Need reccomendation for US company for oil analysis

[LeonardoNYC]

Can anyone recommend a good company to send an oil sample for analysis? I am having my 6K service done next week..can the dealership provide this service or will I have to bring them a small jar and send it out myself?

Thanks

Leonardo

[deilenberger]

I've used Blackstone Labs for years - they are familiar with the hexhead engine.. and cost is reasonable. Here are the results from my 12,000 mile analysis:



http://www.blackstone-labs.com/ - if you poke around their website - they have some interesting commentary on oil use..

BTW - Brookstone will send you kits to sample the oil with. Any really clean jar could be used to collect the sample - then transfer it to Blackstones bottle for mailing. I'd suggest catching about 10oz - and do it just after the flow starts when draining the oil.

[LeonardoNYC]

Thank you Don Let's see if all the city driving gives me similar results...which I doubt.And with budget cuts here in NYC it only means spring time = potholes! Manhattan is one of the best places to live but worst place to own a motorcycle.

[NeilS]

All the major oil companies have oil analysis labs. I'd recommend you use the lab associated with the oil you're using. The reason is that much of an oil's additive package is proprietary, and only the captive lab knows precisely what's supposed to be in the oil.

My company, a manufacturer of products that contained small diesel engines, used Texaco oils and Texaco's oil analysis service. We once sent an oil sample to the Texaco lab, and their response was "The engine looks OK, but the oil isn't ours." When we asked about it, we were told that the oil sample contained a boron compound that Texaco didn't use in its products. It turned out that we had bought a drum of counterfeit oil.

[thepeacebullgrunt]

Geeez I was ready for my Italian Extra-Extra VIRGIN oil
mozzarella & basil all organic salad...

And now I am reading all kind of scary poisonous story's !

[red baron]

This maybe a dumb question but why do you want to have an oil analysis? The bike is under warranty so if something goes wrong with the engine BMW will take care of any problem.
I had a case with a 1998 K1200 which used a lot of oil and after a dealer examined and took the engine apart it turned out the air filter was too weak and when excellerating hard the filter bend and dust got into the engine and damaged the engine to an extend where BMW authorized a new engine. Mileage was 35,875 miles. Anyway I am just curious why spend the money on a oil analysis?
Peter

[NeilS]

Peter,

It's not a dumb question at all.

Railroads and truck fleet operators routinely use oil analysis to determine when to change oil in an engine. When a locomotive comes in after a run, an oil sample is taken and analyzed. If the analysis says the oil is approaching exhaustion, the oil is changed. The analysis also indicates when the engine is due for overhaul. Oil analysis can save these companies millions of dollars that would otherwise be spent if oil changes and overhauls were done on a specific schedule. It also removes many thousands of gallons of oil from the waste stream because it's not being changed prematurely.

In the case of my company, we had a new, engine-based product that was expected to run at full load for many thousands of hours a year. We wanted to be sure that our recommended maintenance intervals were appropriate for the service and that we could expect to achieve the engine life we were advertising. Oil analysis gave us those answers.

So how does this affect you as a car or motorcycle owner? For most of us, not at all. I don't routinely do oil analysis on any of my personal engines (I own nine of them). I might do it if I suspected an engine of premature wear-out. Others feel better if they know their engines are wearing at acceptable rates, so they do periodic oil analysis, but they're in the minority.

[deilenberger]

This maybe a dumb question but why do you want to have an oil analysis? The bike is under warranty so if something goes wrong with the engine BMW will take care of any problem.
I had a case with a 1998 K1200 which used a lot of oil and after a dealer examined and took the engine apart it turned out the air filter was too weak and when excellerating hard the filter bend and dust got into the engine and damaged the engine to an extend where BMW authorized a new engine. Mileage was 35,875 miles. Anyway I am just curious why spend the money on a oil analysis?
Peter

I had it done (1) to make sure there were no odd engine wear patterns emerging (2) to have a baseline sample if I need/want to do a comparison later. I'll probably get it done again near the end of the warranty period so I can compare the two samples and if anything is starting to go wrong (with no obvious symptoms) - the 2nd oil test should turn it up. The oil analysis includes some insight on what wear they see in the engine or problems they can see in the engine based on what's in the oil. Sorta like do you get your cholesterol levels checked? Same thing on an engine... you can prevent future problems by knowing what's going on inside the engine.

[red baron]

Thanks a lot for your answers which brings me to another question. In my case I change the oil in my R1200R every 3,000 miles. I went recently on a 2,500 miles trip and the engine started to use some oil which required adding a bit. I used the same weight of oil but from a different manufacturer. Could this harm the engine? I changed the oil after my return. I nornally use the BMW 20-50 weight oil.
Thanks in advance for your replies.
Peter

[deilenberger]

Thanks a lot for your answers which brings me to another question. In my case I change the oil in my R1200R every 3,000 miles. I went recently on a 2,500 miles trip and the engine started to use some oil which required adding a bit. I used the same weight of oil but from a different manufacturer. Could this harm the engine? I changed the oil after my return. I nornally use the BMW 20-50 weight oil.
Thanks in advance for your replies.
Peter

Peter,

It isn't anything to worry about.. oil is supposed to be blended to be "compatible" - and the extreme pressure additive package would have still been fine from the BMW oil.

My question would be - why are you changing the oil at 3,000 miles? Aside from being expensive, it's not the "greenest" thing to do, and the oil is not worn out at 3,000 miles. This is a case where an oil analysis showing you how great the oil still is at 3,000 miles will save you money rather quickly.

[def38]

Thanks a lot for your answers which brings me to another question. In my case I change the oil in my R1200R every 3,000 miles. I went recently on a 2,500 miles trip and the engine started to use some oil which required adding a bit. I used the same weight of oil but from a different manufacturer. Could this harm the engine? I changed the oil after my return. I nornally use the BMW 20-50 weight oil.
Thanks in advance for your replies.
Peter

Peter,

It isn't anything to worry about.. oil is supposed to be blended to be "compatible" - and the extreme pressure additive package would have still been fine from the BMW oil.

My question would be - why are you changing the oil at 3,000 miles? Aside from being expensive, it's not the "greenest" thing to do, and the oil is not worn out at 3,000 miles. This is a case where an oil analysis showing you how great the oil still is at 3,000 miles will save you money rather quickly.

Dberger is correct .......Changing engine oil at 3000 miles is foolish (read that wasteful) unless you race. The oil analysis above shows that the oil still has plenty of service left based upon the TBN. I change oil and filter annually regardless of miles and I also use a synthetic. Save some money, reduce your use of finite resources and change your oil less frequently. Your engine does not benefit from too frequent oil changes.

[LumpyCam]

An analysis could be helpful if it would tell me what this gunk was i found in my oil at the 5,000km service.

[def38]

The debris you see are likely bits of sealant used during factory assembly of the cases. I have found similar debris in my used oil over the years.

[NeilS]

Looks like dead bugs or lawn clippings. Was anyone mowing the lawn during your last oil change?