Actually there are people who use oil analysis to monitor engines over the course of time, not necessarily for litigation purposes.
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Originally Posted by thinkxingu
Is the interval the only thing you would've changed with the testing results? I mean, how many vehicles/machines fail because of oil quality? Other than running dry or overfilling, I'm not sure I've ever even heard of it happening.
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Oil testing can be (and is) used to monitor engine health in general so it's not so much a failure would be related to the quality of the oil rather it could be a failure of an engine component that is affecting the quality of the oil.
Internal combustion engines are comprised of numerous types of metals and coatings. There are a handful of laboratories, Blackstone being one, that have a database and therefore a good idea of what a "normal" amount of wear looks like in oil samples.
So, in addition to being able to test the quality of the oil in your oil sample, they can also see if there is anything that might be wearing prematurely within the engine.
I can say for sure Blackstone knew I had a main bearing failure in one of the samples I sent them, a turbo bearing failure in another.