Oil Analysis Reports

Here is my latest report from 127496 mile:

I was keeping the oil in the water bottle about 6-7 months and did sent recently to BlackStone and they came back today.

I purchased the car at 29.9K and I drove 6K and replaced the Oil. Oil changed by Classic BMW Dealer in Texas before shipped. And I got fuel pressure rail sensor problem after 50 miles drive at the very first time. Went to dealer and fixed the problem.

So I was driving the car about 4K after I changed the oil at 36K miles and the odometer is currently 39.9K right now!

Engine sounds and runs very good and always drive hard after warming the engine up.

So should I send another sample at that millage? Just getting out some oil from the pan?

Note : This is a Sunday Drive car and there is times I do not drive about 2 weeks. So the cold starts are real COLD!

SaNGRia wrote

I was keeping the oil in the water bottle about 6-7 months and did sent recently to BlackStone and they came back today.

I purchased the car at 29.9K and I drove 6K and replaced the Oil. Oil changed by Classic BMW Dealer in Texas before shipped. And I got fuel pressure rail sensor problem after 50 miles drive at the very first time. Went to dealer and fixed the problem.

So I was driving the car about 4K after I changed the oil at 36K miles and the odometer is currently 39.9K right now!

Engine sounds and runs very good and always drive hard after warming the engine up.

So should I send another sample at that millage? Just getting out some oil from the pan?

Note : This is a Sunday Drive car and there is times I do not drive about 2 weeks. So the cold starts are real COLD!

given the lead is so high, if i'm in your shoes i'll seriously consider doing a preemptive rod bearing change...

byroncheung wrote

given the lead is so high, if i'm in your shoes i'll seriously consider doing a preemptive rod bearing change...

I already start researching that And I try to find a nice shop to work with. I"ve done too many DIYs but it will be hard to do that without a lift!

It came to the point that am I getting the BE Rings with OEM Bolts or APR 625s?

That's overwhelmed me by itself other than worrying with the rings!

Why not just one legit product with only one link can direct all of us to the right place instead of reading 1000 comments to select what I need for this damn rod bearings.

Thank you for the suggestion

SaNGRia wrote

I already start researching that And I try to find a nice shop to work with. I"ve done too many DIYs but it will be hard to do that without a lift!

It came to the point that am I getting the BE Rings with OEM Bolts or APR 625s?

That's overwhelmed me by itself other than worrying with the rings!

Why not just one legit product with only one link can direct all of us to the right place instead of reading 1000 comments to select what I need for this damn rod bearings.

Thank you for the suggestion

yea... and even after reading 1000+ comments there is still no true consensus, BE v.s. VAC... but in your case, most likely either will be better than your current situation. i'm just hoping when time comes to do mine there will be more clarity. good luck.

byroncheung wrote

yea... and even after reading 1000+ comments there is still no true consensus, BE v.s. VAC... but in your case, most likely either will be better than your current situation. i'm just hoping when time comes to do mine there will be more clarity. good luck.

I found the shop and made the deal. I am planning to do next or 2 weeks. Going with BE with OEM bolts since I do not wanna do any performance update on e93 such as SC. So it should be fine.

And I will do the business with Meister Motoring in Davie since he is already showing how good he is!

Wondering if I should be concerned or not...

Purchased my 2008 E92 with 45k on it back in October, and have put about 1,500 miles on it and one 4x20' track day. Normally drive it easy-semi aggressively but certainly not hard when in DD duty.

It appears that even at only 1,200 miles the lead and aluminum are pretty high...but does the one open track day account for that?

Any thoughts? I have about 30 days left of my original 3 month purchase warranty lol...wondering if it's time to have the bearings looked at or if I am being overly paranoid?

