I don't think automotive experts are still suggesting that.

Your gearbox still in dem good accurate condition . 90kph is real 3k rpm on 4th gear auto.





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Jeez..... thank you for providing gear ratios of an Avanza 1.3L....... I'd no luck from internet previously.
Appreciate if you'd gear ratios for 1994 Wira auto and 2014 Kia K5 auto gear ratios for sharing, mate.
Yeah, would be glad local motorists are aware of the myth on morning start warm up idling practices..


This post has been edited by zeng: Feb 15 2017, 05:55 PM

I haven't heard an expert suggest that in a long time. In those days of carburetors perhaps it still made sense, but how many of those are still around? All modern cars don't need to be warmed up, and shouldn't be warmed up by idling.

I believe my Xsara was always serviced every 20k or 25k, using normal oil, and up until 150k there was no issue. I did end up having a leaking head gasket, but is that related to the engine oil? From what I know that particular engine is rather tough, except for the head gasket. (Fortunately on that engine it's relatively cheap to fix).

I don't know of any higher engine failure rate, and you can find hundreds of Mercedes for sale that have 500000 km or more on the clock.

But I'm not aware of any statistics about engine defects... maybe it's worse than in Malaysia, maybe it isn't.

How to do the blotter test? Can I use normal printing paper? Like 80g, and relatively fine? Just take out the dipstick and let it drop onto the paper? I have one week to do it... oil change is coming up at the end of the month.

I dripped EO on toilet paper, haha.
Here's the result.


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Typo on the date for second picture?

For the second picture, oil is dark and contaminated definitely due for a change.

I would advice against using till such condition as with contaminant shown through oil dip means there may be plenty down somewhere within the block, bearing or anywhere within reach of the oil. Clearly the oil filter is no longer working in this case.

Definitely not typo.
The dark one is BEFORE, clear one is AFTER 48hrs.

Cannot brain the logic behind haha. Mind to elaborate on the oil taken before and 48 hours after?

- double post -

This post has been edited by kirakun: Feb 17 2017, 12:18 PM

There's another saying that if your oil is clear, it isn't doing its job in suspending contaminants.

My guess also, is after 48 hours the contaminants in the oil sink to the bottom and stay suspended there leaving a cleaner oil as shown.

Ultimately, it's all guesswork.

The best and proper way is still a UOA. bar none, the end.

Your eyes definitely cannot see metal particles and those you can see are beyond spectrometer that UOA uses and that's actually prompt for concerns.

Both are the same oil, Sir.
It's the same oil drip.
One picture was taken instantly after dripping on paper. After 48hrs took another picture (of the same sample).
From beginning till the end there is only one sample.

I second your opinion. UOA is the most appropriate way to help decide for extended drain.
I did that spot test simply out of curiosity.

Waooooooooooooo .......
fantastic blotter spot at 10600 km you have, Chemistry.
Great combination of Duron 10W30 oil and this engine at 281000 km.
You could've gone on extending OCI further, IMHO.
Btw, care to share the engine/car model with us here ?

Edit:There is simply too heavy a dose of 'myths' on oils in lowyat, IMHO.
Edit2:Without chromatography laboratory paper, it's appropriate to use thick name card/printer paper/letter head etc. for relative comparisons.

This post has been edited by zeng: Feb 17 2017, 01:35 PM

Thanks for the clarification.

I'm still curious though, how did the visually visible contaminants went missing after 48 hours? Dried and evaporated into the thin air?

my guess is there wasn't any visible contaminant in the b4 pic.... the so-called contaminants are uneven spots on the toilet paper temporarily holding a minute amount of used oil, hence visibly darker and mistakenly interpreted as contaminants.

on 2nd pic, the oil spreaded/blotted over the paper over time so cant "see" the contaminants anymore.

Would anybody here says it's pure magic play by Chemistry ?

I do agree on the oil doing it's part as a part time cleaner for the engine however i'll say the color of the oil will be a more appropriate marker as the gauge, don't u think so? With that being said, isn't the oil filter supposed to filter the contaminants down to 5 or 10 microns(human hair is 45-70 micron)?

Since the oil filter is present and doing the filtration, how can the visually visible contaminants still present in oil dip? A clear indicator that the engine is mighty dirty or just the oil filter/oil is way due for replacement or both.

Don't get me wrong i also do agree that UOA is the proper mean to gauge the properties of the oil though.

This post has been edited by kirakun: Feb 17 2017, 01:35 PM

Perhaps chemistry should do another try, this time on a proper base to find out haha.

Edit: I have done spot test as well before on tissue and toilet papers but the unevenness observed was in patches rather than dots lol.

This post has been edited by kirakun: Feb 17 2017, 01:38 PM

I agree, still too much guessing here. I'd just rather follow the normal recommended OIC for my car which is 10k km using FS oil and be done with it. It's easy to remember some more, rather than every time try to extend but no peace of mind, plus the km extension makes it falls on uneven numbers of km for OIC. Just not worth it IMHO.

I think so too.
I shall do another test, for consistency , hehe..