Sent in my oil, 4782 miles on it, 120,000 on the engine. The only "unusual finding" was that my lead content was 16PPM, where the average is 4. They said possible causes would be city driving, towing or lots of idling, none of this apply to my driving habits or to my location, I am rural. I know the PO did a lot of towing as the locking pin for the hitch has distorted the holes in it from pulling, but that stopped years ago. They say to check back in another 4-5000 miles for monitering, "hopefully it improves"
My question is what bearings are losing the lead, the main crankshaft? Is this a real problem, if so, how severe? Can the loss of lead be controlled? I am not sure just what all of this means. Thanks for any help.

 

Those are pretty low #s still so I would not worry to much yet.
The key to EOA are a regular monitoring. One test with a high # isn't always followed buy the next so if you don't do them regularly its hard to track a problem (or the start of one) If your next sample (need to keep intervals the same) comes back higher you know the problem is getting worse but if it comes back in range than not to worry . Lots can effect these samples like were the valve covers off during the sample period, or is the oil/filter different than last time?