Oil Analysis Reports

Sorry for the double post, since I started a thread with my report before I saw this. 16k intervals on 10W-60. Not much hard driving. Couple early (<10k miles) trackdays.

Still trying to parse through other reports and determine how much some of the elevated levels might be due to real problems vs. just prolonged interval. I think the universal averages are based on engine type/mileage rather than interval, so I'm guessing a longer interval means more time for normal wear metals to accumulate in the oil.

That said, BL guy says I should give 18k a shot. Heh.



Som

Edit: I should point out that the reason I'm searching through M3Post to begin with is because I had oil spray out of my oil fill cap and all over the passenger side of my engine. It's possibly due to the a faulty oil cap, but I'm also researching to determine if it might have something to do with a crank breather getting plugged. If it's the latter reason, it's possible my long interval oil changes contributed to the problem (I haven't determine how those things work / get clogged, yet).

Edit 2: The oil issue appears to have turned out to be a dirty oil fill cap. Cleaned the cap and the leak appears to be gone.

Also should add to this post my basic driving habit. I don't idle to warm up the car at all. I don't push the car past 3-4k RPM or use more than half throttle until the temp hits the first dot (1/4 way up to temp). From there until I'm up to temp (roughly just under the 50/50 mark on the gauge) I'll drive as normal but try and avoid WOT and keep it under 7k.

Som wrote

Sorry for the double post, since I started a thread with my report before I saw this. 16k intervals on 10W-60. Not much hard driving. Couple early (<10k miles) trackdays.

Still trying to parse through other reports and determine how much some of the elevated levels might be due to real problems vs. just prolonged interval. I think the universal averages are based on engine type/mileage rather than interval, so I'm guessing a longer interval means more time for normal wear metals to accumulate in the oil.

That said, BL guy says I should give 18k a shot. Heh.

Som

Edit: I should point out that the reason I'm searching through M3Post to begin with is because I had oil spray out of my oil fill cap and all over the passenger side of my engine. It's possibly due to the a faulty oil cap, but I'm also researching to determine if it might have something to do with a crank breather getting plugged. If it's the latter reason, it's possible my long interval oil changes contributed to the problem (I haven't determine how those things work / get clogged, yet).

I think I'd shorten the interval a bit. I agree that the particulate count is stable or even going down, so that's probably just the baseline for your engine. The whole point of a UOA is to establish the "normal" for your engine and watch for deviations.

Next time, pay for TBN and TAN so you can more accurately assess the change interval. TBN of 1.5 is definitely on the low side, but if the TAN was very high that means you should've changed it long ago. Call Blackstone and see if they still have enough of your sample left to run the TAN. It's only $10.

I had that test done over a year ago. Do they even keep samples that long?

Som

Another stellar report from my car on TWS.

Worth noting that I don't drive it during the winter and it's not even really a DD since I typically travel on an airplane during the week. It does see plenty of WOT, autocrosses, and a few track days. That's only 7,500 miles in almost 2 years!

New oil is the BMW M TwinPower Turbo 10w60.

Just performed the first oil change for this car under my ownership, and went with Castrol 10W/60. I'm currently at 40K miles.

I purchased this car at 34,000 miles about a year ago, and its last oil change was at 33,650 miles at BMW. I do a mixture of city and highway driving and sometimes do drive it hard...I love it ! Hopefully on the next oil report the lead will drop a good amount. I've recently turned this car into my daily driver (will be 90% highway miles) so hopefully that will help stabilize a nice trend I can watch over time...and keep the bearings lubed better with more frequent start-ups and fewer cold starts.

I'm not too concerned...just gonna keep on driving Will report back at 47K miles.

GM

What do you guys think? Bearings ready to go nuclear?

Just got my sample back from testing. I lapsed one oil change sample at 77356 and this one had 8519 on it, for a total mileage on the car of 85875.

Should I be alarmed?

On a side note, last weekend I went for a spirited drive and in the higher rpm range the engine was making very loud clicking noises, not like injector clicks but like when you put a baseball trading card in your bicycle and the spokes of the tire. Rod knock?

Something definitely happened to spike your lead. Were you running the same oil on the previous reports? Your copper isn't bad so that's good, but a lead spike like that would alarm me. Could that playing card sound have been detonation? Detonation sounds like popcorn popping under the hood and generally only lasts a short period of time before the car (or right foot) dials things back. It can definitely cause a spike in lead and beat up your bearings although it shouldn't be happening if your car is stock.

I got my oil analysis report today. I purchased the car at just over 52k miles a couple of months ago and the oil was changed at a BMW dealer in prep for the purchase. The analysis represents oil that had less than 3k miles on it when it was drained. I plan on 5k mile oil change intervals and I'm going to stick with the BMW oil.

italyix wrote

Just got my sample back from testing. I lapsed one oil change sample at 77356 and this one had 8519 on it, for a total mileage on the car of 85875.

Should I be alarmed?

On a side note, last weekend I went for a spirited drive and in the higher rpm range the engine was making very loud clicking noises, not like injector clicks but like when you put a baseball trading card in your bicycle and the spokes of the tire. Rod knock?

Personally, I'd change it. That's a big spike from one oil change. My 2 cents

I just received my first report...

Most recent UOA. 50/50 mix of red line 0w40 and 5w50

Just got mine back -- car has 69000km on it now (11000 under my ownership). Using TWS -- just did the oil change at about 10,000km.

Zero lead which is nice, any thoughts on the sodium?

ash4390 wrote

Just got mine back -- car has 69000km on it now (11000 under my ownership). Using TWS -- just did the oil change at about 10,000km.

Zero lead which is nice, any thoughts on the sodium?

Zero lead is probably due to you not having lead bearings. You must have the updated bearings

Flea7 wrote

Zero lead is probably due to you not having lead bearings. You must have the updated bearings

Possibly. There is a margin of error on any oil analysis. Regardless, the important thing is to establish a baseline for your given motor and then compare over time.

Flea7 wrote

Zero lead is probably due to you not having lead bearings. You must have the updated bearings

Are the updated bearings prone to failing as well?

ash4390 wrote

Are the updated bearings prone to failing as well?

Most certainly

Shredicus wrote

Most certainly

Goodie! So I guess a UOA won't show the symptoms in my case. I'll have to pull the bearings (might as well change at that point).

I still have warranty til the end of 2017 so hopefully if anything happens it'll be between now and then.

ash4390 wrote

Goodie! So I guess a UOA won't show the symptoms in my case. I'll have to pull the bearings (might as well change at that point).

I still have warranty til the end of 2017 so hopefully if anything happens it'll be between now and then.

If you have warranty then don't sweat it. Stick to OEM oil, half the OCI, you should be gold. By the end of 2017 is when you have to decide whether or not you want to do it as preventative maintenance.

kaede wrote

If you have warranty then don't sweat it. Stick to OEM oil, half the OCI, you should be gold. By the end of 2017 is when you have to decide whether or not you want to do it as preventative maintenance.

This!

Btw, I love Vancouver !!!

Flea7 wrote

This!

Btw, I love Vancouver !!!

Come with our dollar weak as hell, you can have a mini getaway for cheap! Cheers!

ash4390 wrote

Zero lead which is nice, any thoughts on the sodium?

Gotta watch out for high blood pressure with that much sodium.

Your bearings don't have lead. It's an EU environmental thing.

Keep collecting data and look for trends in the wear items. So far no one has seen a leading indicator (of impending failure) with our non-lead bearing cars, so more data is needed.