M1 EP 5w30, M1 EP filter 04 Corolla 8,750 miles

[lukoil]

Code:


Miles on Oil: 8,750

Miles on vehicle: 180,000

No make up oil added



Aluminum 6

Chromium 3

Iron 19

Copper 1

Lead 0

Tin 0

Molybdenum 85

Nickel 0

Manganese 2

Silver 0

Titanium 0

Potassium 2

Boron 36

Silicon 12

Sodium 6

Calcium 1525

Magnesium 466

Phosphorus 649

Zinc 748

Barium 0



SUS Viscosity@210F 57,6

cSt Viscosity@100C 9.53

Flashpoint in F 370

Fuel % TR

Antifreeze % 0

Water % 0

Insolubles % 0.3

TBN 1.8


I normally change oil in this Corolla every 7K miles. It was cold so I thought it should be OK to wait a little longer since it is EP which is supposed to be good for 15K. I guess EP is not so good after all. Blackstone saying there are signs of more engine wear (higher Aluminum, Chromium and Iron), recommends going back to 7K OCI. Iron was 6 with Pennzoil, 7K miles and 10 with regular M1 (not EP), also 7K miles. Another interesting thng was that Silicon was lower this time which I cannot explain. Last time Silicon was 23 with Pennzoil oil, October of 2011. I thought Silicon used to be higher because of leaking intake gasket and I didn't replace it.

Any comments are welcome.

 

[buster]

Yeah these results are not that good, but it's just one run so I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Phishin]

Do you guys know what 19ppm of iron looks like in a 4 quart sump? That's approximately 0.00008 grams total. I doubt you'd even be able to see it without magnification. And honestly, at this point, and at these low of levels, is there really a difference between 10ppm of Fe in a sample and 19ppm? Maybe. Depends on the instrument, the operator, and how the instrument is run. I run an ICP in an analytical chemistry lab for a living.

I bet if you run the same oil again, it won't be as high. i'm guessing the M1 cleaned up some loose/lingering material or this is just noise.

 

[A_Harman]

I agree with Phishin that you're being too critical of the 19ppm Iron reading. That's only 2.2 ppm/1000 miles, which sounds pretty good to me. Obsessing over a handful of ppm's is just going to make you neurotic. Do at least 3 oil changes with the same oil and plot long-term results. You may just be looking at data scatter.

 

[V8man]

lukoil, what oil is in your car now, are you gonna stay with M1 EP or use a different oil?

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: Phishin
Do you guys know what 19ppm of iron looks like in a 4 quart sump? That's approximately 0.00008 grams total. I doubt you'd even be able to see it without magnification. And honestly, at this point, and at these low of levels, is there really a difference between 10ppm of Fe in a sample and 19ppm? Maybe. Depends on the instrument, the operator, and how the instrument is run. I run an ICP in an analytical chemistry lab for a living.

I bet if you run the same oil again, it won't be as high. i'm guessing the M1 cleaned up some loose/lingering material or this is just noise.


I agree. The difference between 10 ppm of Fe and 19 ppm adds up to a big nothing. I'd try the oil again.

 

[buster]

I agree.

 

[lukoil]

Originally Posted By: V8man
lukoil, what oil is in your car now, are you gonna stay with M1 EP or use a different oil?


Right now it is same M1 5w30 EP but filter is Pure One. I'm going to change oil at 7K and switch to Castrol Syntec because I got it on sale. I've got like 5 oil changes worth of Syntec now. I may send Syntec for analysis after third of fourth change.

 

[lukoil]

Originally Posted By: Phishin
Do you guys know what 19ppm of iron looks like in a 4 quart sump? That's approximately 0.00008 grams total. I doubt you'd even be able to see it without magnification. And honestly, at this point, and at these low of levels, is there really a difference between 10ppm of Fe in a sample and 19ppm? Maybe. Depends on the instrument, the operator, and how the instrument is run. I run an ICP in an analytical chemistry lab for a living.

I bet if you run the same oil again, it won't be as high. i'm guessing the M1 cleaned up some loose/lingering material or this is just noise.


I've been using synthetic oil in this engine since 30K and M1 EP for several prior oil changes so I guess it is not likely that it suddenly cleaned up something. What amount of iron do you think may indicate trouble ? I'm not a chemist, so trying to learn here

 

[ottotheclown]

04 Corolla with Mobil ep and 8700 miles we have a 1.8 TBN???How would 10k come out??

 

[ottotheclown]

Almost all uoa with Mobil are elevated iron the reason is almost like the mystery of the universe, I would proceed and ignore.

Originally Posted By: lukoil
Originally Posted By: Phishin
Do you guys know what 19ppm of iron looks like in a 4 quart sump? That's approximately 0.00008 grams total. I doubt you'd even be able to see it without magnification. And honestly, at this point, and at these low of levels, is there really a difference between 10ppm of Fe in a sample and 19ppm? Maybe. Depends on the instrument, the operator, and how the instrument is run. I run an ICP in an analytical chemistry lab for a living.

I bet if you run the same oil again, it won't be as high. i'm guessing the M1 cleaned up some loose/lingering material or this is just noise.


