Laboratory Oil Testing

[MalcomM Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MalcomM]

HI
Anyone here get their iol tested by a laboritory?
I never have as it used to be very pricey but now seems quite cheap.
here's one I'm looking at.
http://www.roktex.com.au

Just wondered what people think?

[downunder Find all posts View Profile Close downunder]

Looks fairly cheap, if you have a consern about the state of your oil then this is one way to solve this issue.

[sbclover Member Find all posts View Profile Close sbclover]

If you go and buy a oil sample kit and pump from your local Caterpillar dealer ship you can send it away to them for analysis.
Part number is SOS3

Sean

[MalcomM Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MalcomM]

Looks fairly cheap, if you have a consern about the state of your oil then this is one way to solve this issue.

I don't have any concerns, just seems like it might be a good idea.
Just wondering about peoples experiences with this sort of thing.

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

We get oil sampling done on Caterpillar earthmoving machinery from time to time, the results are very specific and they can pretty much tell you of any likely problems from the results. Cheap insurance if you have concerns.

Cheers Andrew

[wooley Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close wooley]

The cat testing is good: it's $30: which is the cost of the sample kit and it includes the analysis/report

Does everything:
Precious metals to check for bearing/engine wear.
Water/coolant
Fuel
Viscosity
Oil breakdown
And I can't think of any more but there is more.

[MalcomM Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MalcomM]

Any idea where to buy the Cat kit?
Might give it a go just to see what the state of play is.
Never had one so I'm rather curious to do so.

[wooley Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close wooley]

Any idea where to buy the Cat kit?
Might give it a go just to see what the state of play is.
Never had one so I'm rather curious to do so.

Caterpillar is a good place to start, give your local Cat SOS a call an they'll tell you where to pick up a kit from and where to send it/drop it to.

[MalcomM Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MalcomM]

Thanks for all the comments guys.

One question remains-
Has anyone had one of these done on their Prado and what are their thoughts?

[prado4x4 Member Find all posts View Profile Close prado4x4]

One question remains-
Has anyone had one of these done on their Prado and what are their thoughts?

I have used 'Roktex' to get oil analysed from my Landcrusier. Kit came quickly in the mail. Simple to get the sample out of the dipstick tube using the gear supplied. Sent off the sample (using the prepaid satchel provided). Got the results link emailed through about a week later. There was a lot of info on the test results that I wasn't sure of, but there was a link on the roktex site that explainded what I was looking at. No issues with my oil (which was good as it had done over 12,000km by then as I wanted to test out 'old' oil to see how it held up).

Can't comment on the Caterpillar analysis, but I was happy enough with Roktex.

John

[wooley Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close wooley]

Thanks for all the comments guys.

One question remains-
Has anyone had one of these done on their Prado and what are their thoughts?

I've only got 1500km to next service. So give me a a week and I'll get it done.

Sending off some other oils from tractor so may as well wait and do Prado too.

[Fabes Member Find all posts View Profile Close Fabes]

Any idea where to buy the Cat kit?
Might give it a go just to see what the state of play is.
Never had one so I'm rather curious to do so.

Give Sydney Truck Centre a call 02 46488822 they can get you the Detroit or MAN oil sample kits. The later is my recommendation as it's analyzed by an independent laboratory that isn't affiliated with an oil company.

[t303 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close t303]

Have done two so far, one after purchase to check the condition and a baseline, and one at a 10k interval to see how far I can go without a change if on tour. Delo 400 was fine for that distance, probably good for 15k if needed.
Can help spot coolant in oil, dust from intake leak etc. Also cut open oil filters to check for bits of metal with part no.s on them.

[Sozjot Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sozjot]

Guys,
We routinely get oil from aircraft engines checked when things like chip detectors flag up or an big over torque occurs. The maintenance manuals wil then provide advice on what to inspect and when to resample and when to pull the engine off wing. I think the difficulty facing a diesel oil analysis is going to be in deciphering what is normal and what isn't??
Cheers,
Soz

[t303 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close t303]

For piston aero engines I used to do oil analysis, but most just cut open the filters at the 100hrly. The results from most labs will give an indication of what is normal for a diesel engine, but some of the levels given lead me to believe it could be normal for anything from a locomotive to a genset, as things such as soot and fuel contamination "normal" levels seemed rather high. You need to do one or two to start with to set up your baseline. I needed a quick health check and then to establish extended change intervals. From then on I plan only to do them occasionally, or for fault diagnosis (eg loss of coolant).