The oil analysis will tell you what is getting ready to fail on the engine and can even tell you if you have an intake leak,but its a lot of money for dubious benefit,why bother?Use good oil and use the extended schedule in your owners manual and always change the filter(dont use a 3$ filter from Wally World)people can get amazing longetivity from Hondas doing what the manufacturer suggests,so I think there is a lesson here.
I’m definitely in the 7500 mile change camp, too. Less time under the car and less waste oil to take back. The “brown” oil sounds like this would still be quite viable. CSA’s suggestion would pretty much prove whether your 5000 mile oil still had some life left in it. Could save a few more dollars and your back and knees.
I experienced a mileage improvement with synthetic oil AND rear-end lube AND front diff lube in a 4wd truck but nothing like 14%. More like 3%. Oil alone for a long commute, I can believe it would do nothing. Short trips with lots of cold starts, that, I would believe, make a difference.
I use synthetic only if it’s required by the manufacturer. As of yet…I haven’t bought a vehicle that requires synthetic so I don’t use it. Dino is good enough for me.
I’m impressed that you are able to beat the EPA estimates by a whopping 13 MPG overall.
The EPA is way off with this car . . . everybody that I know with one, even Yaris car sites, state 45-50 mpg. Google it, you’ll see. I’m pretty happy with the car and the change to synthetic, even if it is only my perception, I feel better doing it. Rocketman
My last three tankfuls after my oil change have been 50 mpg averages. These tankfuls were 90% highway and paying attention to my driving, but definitely 50 mpg, carefully watching my fill-up and computations. Life is good! Rocketman
I recall my father using Mobil 1 in a car he bought used because that’s what the former owner had run in it since new. That was about 1978. If I recall correctly, Mobil touted running their oil 25,000 miles between changes at that time. I guess time and lawsuits changed their thinking.
I had a Buick LeSabre that had a button on the dash to tell the percentage of oil life. At about 7300 miles on a change with Castrol GTX dino oil, the readout was 43% remaining. Granted during that time I had been on a 3000 miles trip with mostly highway driving. The rest was a mixture, but more interstate than in town. It was down by its first quart at that time. I opted to change the oil rather than adding a quart. According to the readout, it would easily have made it to 10,000 miles on that change, but I just couldn’t see going that far. Granted GM warranties their cars when an owner changes oil per the gauge, so they must believe in it.
Again,the thing with the oil monitor is that it doesn’t know what kind oil you’re using.
Re. the oil life monitor, GM revised their programming on them as people were experiencing engine failures going by the OLM. I would be very afraid to buy a used car where the owner went by the OLM all the time.
For the person that mentioned oil analysis not being cost effective, well, you don’t have to do them at every oil change, but you can’t just do one and expect nothing has changed several years later. Maybe one a year? It isn’t very cost effective replacing an engine either that might have been saved by a $25 oil analysis letting you know you have a problem developing. Clearly there is no point in doing an analysis on a “beater car” that you don’t much care about.
We used to do oil analysis on construction equipment,it would tell you among other things failures of the hydraulic system pumps,transmission componets,engine bearings,etc,even would tell you oil life and if you had bad filters,leaking intake system,etc,very useful indeed.If you could head off a failing hydraulic pump for instance.you might save contaminating the whole system,if you had to replace the oil coolers and flush the system,very expensive
@oblivion - can you get me a link regarding GM’s OLM change? I didn’t find anything.
I am surprised the Yaris is only highway rated for 35 mpg. My 2012 Camry is rated at 35 and gets it on trips and I usually have the cruise control set at 74, higher in States with speed limits of 70 or over.
One of GM’s OLM updates was related to the 3.6 liter engine timing chain failures. I believe they had to compensate for the typical owner that is 1 to 2 quarts low between oil changes. The early LY7 engine was known to consume some oil. The chain was also revised on later models.
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs/jaxrs/download/doc/UCM420100/CSC-10043854-5501.pdf