I bought one for a $1 on ebay, the retail is $40. What a deal. Anyways, I was wondering if anyone used this before on their Maxima with Mobil 1 synthetic oil. I haven't changed my oil in about 5 months and put on only 6K miles since then. I remember hearing that a Maxima with synthetic can go longer.
About the kit, you send in a sample of you oil in a little cylinder and they send you back the results of metals, sludge, and other fluids such as gas, antifreeze, etc. They send you back a printout of their findings and link them with probable engine maintance needs. They back they results with $1000 if an unlisted part goes wrong 4 months or 4K miles after the test. I was planning on changing my oil during Christmas break, so I'll keep you guys posted with they results.

 

Are you saying you paid $1 with a retail value of $40 for a tube that holds oil? Or does the fee include the lab analysis? How long does it take for the results?

 

you get a cool box. Inside this cool box is another box that is postmarked and prepaid to ship. Inside this box is a 6 ounce sealable tube. you fill out a label with your make/model/enigine size/mileage on odometer/etc. They mail you, fax you, and email you the results. It featured in last months issue of motor trend.

 

I pretty much figured it wasn't worth the effort for Mobil, it's only about $4 a quart so I changed it at 5-6k and left it at that. I would test the Amzoil that I am using now since they recommend changing the filter at 12.5k and the oil at 25k, but I have seen many tests where the the oil was good enough to go much, much longer. In most cases Amzoil with 25k miles is in better shape than normal oils right out of the bottle. They also make a hi-flow reusable air filter like the K&N but filters a whole lot more. I am seriously thinking about running my car at on the dyno tomorrow at the Dallas meet then putting it's first Amzoil change/air filter in to see if there is a measurable diff in HP. I agree that the Max engine is not as hard on oils others and the oil should last longer. One of the major destroyers of engine oil is raw fuel and acidic combustion byproducts. The cleaner burning engines have less of this problem. Synthetics of course are more resistant to such attacks, so I always recommend any synthetic over any hydrocarbon based oil.