"Coyoteboy" > wrote in message
...
> Here in the UK there's no such thing as oil analysis - certainly I cant
> find anyone local (i.e. in the north of the country) that does it, and the
> only place i found in the whole country quoted £10 and 3 days wait. Whats
> the point?

I'm in the UK and can assure you that most oil companies provide the service
as well as some engine and equipment manufacturers.



It really is cheaper and less time consuming to change
> over-regularly than to run tests and waste time that way - takes me 10
> mins
> to change oil at the most, i spend £50 a year more than most people, but i
> know im running golden honey all year round, no matter how hard i've
> thrashed the engine, and most particulates from an older engine are
> cleared
> out with each oil/filter change.
>

This type of oil analysis not cost effective for light duty cars and vans.
The more vehicles you own, the bigger they are, the higher their utilisation
ratio and the higher the cost of their downtime then the economics of true
analysis for oil changing and early detection of potential overhaul or
preventative maintenance becomes more attractive.
Latest technology allows the car's internal systems to appraise and advise
the service intervals and this is now routinely fitted even to fleet cars in
Europe e.g. VW and Opel/Vauxhall. This effectively makes a long [optimised]
flexible service interval based on driving cycles and crude oil condition
analysis become economically viable for almost everyone.

Huw