Used Oil Analysis

[hegel]

I just picked a 15' gt premium and was wondering if anyone's done a uoa through blackstone or anyone else (not sure who else does it). this is my first american car (all prior have been vw diesels or aircooled vw's ) and i'm not sure how they wear. should I just trust the oil sensor to tell me when its time or what?

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[BmacIL]

I've done 3 UOA's with Blackstone. If you pay the extra for the TBN analysis they can give you a pretty decent bogey on oil change interval. In general, though, the onboard calculation (there's no sensor, it looks at how you drive...mostly average speed, and calculates oil life with a set of parameters. Stop/go driving, hard acceleration necessitates more frequent oil change intervals than highway driving) is pretty good.

 

[hegel]

Thanks. when i bought the car it listed that the oil had been changed but the oil life indicator said 43%... when questioned the dealer claimed that because it had been sitting for 2 mo the car degraded the oil based on that alone. ( I can imagine some spirited test drives also lowered it some)

 

[BmacIL]

Thanks. when i bought the car it listed that the oil had been changed but the oil life indicator said 43%... when questioned the dealer claimed that because it had been sitting for 2 mo the car degraded the oil based on that alone. ( I can imagine some spirited test drives also lowered it some)

Yeah there is a time base to the calculation also. The other thing to keep in mind is that the oil life reading is manual reset, so they might've forgotten. It doesn't hurt to change it if you want piece of mind.

 

[AmericanLegend]

Welcome!
I'd guess that they never reset the oil life indicator.
But to be safe, I'd change the oil.

Sitting for two months shouldn't cause the oil life indicator to drop all the way to 43% if they really did reset it after changing the oil two month prior?


I came from a VW TDI as well.

It was a good car...really enjoyed the torque of the little diesel with the mpgs.

BUT, I went back to my first love...a V8 Mustang. Way more fun to drive then the VW. The mpg drop is a small price to pay for all the V8 provides in driving dynamics (sound, power, durability, etc).

If you do your own maintenance / repairs, you'll find that Mustangs are a bit easier to work on then newer VWs.

I find the small differences very interesting between a German engineered vehicle vs American. The Germans definitely tend to not engineer things to be simple or easy to work on.

As far as durability...you'll find the 5.0L Coyote has a great reputation! It's proving to be a very strong motor.

Enjoy!!

 

[dubster99]

The oil life indicator in the car is worthless. Check the oil yourself and see how it looks...easy to tell if it needs to be changed.

I sent a sample in to Blackstone after 5k miles on E85, and it came back perfect.

 

[BmacIL]

The oil life indicator in the car is worthless. Check the oil yourself and see how it looks...easy to tell if it needs to be changed.

I sent a sample in to Blackstone after 5k miles on E85, and it came back perfect.

Uh, no. Wrong. You cannot visually tell whether oil is perfectly good or not. Oil can be black (which happens fairly soon after its first changed due to heat) and still be providing perfectly good lubrication. The oil life indicator is not worthless at all. It's algorithm-based and gives you an indication of where the oil likely is, not an absolute anything. You can choose to disregard it completely, but it is useful.

 

[Tony Alonso]

I've done this with every oil change since my car is new. You can see them in my journal thread (link in my signature). In my use case, the car's oil life monitor correlates to the change intervals that the analysis results mention.

 

[Kclyatt]

Oil monitors meh....don't reset and see if it keeps up lol.

Seriously DO what makes you comfy. I once worked with a guy who changes his oil weekly....yes I typed weekly!

 

[jacknifetoaswan]

The oil monitor in the Mustang is not smart, nor progressive, it simply looks at the number of miles driven, and deducts a percentage point for each 100 miles. Source - I reset my oil monitor at ~6,000 miles, when I did my first oil change. I now have ~15,400 miles. My oil life monitor is currently at 6%. When I had driven 6k miles, it was at 40%. When I had driven 2k miles, it was at 80%.

It might have some intelligence built in that will deduct percentage, based on how long the car sat (though mine is a DD, so I can't comment on that), but it does not monitor the quality of the oil, it just uses an algorithm to make a recommendation on change interval.

JR

 

[BmacIL]

The oil monitor in the Mustang is not smart, nor progressive, it simply looks at the number of miles driven, and deducts a percentage point for each 100 miles. Source - I reset my oil monitor at ~6,000 miles, when I did my first oil change. I now have ~15,400 miles. My oil life monitor is currently at 6%. When I had driven 6k miles, it was at 40%. When I had driven 2k miles, it was at 80%.

It might have some intelligence built in that will deduct percentage, based on how long the car sat (though mine is a DD, so I can't comment on that), but it does not monitor the quality of the oil, it just uses an algorithm to make a recommendation on change interval.

JR

It is based primarily on miles, average speed and time.

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