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".

Oh wow....wolf in sheep skin....really didn't expect someone like you to drive a matrix.

Is your matrix a sleeper?

72 hr Blotter.
No centre zone observed.



This post has been edited by zeng: Dec 14 2017, 12:46 PM

Off Topic. But the Matrix is very underrated and misunderstood car, mostly due to how it looks. FWIW, it was designed for the European market so it feels and drives like one of that era. It is underpowered though...which means you try to maintain momentum in the corners.

Handles very good for a car of that type. I will leave it at that.

This post has been edited by jaycee1: Dec 15 2017, 10:52 AM

I tried the test, not really sure how to interpret it

Engine : K20A
Oil : Liqui Moly Special Tec AA 5W-30 with Ceratec additive
Mileage : 11k +

Is it 1.8? There's a turbo kit you can buy for the G4GB engine

Thanks for upload.
Though the image is blur'ish, it looks like to me there is no signs of presence of centre zone (oil drop size of about 6-8 mm diameter) and absence of greying/darkish coloured patches (meaning insolubles, oxidation contaminants, combustion byproducts etc), which is good news.
Can you upload a clearer image preferably 48/72 hours after drop to confirm presence/absence of centre zone and greyish/darkish patches inside and outside of centre zone ?

All image is >72 hours

Lighting and camera not so good, but below is how it looks from further away.
Above single blot from a different engine, with what i can only assume is newer oil, not sure the mileage or oil used.

Bottom two blot from the same engine as previously.

Unitron, I am of the opinion that this 11k+ Blotter shows absence of centre zone (of about 6-8 mm diameter) ...... and this is good news that oil detergency and dispersancy is still in tip top capacity without extensive agglomeration of oxidative/combustion products etc.

There is very mild 'greyish' patch indicating 'low' levels of oxidative/combustion products and insolubles.

I believe this used oil is still serviceable and would recommend taking another blotter spot in 1500-2000 km, if you haven't replaced the oil.

JMHO.

This post has been edited by zeng: Dec 21 2017, 12:17 AM

Thanks sifu @zeng

Too bad i didn't wanna risk it too long since already >1 year since last oil change, I changed the oil already.
Trying out Castrol Magnatec Stop-Start fully syn 5W-30

This spec of Magnatec Stop-Start fullsyn 5W30 of SN A3B4 is stronger than the previous Liqui Moly Special Tec AA 5W-30, in a way.
I believe it can easily deliver longer OCI than 11k+ km in this K20A of yours.

This post has been edited by zeng: Dec 22 2017, 04:09 PM

What is the TBN value? Longer OCI usually is also dependent on TBN value. For example oils that claim can last for longer mileage (>15k km, some even >20k km) usually have TBN value >10 or even >11, such as Amsoil or Mobil 1.

CMIIW though.

Agree with your statement above generally.

The A3B4 has a minimum TBN of 10.
Whereas a SN GF5 has TBN from 7.x to 9.x generally , though strong additive package SN GF5 may have TBN of 10 and above.
Without TBN values from their respective spec sheets, I would speculate Magnatec Stop-Start 5W30 A3B4 most likely has higher TBN with its stronger additive package.
Hence my belief Castrol can last longer, IDK.