Sounds like modern Wheeler Dealers these days - any excuse to get a third party sponsor into the show.

BITD Edd would have whipped out his spanners and took the engine apart.

Agree one would need a lot more detail to make any sense of this report, IF there is any sense to be made. Some oils contain quite a lot of sulfur out of the jug, either from the original base stock or as a component in anti-wear/antioxidant/detergent/friction modifier additives.

Re “I doubt it was detected as an element" elemental analysis is what you typically get, from emission spectrometry.

Mostly they are looking for wear metals ,especially iron, (but the standard method doesnt detect those in large particles so its of uncertain use in anticipating failures) copper and lead (as indicators of bearing wear) and silicon, (which would indicate contamination by dirt, perhaps via a leaky air filter, or from misuse of silicone sealant)

The other parameters typically provided. such as base and acid number and viscosity, when compared with a VOA, indicate the health of the oil.

To anticipate failures you want a particle size distribution, big particles being predictive of catastrophic failure,

Doing this as part of a car buying routine doesný sound very pratical. It takes time, costs money, it'd need to be interpreted, it gives limited information on the engine only, which is probably a less important source of failure than all the superflous electronic s***e that a modern car is burdened with, and the seller would have to be willing to let you do it.

It'd make a lot more sense to do a pre-purchase compression check, and I doubt many people manage to arrange that.

There MIGHT , however, be special cases, such as BIO or CVT's, where a special OA would be worthwhile. For example, I'd speculate that paper chromatography might detect belt debris particles in the oil ahead of failure.

Edited by edlithgow on 26/11/2024 at 23:36

..... and sent an oil sample off to Millers to find if the engine was in good shape.

High levels of sulphur was detected which indicated coolant loss, possibly down to head gasket failure.

I don't understand this. There's no sulphur in coolant. What exactly, and how much, was detected? Where did the 'sulphur' come from? I doubt if it was detected as an element. Sulphur dioxide can come from burnt oil and hydrogen sulphide from rotting oil. However, I can't see how any can come from coolant loss, unless it leaks into the oil and facilitates its microbial degradation.

I agree. there is no sulphur compound in coolant.

The only sulphur available to contaminate engine oil is from the fuel.