Has anyone ever done used oil analysis on the V6 engine. I was thinking of doing it to see if the 15,000km recomended change interval is ok or if it could possibly go longer.

I found a company that does the test for $35
http://www.e-monitor.com.au

I've been considering getting an OA done myself. Frequent the BITOG forums for long enough, you get curious about these things.

That said, going longer than 15k between changes on a 6G7# engine wouldn't be the best idea in the world, regardless of what oil you use.
Its simply not an engine designed for long oil change intervals.

Are the oil intervals 15K or 7.5K?
And how often does the little spanner come up on the dash?

Servicing is 15,000km

Annual oil changes for me. That can be anywhere from 3,000 km to 10,000 km depending on the car.

I think the manual recommends 15,000 km for normal driving, and 7,500 km if you only do short trips around town.

Is it 7,500km for oil changes, and 15,000 for minor servicing? (ie, air filter, front plugs, etc?)

15,000km oil intervals sounds like a lot for an old car. I know newer cars have much longer oil change intervals but I assume that has to do with finer tolerances + a marked improvement in general oil quality these days?

Is it 7,500km for oil changes, and 15,000 for minor servicing? (ie, air filter, front plugs, etc?)

Its more or less the same schedule as the 3rd gens. 15k oil change & other items (and 7.5k oil changes in between if 'severe' use)

At the moment I have been doing it yearly or when convinient between 12-15k (ie. before a big trip or when I have time). I start to get a bit nervous after 12k and have never pushed it all the way to 15k. That why I want to do an analysis to see if the oil would make it to 15k or if I should be changing it earlier.

For $35 you may as well.
What oil do you use?

Where is the economy? Apart from detecting early signs of wear in the engine, there is no value in doing oil analysis. The price of an analysis is more than offet by the cost of new oil (and new oil is better for the engine anyway). If you had larger sump capacity, then analysis may be worthwhile.

Seems you are all forgetting that it is 15k OR 12 Months

Some of my customers would take them 2 oe 3 years to get to 15k, if they left it that long with all the short trips they do their engines would be no more.

Really depends but if you do a lot of short trips, do every 6 months especially if in cold climate. If longer trips then do the 12 month or 15k

Where is the economy? Apart from detecting early signs of wear in the engine, there is no value in doing oil analysis. The price of an analysis is more than offet by the cost of new oil (and new oil is better for the engine anyway). If you had larger sump capacity, then analysis may be worthwhile.

I use Penrite HPR10 at $50 and genuine filter at $20, so $70 all up. Plus my time to change it (other things I'd rather be doing). After a few analysis you could get a good idea of safe interval to change it and would not need to sample it any more. Also if a few people done the same we could compare results and determine intervals for different driving conditions and oils. A few people over at the Pajero forum done it on their diesels and found that a 15k interval is fine.

I want to determine if one year or 15k is suitable for the driving I do. My commute to work is only 13k, mostly on the freeway with no traffic (10-15min). I often go a longer way home stopping at the shops etc, so the oil would get up to temp. Then a few country trips a year.

I'm a bit suspisous of MMAL's motives behind the 15k interval. I suspect they done it to help fleet sales. Same as pushing the transmission service out to 90k. Most fleets would have offloaded the cars by then, thus avoiding the cost of the service and any long term damage done to transmission and engine. Doing oil analysis would confirm or deny this. Most cars seem to have the 15k/1yr interval now, not sure if this is at the expense of long term engine life.

It depends a lot on how you drive the car. My wife's TM Magna was using 1 L/1000km in short runs downtown & back. We were heading outback, towing our caravan and I was a bit worried because at the time it had 145000 km on it. I threw in everything I could think of in case I had to do a roadside rebuild. The plan was to change the oil at Darwin (10000 km) and then come home. We got to Darwin and the oil level was still at the full mark, the oil was still clean, so I left it until we got to Perth (14000 km). I checked it there (I was checking it each day as well), the level was down 0.5 L and it was starting to turn black. I decided to leave (another 4000 km), and when we got home, I immediatley changed out the oil & filter. It was down nearly 1 L by that time. The oil was black, slightly thinner than new but still a lot more serviceable than the normal (5000 km) changes. Wife started driving to/from town again and consumption resumed at 1L/1000 km.

At 235000 km, I noted a water leak from the clutch end of the head, so I decided to do rings, bearings etc. I bought new rings, but really they didn't need replacing because the end gaps were still within original tolerances. However, the oil rings were a better design and after that the thing didn't use any oil until we sold it at 345000 km.

Yes - I changed the oil a lot sooner than Mitsubishi's recommendations, but it was cheaper than changing rings & bearings. I now have a Pajero Diesel and at 9.8L per oil change, it is a lot more expensive, but I still think it is worth changing it more often than the Mits recommendation of 15000 km or 1 year.