Latest oil test results

For me, it depends on the car - with a near new car under warranty, I get it done at the dealer.

Next 3 or 4 yrs, get a logbook service done, but not necessarily at the dealer, so the book can be stamped.

After that, I start doing my own servicing, and write in the book, keeping copies of receipts for filters, oil etc.

When they get to 15-20+ years old, the "look at the colour of the oil" test is a good one, as in an older car this test often gets the service done sooner as it gets dirtier quicker - but in reality the car isn't worth much anyway so it's not as critical, nor will it void warranty.

 

That is more than what our Sable gets, and it likely sees more miles a year than your Prius. It's just an oil and filter change once a year.

Their recommendation is likely conservative. Used oil analysis can let you determine what the actual change interval for the car, under your driving conditions, should be. This would lead to less oil used, but the costs for for the tests are too much to make the effort worthwhile for most people.

An oil life monitoring system like GM uses is a big step forward over simply going by time and miles driven. They monitor things like temperatures and engine speeds as a proxy for determining how much stress and wear the oil is seeing.

Keeping receipts for the oil and filters is good enough for warranty claims.

 

i'm on atorvistatin, no alcohol restriction. i'll drink hair tonic, if that's all there is.

 

Aaah yes, hair of the dog!

 

yep, me too. doc cut it to every other day, and it's much better. cholesterol in the low 200's. good cholesterol is high though, and he says that's good enough.
of course, if i lost twenty pounds, that might solve the puzzle.

 

That's very easy to do here in Eng£and.

 

You easily spend more than that on a Prius.

 

not to mention quid.

 

Statins - that'll do it - fuzzy head and joint pain too - which doesn't go away completely after they've done their damage.

 

My father tested a bunch of oils in their hot/cold cycle machine about 20 years ago. He placed about a 1" puddle of Mobil1, and the other "big players" like valvoline, castrol, ect. on a cookie sheet.

They ran it up to 400F, let it sit for a minute, pulled the tray out and tipped it up... The Mobil1 ran down, the rest were carbon sludge.
They got a new sheet setup, and took it down to -30F, let it sit for a minute, pulled it out and tipped it up... The Mobil1 ran down, the rest were frozen solid.

We had a 1982 dodge colt that had Mobil1 since the first oil change, the car's shift lever (manual) rusted through the floorboards so it didn't make it past 140k miles. I pulled the valve cover off, and it had a coat of oil all over everything and zero sludge.

My 2006 Avalon had the same treatment, with the same results at 215k miles (Till I had an unscheduled meeting with a deer the other day). Nice and clean under the valve covers, and had zero sludge. The engine drove like new, in my mind it was barely broken in... and I had hoped it would have gotten me to a half million miles. I was changing oil/filter at 10k intervals.

Other cars I've owned and didn't run Mobile1 all had sludge buildup in the valve covers, though Castrol GTX seemed a touch better in that regard. I've tried the synthetic blends with similar sludge buildup inside the valve covers as well, just not quite as bad as the Valvolines/Quaker States/Etc.

That's been enough evidence for me to spend the extra bucks at the oil changes and use Mobil1.

 

Whale oil. Better than dino, better than synthetic.

 

Not exactly fishy, but better than if they're cooked in synthetic.