Acceptable Level of Oxidation

[Don Stevens]

Oil Analyzers report say "up to 100%" I have never seen their Red Flag but I would guess at 50% they might suggest you look at it and shorten your resample time to 5000 miles.

Don

 

[Scott_in_WI]

When looking at an oil analysis report, what is an "acceptable" level of oxidation and at what point should the "red flags" go up?

Thanks!

 

[Joel]

It all depends on what type of instrument and software the company that is doing your oil analysis is using. They should have their instrument readout correlated to a standard ASTM test and be able to tell you when you should be alerted to the change. Basing it on at 100% or 50% is completely arbitrary because your oil could never become 50% let alone 100% oxidized. These numbers are based on a preset limit that you need to ask your analysis company about.

 

[Terry]

Our new analysis kits can read oxidation from 0 to 199. The readings are a relative value to show % allowable based on % transmittance,% absorbtion,and % weight. There is no hard fast scale to flag a sample based solely on oxidation reading.

As an analyist I look at the whole sample result and confer directly with the customer to relate the values to some meaningful conclusion. We currently use the Nicolet Omnic FTIR to procur Oxidation,Nitration,Sulfur,and Soot. Depending on the type oil base,additive clash, and calibration of the equipement the values can vary widely.

40% on our kit in a perfect analysis would be normal. That would roughly equate to 20% on the OAI kits we no longer use that Don referenced above.

 

[dbrowne1]

quote:

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Originally posted by Don Stevens:
Oil Analyzers report say "up to 100%" I have never seen their Red Flag but I would guess at 50% they might suggest you look at it and shorten your resample time to 5000 miles.

Don

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The % number doesn't mean that much, because it's not "% oxidized", it's "% of allowable amount". Every lab has a different idea of what an "allowable amount" of oxidation might be.