Those of you that have seen oil that was black on the dipstick of a gas engine. How many miles were on the oil? How many miles on the car? What Oil? What filter? What car?...just curious.
How many miles till oil is black on dipstick?
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On my old 1995 Honda Accord V6 it got pretty dark after 1500 miles, but that burned oil so I think stuff got past the rings. And I dont think the previous owner changed the oil often enough. My 2006 Accord 2.4 is a very light shade of caramel brown, I wouldnt even call it brown, more golden light colored. It would probably take 10.000 miles before the oil looked black on that dipstick. On the Uplander (same engine as your car) it looks a light/medium brown after 3000 miles. I would change the oil far before it was black on the dipstick.
When I used dino oil the OCI was always 4K therefore they never made it to "black"
However, my favorite dino is the good old Castrol GTX, reason being among all the dino oil I used since 1986 it would consistently get "dark" sooner than others.
IMO an oil that gets darker sooner has a better DI package that is doing a better job at removing carbon build-up, removing sludge & all the combustion by products than the oil that looks "clean" at the same interval.
However, my favorite dino is the good old Castrol GTX, reason being among all the dino oil I used since 1986 it would consistently get "dark" sooner than others.
IMO an oil that gets darker sooner has a better DI package that is doing a better job at removing carbon build-up, removing sludge & all the combustion by products than the oil that looks "clean" at the same interval.
I worked at a full service Mobil station for a bit during the mid 80's, we checked the oil on the full service fuel ups, I would say 90 % of the cars I checked had black oil and often times low. For top up we would put in Mobil 10w30 unless the car had over 100k, then they got Mobil hd 30. Cars and oil have improved since then, but I bet most of the motoring public is still sporting black oil. Not us Bitogers though.
When I first got my [used] car, I didn't realize the 1ZZ-FE consumed oil... so I didn't check it until about 5000 miles, when I discovered it pitch black and ~2qts (out of 4) low
. These were mostly highway miles, ~2400rpm. That said, I'm at 3000 miles on my current fill, and it's only started to get brown.
Different oils seem to darken at different rates in this car as well.
Different oils seem to darken at different rates in this car as well.
4500 miles on this, the 1st syn OC in Kitacam, it's medium brown.
I'm bumping up against 4K on the QSUD 10w30 in my 99 Ram, and while it's not pitch-black, it is a pretty dark brown. It usually doesn't start getting dark till about 2K-2500 miles after OC. I have to say, I like my current oil, especially since it's quieted my engine down substantially in comparison to your vanilla M-1 10w30 (Seems I'm not the first to say that either, judging from previous posts I've read around the forum)
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My cars are all on synthetic which gets black at 4000-4500. The exception is a Honda which gets black at 3000.
5-7k on truck- mobil delvac
3-4k 95 camrey dd- rotella t-5
5k+ 09 bmw 328x- mobil1 0-40
3-4k 95 camrey dd- rotella t-5
5k+ 09 bmw 328x- mobil1 0-40
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5k miles on TGMO 0w20 and its caramel brown. Have never seen black oil in any cars..Although i likely change oil too often. (5k miles) I dont think you should judge oil based on its color. Get a UOA done and see what they say.
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I don't ever remember seeing "black" oil coming out of anything I own/owned.
7500 miles on MC syn-blend 5w30 05 Matrix 70k. Light honey color midway thru oci and a medium honey color at 7500 miles. I did notice a half quart of oil consumed between 7000-7500 miles. So now I change it at 6500 miles.
I also have never seen black oil on the dipstick in anything I owned, even on my third or fourth hand Mercury Tracer that looked pretty neglected when I bought it.
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I'll go against the grain - my Saturn darkens very quickly, in the past, easily under 2k, maybe even sooner (probably 1K to 1.5K). Experience has been better with a Bosch D+ on. Tough to judge as there is consistent top off oil being added, and it's been getting PP thinking it might clean some stuff up.
The only time I've seen oil as black as midnight is when I'm trapsing through some car lots looking at cars. I pop the hood and check the oil. Not only for level but to see if its pitch black. If it is I kick dirt on it for wasting my time and go on my merry way.
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