Car: Avanza K3VE 1.3 L 2005
Engine Oil : Total Quartz 7000 Energy 10W40 SL A3B4 semi synthetics
Mileage: 10,616 km ..... and going ..
Odometer: 258,003 km
Blotter: 24 hr.





Note:Refer post#1 for summaries of blotter pictures.

This post has been edited by zeng: Nov 28 2017, 08:26 PM

48 hr blotter


This post has been edited by zeng: Nov 29 2017, 08:31 PM

72 hr blotter



Looks ok at 10,616 km ....... and going.

zeng
Would like to seek your opinion on my engine oil status.
Brand: some cheap unknown fully synthetic tortoise brand bought from Singapore which meets VW and MB standards

In use since May 2017 and mileage is 7000km now. Main concern is frequent short journeys performed, sometimes less than 3km.

Mushigen, thanks for uploading the 7000 km blotter spot test.

The 2 hour blotter is real impressive, but I believe 48 or 72 hrs ones are more reliable and consistent.

The 48 hour blotter spot does not show any centre zone (normally about 6-8 mm size in diameter ) which is oil drop zone, indicating oil detergency and dispersancy is in tip-top condition.Absence of opaque center zone is a good indication of serviceable oil condition.

You may uploade another 72 or 96 hr Blotter spot to confirm the absence/presence of 'centre zone', if any.
If there is a centre zone, whether it is large size and is shrinking to smaller size, and whether is dark coloured or light coloured , and whether is transparent or opaque.
However , there is some dark coloured or light black scattered dots indicating carbon/combustion products or soot particles possibly caused by frequent cold running engine with 3 km (severe duty) which overall is considered very mild.

This oil is still serviceable and you may continue with this same oil , by 8500-9000 km take another blotter spot for assessment.
If you'd replace the oil, in future the OCI of similar oil brand may be extended to 10,000 km and evaluate further.

Note:If your oil has MB 229.5 and VW 50200 50500 approvals, then this is among one of the top oils in this region (though the brand is unknown for now), which I believe 10000-15000 km OCI is no sweat really. Unfortunately there is no further details from you.
If it has MB 229.3, it's as good though weaker than a MB 229.5 .

Btw, what's the car and model number, Model Year and km ?

JMHO.

This post has been edited by zeng: Dec 3 2017, 10:27 PM

Car is 2004 Vios first gen, mileage 140,000km - yes, true low mileage cars really do exist although not everyone knows frequent short trips are not good for engine oil.

72hr spot.


The el-cheapo engine oil, it has only MB229.3 approval though.


Not sure if it matters, but I also did blotter test for a cold engine oil on the same day.

Yep, your latest 72 hr Blotter Spot Test confirms the 'absence' of centre zone (which is good news) and hence the oil's capability is still good and intact.

It also indicates contaminants/insolubles( from some dark grey scattered spots) as mild and acceptable.
I consider this 7000 km used oil as fit for continuing service.

Taking blotter test in a cold engine tends to show up 'presence' of fuel dilution ( observe the outermost band of colourless light band surrounding the coloured zones) which may not be representative of the hot engine oil sample.

Your cold sample shows signs of fuel dilultion, which may not be valid with a hot sample in most cases.
But your hot sample also shows signs of fuel dilution which I consider as definitive, in relation to a cold sample,
that there is fuel dilution issue in the oil ...... as confirmed by the hot engine oil blotter spot test.

Of course some may argue that UOA is required for confirmation of fuel dilution.

Edit: Oops, by hot I meant the engine was operating for at least say, 20-30 minutes prior to taking blotter sample.

This post has been edited by zeng: Dec 5 2017, 09:36 AM

Good thread.

I have always had long oil change intervals.


I'm currently on 15k on semi 10-40 intervals. My car is primarily highway miles.

Nice to know there are fellow kakis pushing semisyn 10W40 to 15k km OCI.
Btw, may I know your engine oil specs/brand and car specs please ?

I used variety of Brands

Castrol Magnatec
Shell Helix
Total Quartz

Or what other flavours I can find from Tesco when on sale.


I'm doing 15k OIC on my 2009 Hyundai Matrix with 200k ++ KM. I do 50k a year on mostly highway. About 4K a month, so its a 3 month interval. Filter is original Kia/Hyundai/Mitsu

Wow, with 50k a year you are a good candidate for 400k-600k km mileage car in time.
Highway miles are in a way easy on oils, in particular when oil viscosity grade is thick enough as like a xW40 in our local ambients.
I believe 15k OCI for Euro oil in 2009 Hyundai Matrix should be ok, but I would exercise caution on non-Euro oil with close monitoring.
Lately 10W40 semisyn Euro oils in Castrol Magnatec and Total Quartz 7000 are hard to come by, but fortunately Helix 7 Euro oil is still easily available.

There are some of my colleagues keep changing at 5k km even on fully synthetic.

Kinda waste.

I know them as a car guy.

That's typical 'fear' of the unknown ...

Can't really blame regular consumers as pretty much no one knows about used oil analysis.

And even if they do know about it, the price for such a service locally is just damn insane expensive.

Attach herewith the price that i queried last year.

That's real crazy pricings, but their target customers are industrial/fleet users by playing on their 'fears' as what gomen does to general citizens.

There is a member here Alcyon does it far cheaper incurring RM200+ by sending sample to Blackstone Lab usa.

I'd done UOA FOC from Petronas and Caltex for specific occassions and I don't subscribe to paid services by OEM's.

Hence my playing around with Blotter Spot Tests which costs me zero sen.

This post has been edited by zeng: Dec 9 2017, 10:33 AM

That's why better to just send BSL

Yeap true, sending it to Blackstone is much more cost effective.

But for 200+, unless the car owner is overly curious, the most logical thing is to go down the hyper market and grab the best fully synthetic oil, drive it to the nearest mechanic to get it drained together with a filter change, and likely can still emerge with some spare change out of RM200.

Well, for the fun of it and curiosity sake, 200+ for Blackstone is actually a good deal.

actually, 100+ if you use snail mail (28usd, back to 25 old price if you order 6 bulks)
200+ is poslaju

Tech Plus (Aeon Big) Full Synthetics 5W40
5200 km in 2007 Myvi 1.3L K3VE
48 hr Blotter
..frequent short trips <11 km

Yeah, 15K for me is fine. Given 90% of all the mileage is highway relaxed cruising.

But the discounted oils from Tesco are hard to come by nowadays. When they have it on sale, I usually buy a carton, unless they have a sale limit.


My old satria had 400k kms. Before a premature timing belt failure chewed up the valves. Not have time to rebuild the head myself yet. So i bought this matrix 2nd hand to pile on the miles.
Considering 2nd hand korean cars ALL have had their odometers tempered with (so no idea about the true mileage), my Matrix would be probably be about 300K now.

There are car guys and there are "car guys"

I am a car guy and an ex-performance engine builder and mechanic.

I detest short term oil changes. It is wasteful and harms the environment. Unless you drive a super high performance car or one with extremely tight engine tolerances, or one that sees infrequent use, frequent short interval changes are not necessary.

The biggest problem engine oil faces is condensation and moisture build up in the crankcase if the car is not driven enough. The other is particulates and carbon build up. Oil doesn't really wear out. It gets contaminated.


A real car guy will know when the engine needs fresh oil.



I used to do frequent oil changes on my turbo car running highboost, only because I get so much blowby on boost that the engine oil gets contaminated easily. Even then, its 5000km intervals for "frequent".