I changed the oil in my girlfriend's Grand Am for the 2nd time since we bought it late last summer. The first filter I cut open after 3k miles, a Fram PH3506 looked horrible. Bent pleats, distorted endcaps, etc. I changed the oil & filter with Valvoline 5W-30 and a SuperTech ST3506. We ran that 3,100 miles and I changed it out last Friday after being in the car just under 4 months. The oil looked almost as clear as the day I put it in. I cut open the oil filter today and inside each of the pleats was a reasonable amount of specks of black carbon. This leads me to believe there might be some deposits in the motor from before we purchased it with an unknown history and the oil is cleaning some of those deposits out but the oil is still looking clean. Just thought I would share my experience since I used to tend to think clear oil = clean motor.