Date:         Thu, 13 Apr 2000 13:13:34 -0700
Reply-To:     Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@UBC.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@UBC.CA>
Subject:      Re: What does an oil analysis cost?
In-Reply-To:  <11A2A5877BEFD111998900A0C9C74AD84E6BE2@info_hq.infogenesis.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

At 2:19 PM -0700 4/12/00, BRENT CHRISTENSEN wrote:
>About $20, and they send you another test kit when they return the results.

Here in Vancouver, I have my oil analyzed at the S.O.S> (Scheduled
Oil Sampling) Lab at Finning (the bulldozer people) on Great Northern
Way.  For CDN$16.00 and change (about 10 or 11 bucks US), they will
analyze the oil for something like 37 elements as well as measure for
things like coolant and fuel trace in the oil.

I had them analyze my old Is*zu Tr**per when I was having problems
with the engine.  The lab tech called me in a panic a few hours later
asking if the engine was being used in the critical application.
He'd found huge levels of Mg and Fe in the oil, and hadn't seen a
*running* engine with those kinds of results in a long time.  I took
it to the mechanic immediately, and told them the engine was breaking
down internally (no, no, it's a low mileage engine, and the bottom
end on these things go forever, they said).  Told them to look
anyway, and they called me 1/2 hour later to tell me the motor had
over 1/2 inch of end play(!).  Well, there went a few month's pay
cheques...

But it sure as hell did tell me a lot about the condition of the
motor.  For 16 bucks, I'll run my oil through a few times a year,
just to monitor how the engine's doing.

T.
(Is*zu Tr**per no more!  Worst car I've ever owned.  Good riddance!)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tobin Copley   Bowen Island, BC, Canada              tobin.copley@ubc.ca

'82 westy 1.6L NA diesel ("Stinky")
'97 son Russell                                   =============
'99 daughter Margaret                            /_| |__| |__|:| clatter
1995: 'Round US, Mexico, Canada 15,000 mi       O|.           .| clatter!
1996: Vancouver to Inuvik, NWT   7,400 km        ~-()-==----()-~
Previous buses: '76 westy deluxe (Daisy), '76 westy standard (Mango)
http://www.sfu.ca/~tcopley/vw/