Originally Posted By: Bamboooo
I don't need an "expert" tribologico-whatever-ogist to tell me to put this or that in my car.
No, and I don't, either. However, he does add some valuable insight and has a wealth of experience. My millions of miles of fleet management don't even scratch the surface of his experience, and that's not even mentioning his credentials and knowledge in lubricant development. And, as Pablo mentioned, he's quite helpful when people's ideas go really off the rails.
Further, Doug is one of the most helpful and most respectful posters out there. He'd be quite correct in brusquely calling a lot of us out on the carpet, on all sides of things, including bizarre ideas like using 20w-50 in an engine speced for 5w-20 (the old thick oil crowd); minor, irrelevant issues like obsessing over the differences between QSGB and PYB (me); and so forth.
Instead, he provides helpful, polite, well rounded, sensible advice, drawn from experience. It's also important to note that his wide ranging experience allows him to share knowledge that the vast majority of us could never obtain on our own and can help dispel certain myths, regardless of how entrenched they are, particularly the myth that cheap UOAs don't just determine oil condemnation and certain potential problems (i.e. bearings or coolant intrusion), but can also determine wear.
He keeps the science in tribology. Faith and opinion are trumped by data.
