captured by a strong drain plug magnet will likely pull iron out of the circulating oil. Can't hurt. larry