"We call it 'The Friction of Deception,'" says Elias Thorne, a lead technician at AutoData Corp. "A husband claims he was working late at the office in the city. But the smart lubricants in his engine show a thermal profile consistent with long-distance highway driving, and the particulate count indicates he was parked in a rural area for four hours. The dipstick doesn't just tell you the oil is low; it tells you where the car was when the oil degraded."