HawthorneVillager.com

For the do-it-yourself car guys or gals, I wanted to give you a heads-up on an oil analysis service in our very own Burlington called WearCheck that was introduced to me by a friend:
http://www.wearcheck.ca/contact/contact.asp?Who=WCAMIS

I think it's about $40 or $50 to get the oil analysed. It's a neat thing to do to check the health of the engine, and for most car guys who are loyal to certain brands of oil, to assess the brand's longevity. I'll be doing pre-summer service to my car this week and will gather a sample while the oil drains out to get analysed.

I used Castrol Syntec German 0W30 this winter (and I use Amsoil ASL in the summer) and want to see how much life is left in the oil. I want to do this analysis primarily to see how far I can push an oil based on my driving patterns so I can just swap filters every 5 or 6K and not drain so often if I don't have to in order to save money and help the environment, and especially in light of the fiasco going on in the Gulf of Mexico right now.

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What is the difference between ignorance and apathy? I don't know and I don't care.

This is a great idea, but if you drive a car that is still under powertrain warranty, the dealer might not honour your warranty if you don't follow scheduled maintenance.

BTW, I just found out that the oil change place has been recommending an 8000 km change when the dealer recommends 10,000 on my car. They just want you to keep coming back to unnecessarily change your oil.

Word up, Papabear. I've logged 13,000+ km so far on the Castrol Syntec 0W30 in my Japanese V6 with 2 oil filter changes so far, and with a lot of the brutal stop-and-go we get in town. I've never left any oil in any one of my cars this long, but I'm certain it's okay because the colour is like Hennesssy XO cognac even after an entire winter of driving. You probably know the drill....we get up to 60-80 km/h several times only to have to stop again when met with constant red lights. This challenges the oil more in winter though (and our patience) when the car's trying to warm up.

I am very curious to see the oil additive life more than anything since the Castrol Syntec 0W30 meets BMW Long-Life oil standards which I think is up to 25,000 km. The Amsoil ASL you can use up to 40,000 km, but I would be happy if the Amsoil can last half that, and if it could, I'll just drain once a year and keep swapping OEM filters every 5-6K with oil top-ups of course.

_________________
What is the difference between ignorance and apathy? I don't know and I don't care.