2020 Elantra black oil

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Dec 23, 2013
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Minnesota
I bought this car as a carryover this April. It had 40 miles on it and was built 15 months before. The battery was no good after sitting at the dealers 'overflow' remote lot. Anyway, all was fine as I used it as normal transportation. I changed the oil and filter at about 900 miles with an OEM filter and used 5-30 Mobil ! as summer heat approaching. The engine burned no oil and was only slightly darkened at 900 miles. I recently changed oil and filter again at about 4500 miles. The oil was still at the full line, but looked fairly dark on the stick. There was no apparent fuel smell on either oil change, but with this last oil change the oil is coal black. I'm not used to seeing this as the car is not particularly short tripped and no condensation in summer driving. The engine has no odd mechanical noises and power seems ok. I'm puzzled with this situation. Is this a high pressure fuel injection deal or some other issue? Thanks for any insights.
 
The used engine oil out of some direct injected gasoline engines looks worse than others. The used oil looks so bad at around 3000 miles on our 2019 Pathfinder with the VQ35DD that I have yet to go beyond ~3500 miles between oil changes.
 
The Critic's Lubrizol article is 6 years old and I hoped more progress had been made on this over the years. Well, I'm generally a shorter mileage oil changer anyway. I did a cooler oil drop this 2nd time and noted no fuel smell on that or the first change. I also added on a Fumoto drain valve to make it easier. Do the oil filters show heavy soot when cut open?
 
It's probably typical. I've had 3 KIAs and the oil is all the same color after 5000 miles. The oil is doing what it's designed to do, which is keep the crap in suspension and away from the internals. Be thankful it's dark.
 
My 2006 Elantra was port injected and easy on oil. This is the high pressure pump and a different animal.
 
i assume yours isn't the better base na engine without gdi but rather the turbo one with it. Yeah that's the turbo gdi life. Oil gets beat up much faster. I believe the base is just port injected only and the turbo ones are gdi only. no combi injection.

I know some Hyundai turbo gdi engines can give grade recommendations that go to a 40 and ive heard of 50 as well if im not mistaken

I'd use PP euro 0w-40 in that turbo gdi engine but i wouldn't be afraid to do 5k. You can order it on wm. Just make sure to get an sn plus or sp rated oil since sn non plus and older can be high saps like m1 fs and castrol edge euro. But m1 or castrol 10w-40 syn is just fine too.
 
My early build 2020 GT has the 2.0 GDI, but no turbo. The 'GT' is kind of a joke as it's only 160HP. I am using Mobil1 0-40 as I generally use that in most of my more modern vehicles.
 
Oh you have an Elantra GT. Totally different model than the Elantra. Black is the norm with GDI engines, just something to get used to.
 
Some reading indicates that timing chain wear/stretch was/is an issue and would seem to be a problem for Hyundai/Kia, especially with their long warranty. If GDI problems were recognized years ago, I'd think that short oil change intervals with premium products would have been called out. With the Alabama built engine assembly failures, the dealer had many crates of engines stacked in the parts dept, so lots of costs and maybe these GDI engines will also have a shorter life.
 
These GDI engines produce some of the darkest oils I've ever seen!! Please bring back MPFI.

having said that we have a Tuscon GDI (non turbo) with ~ 120K miles and the engine sounds as smooth as new. The longest oci was iirc 7K. I try to change about 6K. I use good oil like M1 EP 10W-30. Right now it's running M1 Euro FS 0W-40 left-over from summer time. Next oil change coming next week with Kirkland 5W-30 ...

anyway don't worry too much as long as you don't abuse the engine with very long oci.
 
Read the owners manual and stick with the OCI. Some cars spec 3750 mile oil changes, and they need it.

My wife has a 2.0L NU GDI Tuscon. It beats oil up so we stick with 5w30 API SP and 3750 mile intervals.

Also my manual specifies Techron every oil change, so we dump that in there and use top tier fuel.

We have been using Valvoline Daily protection 5w30 and a valvoline filter because VIOC has a 50 percent off coupon all the time, making it a $24 15 minute oil change.
 
GDI or DI engines are hard on oil and they do produce more soot, oil has to clean it well and suspend soot in it, some will end up staying in filter and some will keep flowing thru engine till next oil change. With higher compression rate engines there is also higher rate of oil delusion with gas as well. IMHO, stay with 4K miles OCIs on GDI engines, with synth or semi-synth oils (like Valvoline Daily Protection).

My last DIY OC with RTG 5w-30 and Mann w811/80 filter cost me US$24.22 or C$31.
Techron at every OC is def gonna add to the cost but also won't do much to clean valves on those GDI engines, I'd suggest doing your own valves cleaning with any good carb cleaner or CRC cleaner if you so desire, once a year. I used "Gumout 36090 Small Engine Carb & Choke Cleaner" last time with great results. Also, avoid gas pumps with questionable gas quality.
 
Hyundai/Kias have become the latest ‘hard on oil’ engines. Stick to the rec 3750 oci and all should be good.
 
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