Does brown coloration mean things are good?

[jasno999]

I put AMSOIL synthetic 5w30 in my 1998 Subaru Forester during the summer. Since I have put about 4K miles on the car. This is the first tiem the car has ever had synthetic in it and it had about 119K miles on it when I did the change.

I have been checking the oil randomly to make sure it is at the proper level because I have heard that you can have a lot of oil burn off when switcing to synthetic on a car with higher milage. In truth I don't think I have had any burn off- my dipstick is not the eaisest to read so I have added a few ounces to be save but burn off is not an issue...

When checkign the oil I have noticed that it is a nice light to medium brown color. Can I assume this to be a good sign?

My plan is to leave this oil in the car until I have put 10K miles on it.

 

[Pablo]

Sounds normal. Eyeballing oil color is not a precise art.

 

[John K]

I do wish they would find a way to make dipsticks easier to read. You'd think after all this time they'd have come up with some full proof method.

 

[Towel_Rail]

The dipsticks with small holes at the low and full points aren't foolproof enough?

If I checked my oil after a couple thousand miles, and it still looked new, I'd wonder if the detergents were doing their job! Some of the coloration is from combustion soot.

 

[ARB1977]

You got some cleaning going on, although i would change it out a little earlier...i would of done an auto rx treatment.

 

[Eddie]

+1 for ARBs Comment

 

[Merkava_4]

Mine's been in for 4 months and is turning brown; it's getting drained out this week.

 

[VK56VD]

since this is your first time using synthetic, I wouldn't run it that long. Swiitch out at 6k max.