Wix/NAPA for UOA?

[paulri]

I finally decided to do UOAs on my two cars. My primary purpose is making sure contaminants such as coolant or gas are not there. RA has Wix UOAs for $12 including shipping; NAPA is also selling their UOAs cheap—so unless someone talks me out of them, I'll go to one of them for the UOAs.

A few questions I have:
(1) I read here that the Wix & NAPA UOAs are done by the same lab. Is that still true?

(2) I have also heard some criticism of how a lab might determine fuel in a sample. Would the Wix or NAPA lab be good for this? How about how they determine coolant?

At any rate, getting the most accurate number on these liquid contaminants is the most important thing to me. I'd prefer not to look at wear metal numbers at all, because I know I'll obsess about them, but my plan is simply to ignore them unless one of them comes up abnormally well high of averages—which will indicate a problem that needs to be addressed.

 

[Imp4]

Here's what one looks like.
I don't see fuel dilution shown anywhere.
BTW, this is from a 2014 Accent with the 1.6 GDI.

 

[paulri]

Hmm ok so I'd have to go without fuel. I suppose I could, my main issue is coolant. Engine in both cars (the same engine, actually) is port injected, so gas wasn't what really drove my decision to get a UOA. But still, I guess you go without if you want to go cheap.

 

[Imp4]

Originally Posted by paulri
Hmm ok so I'd have to go without fuel. I suppose I could, my main issue is coolant. Engine in both cars (the same engine, actually) is port injected, so gas wasn't what really drove my decision to get a UOA. But still, I guess you go without if you want to go cheap.

Yes, but you get TBN included for no extra charge.
It's not what you're after but it's something....

 

[paulri]

One more thing--these Wix/Napa uoas--you pay for the kit, and then do they come with free postage? Or do you also pay for that?

 

[Imp4]

You have to pay additional for the postage to ship to the Wix lab.
So that $9.48 plus postage from Rockauto is going to cost you an additional $6-$8 to ship to the lab.

Some of us are fortunate enough to live within driving distance of one of the labs and don't incur this cost.

 

[paulri]

Thanks. If in fact it will cost $8 for shipping, that takes teh overall cost of the UOA up to $20, which is only $8 less than Blackstone charges. It might be worth it to me to have a pro look over the UOA report, I don't know.

One other thing I saw was that BS said that they don't test for glycol directly, but they do for sodium & potassium, ingredients in coolant https://www.blackstone-labs.com/information/faqs/gas-diesel-questions/. I'm wondering if anyone knows if the Wix/NAPA lab does the test like this, or if they test directly for glycol. Might not matter, but the UOA from the Sienna (IF in fact there is any coolant in the oil) would then show 3 different types of coolant (I threw in a silicate-free frankenbrew into the SIenna). A glycol test might be better.

 

[Imp4]

Blackstone with the TBN report is $38.
Just sayin....

 

[53' Stude]

Originally Posted by Imp4
Blackstone with the TBN report is $38.
Just sayin....



Yeah....

I dont personally care for BlackStones comments personally. Give me my UOA result. I think the NAPA UOA kit is better.