Here's the first report on my newly acquired 2008, 80k miles.

here is my first Blackstone report. 6K miles on the oil at 50K miles on the car. Everything seems to look good but I now have doubts that it was a realistic sample. I did not take the sample as I was changing the oil, in fact this oil change was done back in October. I saved the entire 9ish liters of old oil and just pulled a random bottle a few weeks ago to collect the sample oil (yes, major procrastionation).
Now I wonder if the metals/contaminates may have had an opportunity to settle and were missed? Blackstone suggests you take the sample from the middle of oil change.

Or this could just be more rb paranoia building up in my head and the sample is fine.

Regardless, the next sample I take I'll try to be prepared durning my oil change.

Been reading this with interest.
Had a conversation about oil analysis for the S65 with one of the lab technicians at Millers Oils here in the UK yesterday. Was asking him what would they consider an indication of engine wear when looking at metals in oil. Their view was that they wouldn't consider any readings below 100PPM as an indication of a wearing engine. Also, that they would expect to see steadily increasing amounts over 100PPM to call out the possibility of wear.

Not dissing the blackstone reports at all, just thought I'd call out what one of the UK labs said...

abeardo83 wrote

Been reading this with interest.
Had a conversation about oil analysis for the S65 with one of the lab technicians at Millers Oils here in the UK yesterday. Was asking him what would they consider an indication of engine wear when looking at metals in oil. Their view was that they wouldn't consider any readings below 100PPM as an indication of a wearing engine. Also, that they would expect to see steadily increasing amounts over 100PPM to call out the possibility of wear.

Not dissing the blackstone reports at all, just thought I'd call out what one of the UK labs said...

You definitely don't need to see 100ppm to realize there's an issue in the lubrication system/regime.

Leonardo629 wrote

You definitely don't need to see 100ppm to realize there's an issue in the lubrication system/regime.

So you're saying that the lab tech doesn't know what he's talking about??

I think the relation to universal averages is more important than the actual number. If your report shows wear metals several times higher than average, there is definitely reason for concern regardless of what the number is. In the case of the s65, that number is well below 100. Was the tech you spoke with familiar with our engine or perhaps they specialized in industrial equipment?

Doc Oc wrote

I think the relation to universal averages is more important than the actual number. If your report shows wear metals several times higher than average, there is definitely reason for concern regardless of what the number is. In the case of the s65, that number is well below 100. Was the tech you spoke with familiar with our engine or perhaps they specialized in industrial equipment?

Millers Oils are one of the biggest specialist oil manufacturers in the U.K. They make top class racing Oils and are big sponsors for many UK based racing events. They know cars.

Does make you wonder why there are so many failures in the US, but far, far fewer in Europe though.

I don't mean offense in my comment above, I'm just saying it doesn't take genius to spot abnormalities in an UOA report when a 100ppm FE shows up.

Like what Doc said, it's all about your unit average, and identifying issues when you see a hike in metals.

Just got mine back, I'm also running 0w40 Mobil 1 oil. 77k miles.

What do you guys think? Gonna get the bearings done after this business trip. 08 147k miles. DD no track days.

Those numbers aren't super terrible for such a long run, but the fact that the car has 145k miles and is still throwing that much lead is worrisome. If it were me I'd do the bearings asap.

Another data point for science! 2011 BMW E90 M3, about 42k miles as sampled, oil about 7500 miles old.

Approx 4k miles on fresh bearings. Still some solids floating around since this was the first oil change. These readings are better than brand new. You cant see that data, but even in 2012 readings were worse. Heres to a clean motor!

Magnetic Fusion wrote

What do you guys think? Gonna get the bearings done after this business trip. 08 147k miles. DD no track days.

The high lead is concerning, but you have no history to go against. A single oil analysis in isolation is of limited use.

GRM Scott wrote

Another data point for science! 2011 BMW E90 M3, about 42k miles as sampled, oil about 7500 miles old.

Looks fine, but you need to get multiple reports under your belt to establish trends, as Blackstone said.

I would also pay for TBN and TAN next time so you can start establishing a good change interval.