Max Lee Tampoi. RM90 before GST.

My rule of thumb on used oil colour has been :-
a) goldenish hue colour indicates oil condition is fit for continuing service;
b) dark black colour does NOT indicate condemnation of used oils, unless with burnt smell.

12,000 km OCI should be easy for HGMO 0W20 in a 2014 Honda engine , I guess.

24 hour blot

Sorry to give you another boring and repetitively similar comments ......
that there is absence of center zone in this 11400 km blotter indicating high dispersancy capability of this oil sample .
Generally the other zones are not dark indicating low level of contaminants/combustion byproducts possibly due to cleaner ( Hyundai G4GB ) engine internal conditions and adequate quality of this Aisin 5W30.
If I were you, I would continue using this 11400 km oil and do another blotter spot test in 1500-2000 km and go from there.

This Aisin 5W30 , though 'unbranded' looks quite impressive so far.

This post has been edited by zeng: Mar 4 2018, 11:50 PM

That's great, I appreciate your comment. The engine is clean because it was totally overhauled last year, after overhauled I used cheap mineral oil for 1000km, then a mineral Penzzoil for 4000km, after that I changed to this Aisin synthetic. I was planning to change this Aisin at 10000km but since it's still good, I'll extend it to 13000km.

I also never heard of Aisin before, Google said it's a Japanese company that develops and produce "engine, drivetrain, body and chassis, aftermarket, and other main automotive parts for various major OEMs", and is 30% owned by Toyota. Can't find info on where they made their engine oil though.

If you are still having the container bottle, read the fine prints at the back, or upload picture on back of bottle, to see if it's made in Japan/Singapore/local ?

Sorry I got rid of it

Here's the photo after 51 hours :



This post has been edited by alphaz: Mar 5 2018, 10:36 PM

Sure enough , there is good news in absence of center zone indicating the oil's continuing serveceability.
However at outer most rings, there is some indication of fuel dilution ....... not sure if it's caused by sampling at cold temperatures, or having frequent short trips, or fuel injection matters though.

Yeah, it doesn't make sense to keep used empty engine oil bottle ..

This post has been edited by zeng: Mar 5 2018, 11:18 PM

maybe this one.

When I smelled the dipstick I did notice a faint petrol smell. The engine did run a bit rough for the past week, the air filter was dirty and the gearbox switch threw a Check Engine Light. I cleaned and reoil the air filter and adjusted the gearbox switch position and fixed the error code right before I took the sample. I'll run a test again and upload the results here.

Air fuel ratio is too rich.
Might be fuel system or driving pattern problem.

This post has been edited by zeng: Mar 8 2018, 11:10 AM

Thanks, chemistry.
This bottle has Japanese (market) in mind possibly, and it's barcode points to USA with an office in Singapore.
Couple with performance in this blotter spot test, it helps a little bit in my confidence level in its efficacy.

This post has been edited by zeng: Mar 12 2018, 01:45 PM

Quick question, sifus here use blotter tests to test their engine oil. Does that mean that your service interval is based on the blotter tests only or still following manufacturer's recommendation (mileage or duration)?

My brother is currently only doing around 400km a month for my brother's Camry, booklet says, every 6 months or 10k km. Can i stretch it to say, 1 year once servicing? Since, he is doing only 4800km a year.

Any advise is helpful

Where factory warranty issue is concerned, it's best to retain warranty rights by adhering to 'uncommon sense' factory recommendation of Oil Change Interval and 6 months/1 year duration.

For those out of warranty, one may stretch OCI's in km or goes beyond 1 year duration stipulation.
Other than uneconomically costly and impractical UOA's , I'd adopted free and easy Blotter spot tests to assess used oil conditions.........
realising along the way that factory recommendations are excessively conservative and short.

If the car is out of warranty , short answer is stretch it to say, 1 year or longer.
Long answer.

His car is out of warranty. Also, what are the critical stuff to change if it was once a year? Still follow the book?

Sorry , I can't follow what you mean by 'critical stuff' ?
Forget about what Toyota says about 6 months duration change, be it for fullsyn, semisyn or mineral .....
as we don't have cold temperatures or winter seasons.
Toyota's recommendation on 10000 km oil change interval is for fully synthetic.

Now , your brother's car travels 4800 km per year.
I would suggest you use any SN/SM/SL mineral oil for 5000 km or 1 year, and that's being conservative.
If it's my car, I would pick a mineral A3B4 oil for 8000 km or 2 years.
You don't really need fully synthetics or semi synthetic in this low use car.

This post has been edited by zeng: Apr 9 2018, 03:28 PM

Emm did you guys change the oil filter say every 7-10k km in between?

I didn't, because initially I wanted to change at 10k km. But I plan to change oil filter every 7k km in between oil change when I change to new oil (Mobil 1 FS Extended Performance 5w30)

Sorry if I wasnt clear. Basically, in accordance to service interval, they recommend:
- Normal service (every 6 monthly or 10,000km)
Engine oil, engine oil filter

- Medium service (every alternate year, or 30,000 km)
Normal service plus, air filter, cabin filter and brake fluids

- Major service (every 5 years, or 60,000km)
Medium service plus, ATF fluid, Coolant and etc.

Since the Normal service has been extended, how about the others? naturally be extended as well?

Thanks for your input and any others

Or no no ......
I'm addressing strictly about engine oil and it's change intervals of 5000, 10,000 or any other km readings.
Other fluids like coolant/ATF etc and oil/air filters etc should still follow OEM recommendations, though I may have my own criteria in relation to OEM's.

This thread is strictly about assessing used engine oil conditions, and varying it's oil change intervals OCI's accordingly.

Having said this, I do blotter spot test on ATF and varies it's change intervals accordingly, while other OEM recommendations are being considered as well.

Hope , it helps clear up some confusion.

This post has been edited by zeng: Mar 14 2018, 03:43 PM