I missed the last oil sample class that my local Cat dealer put on. Does anyone know if there is a site I could go on to better understand "Oil Samples"?
go to Wearcheck.com or descase.com
For my money the thing to do is look at trends. Don't get hung up on numbers themselves for any particular element (or indeed a particular machine because the same compartment on 2 allegedly identical machines can behave differently) but look at which way the numbers are trending. And bear in mind that samples will be taken from some compartments (like differentials or hydraulics) where the oil did not get changed, so you have to factor that into it as well. If you plot it on a graph you should see something that looks like a "saw-tooth" shape. Make sure that the first sample taken after an oil change is similar or identical to the first sample taken after the previous oil change. See the graph below - this is for copper in a differential. After the initial break-in where numbers were higher it has now settled down and you can easily see where the oil was changed. In fact for my money plotting reaults on a graph is the best oil analysis interpretation tool you can have.