Finding Out Internal Damage With UOA

[George7941]

The company I work for wants to buy a used medium duty truck(Freightliner/International) at a Ritchie Bros unreserved auction. This is a gamble since most trucks at these auctions have major internal damage which is why they ended up at an unreserved auction.

I know a UOA is helpful in finding out coolant leaks into engine oil, leaking fuel injectors, rapidly wearing out bearings and so on inside an engine. Is a UOA similarly useful in finding out about internal damage inside a tranny(manual/allison) and rear axle? This would be under the assumption that the oil wasn't replaced just before the truck was put up for auction.

 

[SubLGT]

Yes, if you order the right tests. You want to detect wear metals of all sizes, not just those under 5 microns.

 

[Artem]

^What's the difference? If there is a TON of wear metals under 5 microns, that would show the possibility of increased internal engine wear.

 

[INDYMAC]

I think a professional tribologist could help you. Contact Terry Dyson at Dyson Analysis and get his opinion.

 

[dnewton3]

Yes - if you see a lot of various metals in a UOA then there is cause for concern. Coolant, fuel, etc as well would be a concern.

(note - I am excluding an engine that would be in a "break in" cycle exhitibing wear metals; that's normal and expected).

I do agree that PC will help, but it's not a sole answer either. Together a UOA and a PC tell a pretty good story.

 

[3311]

I would agree with guys about getting a uoa that is a little more indepth. The one I just did was suprisingly low in wear metals to my untraied eye on my failed lq4 6.0.

Richie Bros. Here in Florida(Davenport) near my shop moves an amazing amount of eqipemnt through thier huge aution grounds a few times a year. I think it takes about a month to move everthing in and out. It looks to me to mostly be leased contractor heavy eqipment from ended projects, governemnt jobs etc.... The tractor trailers and med duty trucks usually look pretty good form what I can see but they have a shop and refurb alot though. I would think anything is going to be cleaned up and serviced if your Richie Brothers is like the one near me.