ram_man's condensed Dodge Dart oil thread

[kschachn]

Originally Posted By: ram_man
Seen several of various vehicle and oils where the metals were above average for the oci.


All of which mean absolutely, completely nothing. Different vehicles, different engines, different operating environments, different drivers, different everything. Looking at the oil by itself is meaningless, beyond the bottom line that looking at UOA is nearly useless in and of itself for what you want.

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: ram_man
I've thought about it and read some uoa info. Seems like a lot of reports over 7500 miles seem to have higher wear numbers ect.


Not really. The longer you run an oil, the more wear metals it will accumulate so the percentages will go up, but that does NOT mean that the engine is suffering more wear. The micrograms of wear metal per mile may actually go DOWN over the life of the oil, but the total percentage in the oil will gradually climb.

Higher iron or aluminum PPM readings in long-interval oil are *normal* That's why you need to look at trends, not absolute numbers.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Its been explained already in the thread (meeting A3/B3 A3/B4 5w-30 kinda requires it). All I would add is that this is another symptom of 10w30 gradually becoming an antiquated grade- there are a lot of 10w30s out there that don't bother to meet some of the newer/tighter specs because 10w30 is just not often recommended for new cars.

That's been one of my points for a long time. If you need a thicker oil than an SN/GF-5 5w-30, and SN/GF-5 10w-30 isn't the answer, because it's not really any thicker, except at startup. At least other 10w-30 options exist, and now we're seeing more 5w-30 grades that are thicker at operating temperatures, such as A3/B3 A3/B4 and E6, E7, E9 5w-30s.

And I would suggest you're quite right about most 10w-30s not being the cutting edge of technology. Since no one specifies it for a new vehicle any longer, what would be the point?

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: Garak


And I would suggest you're quite right about most 10w-30s not being the cutting edge of technology. Since no one specifies it for a new vehicle any longer, what would be the point?


At some point we will probably be saying the same thing about 5W20 and 5W30 oils. I think the 0W-xx oils will eventually rule.

 

[Garak]

I wouldn't be surprised. As it is now, a lot of the 5w-20 and 5w-30 manual entries we see are to avoid sticker shock when sending someone to the store to buy oil, so they at least can get a price break. I wonder if there ever was any talk at GM, when discussing dexos1, to make it a 0w-XX spec completely, since it's at minimum a blend, anyhow.

 

[ram_man]

Changed it today with Quaker state ultimate durability 5w20. I chose it based on price and most importantly it shows very good wear results. Also it's a company that's trust worthy and very available .

 

[kschachn]

Originally Posted By: ram_man
Changed it today with Quaker state ultimate durability 5w20. I chose it based on price and most importantly it shows very good wear results. Also it's a company that's trust worthy and very available .


Once again, that is probably the least important thing you can glean from other UOAs. But if you're happy then go for it.