I've been using synthetic oil in this engine since 30K and M1 EP for several prior oil changes so I guess it is not likely that it suddenly cleaned up something. What amount of iron do you think may indicate trouble ? I'm not a chemist, so trying to learn here

 

[Rolla07]

Did you replace the intake manifold gasket? I got my check engine light on, and my buddy at the Toyota dealer told me its the intake gasket. I bought the gasket for 8$... plan on changing it out myself. I dont think your oil analysis is that bad. You can always go back to plain old M1 and do 6-7k mile OCI's. Will like to see the syntec UOA once you use it.

 

[lukoil]

Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Did you replace the intake manifold gasket? I got my check engine light on, and my buddy at the Toyota dealer told me its the intake gasket. I bought the gasket for 8$... plan on changing it out myself. I dont think your oil analysis is that bad. You can always go back to plain old M1 and do 6-7k mile OCI's. Will like to see the syntec UOA once you use it.


Didn't replace the gasket yet. Check engine is sometimes on, often times it is not on long enough to get to the auto parts store to scan it

It is only on during winter. I don't remember what code it was, something about primary oxygen sensor which I replaced couple of years ago. It didn't help anything. I also found on the Internet that the most likely cause is leaking intake gasket. Will probably swap it later this year.

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: lukoil
Originally Posted By: Phishin
Do you guys know what 19ppm of iron looks like in a 4 quart sump? That's approximately 0.00008 grams total. I doubt you'd even be able to see it without magnification. And honestly, at this point, and at these low of levels, is there really a difference between 10ppm of Fe in a sample and 19ppm? Maybe. Depends on the instrument, the operator, and how the instrument is run. I run an ICP in an analytical chemistry lab for a living.

I bet if you run the same oil again, it won't be as high. i'm guessing the M1 cleaned up some loose/lingering material or this is just noise.


I've been using synthetic oil in this engine since 30K and M1 EP for several prior oil changes so I guess it is not likely that it suddenly cleaned up something. What amount of iron do you think may indicate trouble ? I'm not a chemist, so trying to learn here

The acceptable levels for iron is 100-200 PPM, Alum is 10-30PPM. Your report is very good. The only way to measure wear is engine tear down. Which ain't gonna happen in you case as your engine has a couple of 100Ks left in it, more than likely. Rest easy. My guess is that your engine is very clean, sounds great, and runs well. Since you added no oil in nearly 9K your engine is very sound, especially with the mileage on your vehicle. Shows me there are no coked rings and no wear to the cylinders. More UOA sillyness IMO.

 

[dnewton3]

This is not a bad UOA at all. Nothing to be really troubling here, except not utilizing the fluid for it's full potential.

Your contaminants are nearly zilch. The Fe is not atrocious; it is a tad high, but not outside the 3rd sigma or normality.

Further, (and I can't explain why) there are times when M1 products trend a bit higher in Fe than others.

I'd advise to run it out further. If you want, take a sample the next time at 7k miles; see how things are. Then extend if they look decent.

 

[BearZDefect]

Originally Posted By: Phishin
Do you guys know what 19ppm of iron looks like in a 4 quart sump? That's approximately 0.00008 grams total. ...

I think your calculation is off by a factor of a thousand, and it's more like 0.08 grams total iron. Still nothing to fret over.

 

[friendly_jacek]

Originally Posted By: lukoil

Didn't replace the gasket yet. Check engine is sometimes on, often times it is not on long enough to get to the auto parts store to scan it

It is only on during winter. I don't remember what code it was, something about primary oxygen sensor which I replaced couple of years ago. It didn't help anything. I also found on the Internet that the most likely cause is leaking intake gasket. Will probably swap it later this year.


Yap, that's your leaking intake all right. You get unfiltered air in and that could possibly explain your elevated wear metals.

I just recently did the fix in my 03 corolla. Easy fix:



BTW, are you doing short trips?

 

[Ibrahim]

No make up oil was added, I get that, but how low was the oil at the time of oil change? I am sure there must have been some oil loss over the course of the interval... did you by any chance take a notice?

 

[lukoil]

Originally Posted By: Ibrahim
No make up oil was added, I get that, but how low was the oil at the time of oil change? I am sure there must have been some oil loss over the course of the interval... did you by any chance take a notice?


There was no noticeable loss of oil. I usually check oil level couple of times between changes. Last time I checked it just before draining it. Looked exactly the same as when I put it it.

 

[lukoil]

Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
Originally Posted By: lukoil

Didn't replace the gasket yet. Check engine is sometimes on, often times it is not on long enough to get to the auto parts store to scan it

It is only on during winter. I don't remember what code it was, something about primary oxygen sensor which I replaced couple of years ago. It didn't help anything. I also found on the Internet that the most likely cause is leaking intake gasket. Will probably swap it later this year.


Yap, that's your leaking intake all right. You get unfiltered air in and that could possibly explain your elevated wear metals.

I just recently did the fix in my 03 corolla. Easy fix:

BTW, are you doing short trips?


Thanks for the link, I think it is very useful. No short trips usually. My wife is actually driving Corolla most of the time and she can do couple of thousands a month. She does a lot of highway miles too.