Besides everything being OK and peace of mind.

Did anyone actually learn that something was going wrong and then do something about it? Was anything prevented or costs contained?

I've done the Blackstone analysis and they said something like "good job"... or whatever, and I have a magnetic drain plug.... which has showed nothing. So..... I have peace of mind.

But what the heck was I supposed to do if I found something... um bad? What would qualify as "bad"? And then what was I to then do about it?

Peace
Bruce in Philly

 

I don't know if you're familiar with BMW M cars at all, but there are some models where the rod bearings prematurely wear out. This releases whatever metal is used in the rod bearings into the oil. Blackstone can detect that metal and advise on how advanced or severe the wear is.

Porsche motors are pretty solid and I don't think you'll see a lot of cases where blackstone sees anything dramatic.

Most people with M car rod bearing wear have them replaced. You can use the analysis to determine what you want to do with the car. Get it fixed, start looking for a spare motor, sell it to someone else, etc.

 

Well, I learned something from the 1st (and only) oil analysis I had done this with my then new 2002 Boxster with about 4K miles on it.

The analysis report came back with a very high (~7% IIRC) water content. I had been avoiding short trips and was surprised by this.

I changed the oil promptly and then I began monitoring engine coolant temperature with an OBD2 code reader/data viewer/logger and found out just how cold blooded my Boxster engine was. The reason for the build up of water in the oil then become clear. The engine and oil was just not getting that hot in winter driving. Surprisingly the coolant stayed pretty cool on the highway even though I regularly made 60 mile and at 70mph speed trips with the car sometimes as often as once a week. Only in around town driving did it get warm but never hot even then. At least not in the winter.

This caused me to abandon the 15K mile oil change interval Porsche called for (and the 30K mile oil filter change interval) and change both every 5K miles.

300K+ miles later the engine is still very healthy.

Since the Boxster back in early 2002 I have not bothered to analyze the oil from any of my other cars: VW Golf TDI; GTO, Cayman S, and 996 Turbo. I just decided to follow the same 5K mile oil/filter service interval for these cars.

 

All "M's" or a specific run of years? Also, would the rod bearing issues apply to the 335i or 335is models as those motors are pretty darn close to M motors?

 

Interesting thread.

I never even heard about oil analysis before joining this forum. Not even when I was riding motorcycles. I have always just changed oil and filter more often than recommendation and was quite satisfied with that.

However, Bruce - I know you had two engines blowing up on you so there could be reason for doing this but I guess you also do it out of curiosity - to understand more about the engine etc?

 

Macster, would it matter if you only drove your car lower miles, meaning would you still change the oil even if you don't drive that frequently over the same period?

 

The water (and other combustion byproducts) accumulate in the oil for every moment the engine is running. Not all of these byproducts -- water and to a lesser extent gasoline -- boil out of the oil even if it gets plenty hot.

The solids, some of which combine with the water to form acids, can only be removed by draining the oil and replacing the old oil with new oil.

My oil/filter servicing is at and is going to remain at 5K miles pretty much regardless the number of miles I cover in a year. I mean I think it would but I have not yet had to find out as I still drive quite a bit way over 5K miles per year per car.

About the only thing that would/could possibly affect my oil/filter service interval is if I drove less than 5K miles per year. In this case I would still change the oil at least once per year even though the car didn't cover 5K miles per year and for the reason I gave above: Oil contamination happens while the engine is running and contamination can only be really effectively dealt with, countered, by replacing the contaminated oil with new oil.

 

Specifically the M cars as far as I'm aware. The e46 (which coincidentally had a rod bearing recall in the early years), the e9x, and the e60 (e63/e64).

 

I had an M3 E46 that already had the rod bearing replacement. I had a blackstone done when I was trying to sell it and it said some of the metals were too high and the buyer backed out. I was pissed because I knew nothing was wrong with car, 56k miles, always used TWS, babied. Turns out after a ton of research, if you use an octane booster or similar additive it could squew the results. Turns out I did it again and it was clean.

Still really made me mad that taking care of a car by adding a fuel additive to clean out the system would change the results and lose me a buyer.

 

E92 M3s. Sold mine at 100k miles before it became an issue.

 

Mine was showing viscosity breakdown (shearing) from my driving style, engine age, and oil choice. It convinced me to switch to Porsche A40 approve 5W50. No more shearing out of grade since the switch. Plus my engine pressures are much better when the oil is hot.

I also had a minor tick up in wear metals ultimately traced back to a failing tandem oil pump. The interesting thing was the wear metals dropped at the next oil change but copper particles spiked. Now they are back to normal, below normal even.

 

What brand and where do you get it. The Mobil one stuff is like hen's teeth.

Peace,
Bruce in Philly

 

Amazon, free ship w/prime. The quart bottles have the A40 certification on the label.

https://www.amazon.com/Mobil-106035-...s=mobil+1+5w50

Mobil 1 5W-50 has the following builder approvals:
VW 501 01 / 505 00 X
PORSCHE A40 X
MB-Approval 229.3 X
MB-Approval 229.1 X
BMW High Performance Diesel Oil X
Lexus LFA Service Fill X

 

Yeah, I tired not to say the brand to keep this from derailing into another "what oil is best" thread. The point was my Blackstone analysis showed shearing so I switch to a thicker weight that was still Porsche approved. I pm'd you the brand details Bruce.

 

I like to have the Blackstone reports on hand and I also cut the filter, date and keep it in case of a meltdown so I can prove to the Extended Warranty company the car had no pending issues which were ignored.