Oil Color?

[Swift101]

Hey Everyone,

I noticed my oil gets pretty dark after just 2000 miles. I know oil color is not an indicator of oil life, but is the rapid change in color attributed to the nature of turbo / NA DI engines?

The oil in my 99 Camry looked great after 3k, but after 2.5k the oil in my Sonata is dark brown, bottom of the dip stick looks almost black. My current fill is Pennzoil Ultra 5w30.

-Thanks

 

[Donald]

Concern - UOA=yes, color=no.

 

[dparm]

Oil darkens with use. It doesn't really mean anything.

Only time I'd worry about the color of the oil is if it gets milky.

 

[285south]

Mine turns black after 800 miles. As Donald and Dparm have said is true. DONT GO BY THE COLOR OF THE OIL. GO AND GET A used oil analysis FROM BLACKSTONE..

 

[Clevy]

Oil turning black is just a natural phenomenon when burning certain types of fuels.
My propane/gas powered vehicles don't turn the oil black at all. I only use gasoline to start them and once their running I switch over to propane.
Some vehicles turn the oil black faster than others. Depends on sump size and general cleanliness of the engine in the first place.
My charger takes over 3000 miles to turn the oil dark enough to easily see it on the dipstick. My 5.0 mustangs would blacken the oil in 1500 miles because the sump was smaller.

 

[Hyde244]

Color is no longer a valid indicator of oil life/performance. Only a used oil analysis will reveal how your oil has performed.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Hyde244
Color is no longer a valid indicator of oil life/performance. Only a used oil analysis will reveal how your oil has performed.


Technically only a tear-down will reveal how an oil has performed, whilst only a used oil analysis will reveal how the oil held up.

 

[Doog]

Originally Posted By: Swift101
Hey Everyone,

The oil in my 99 Camry looked great after 3k, but after 2.5k the oil in my Sonata is dark brown, bottom of the dip stick looks almost black. My current fill is Pennzoil Ultra 5w30.

-Thanks


Not an issue and don't forget that PP and Pennzoil Ultra will do some cleaning if this is the first OCI with it. I switched my kid's Honda to PP right around 40,000 miles. The oil was very dark in 1000 miles. Now 40k later of synthetic use and the oil stays clear until 3500 miles.

 

[danthaman1980]

Originally Posted By: Doog
Originally Posted By: Swift101
Hey Everyone,

The oil in my 99 Camry looked great after 3k, but after 2.5k the oil in my Sonata is dark brown, bottom of the dip stick looks almost black. My current fill is Pennzoil Ultra 5w30.

-Thanks


Not an issue and don't forget that PP and Pennzoil Ultra will do some cleaning if this is the first OCI with it. I switched my kid's Honda to PP right around 40,000 miles. The oil was very dark in 1000 miles. Now 40k later of synthetic use and the oil stays clear until 3500 miles.


^^^Agreed. Ultra tends to clean up engines in a hurry - I'd bet you're just noticing the effect of Ultra cleaning out what your last few oils left behind. Platinum cleans too, but not quite as good as Ultra.

The first time I blended PP into my girlfriend's '01 Grand Am, it started darkening within the first 1,000 miles. 1.5 years and a few oil changes later, it stays fairly clean for 3k or so.

 

[Hyde244]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: Hyde244
Color is no longer a valid indicator of oil life/performance. Only a used oil analysis will reveal how your oil has performed.


Technically only a tear-down will reveal how an oil has performed, whilst only a used oil analysis will reveal how the oil held up.

Haha, true enough.

 

[147_Grain]

No matter what brand of synthetic oil I use, it's always charcoal gray within 1 minute of startup.

Wonder if the Lubro Moly MoS2 has anything to do with it?

 

[901Memphis]

Originally Posted By: 147_Grain
No matter what brand of synthetic oil I use, it's always charcoal gray within 1 minute of startup.

Wonder if the Lubro Moly MoS2 has anything to do with it?

Diesel engines turn the oil black fast.

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: 147_Grain
No matter what brand of synthetic oil I use, it's always charcoal gray within 1 minute of startup.

Wonder if the Lubro Moly MoS2 has anything to do with it?

Awesome.

Mine goes milky within the first minute or so too, the half can of cera tec may be the culprit there.
I've decided that I'm just sticking with ceratec in the charger and running extended drain oils out to 15000 miles.
I'm not going to bother with used oil analysis though since I'll be jumping back and forth from ultra 5w-20 and a 0w-40 since I've got castrol 0w-40 and I'm stockpiling Mobil 1 0w-40 too.

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: 285south
DONT GO BY THE COLOR OF THE OIL. GO AND GET A used oil analysis FROM BLACKSTONE..


For the price of the used oil analysis, I can just change the oil and sleep good.

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: 285south
DONT GO BY THE COLOR OF THE OIL. GO AND GET A used oil analysis FROM BLACKSTONE..


For the price of the used oil analysis, I can just change the oil and sleep good.

I don't agree with you often,if ever however your comment above pretty much mirrors my feelings about the whole used oil analysis thing.
If my sump was bigger though it might make fiscal sense to analyze the oil to establish when the oils requires changing and unless a person is trying to establish trends and are using the data gleaned from their used oil analysis to extend drains or look for irregularities I just don't see the point of just doing 1 used oil analysis.
What's the point of doing just 1 on a passenger car. The data is hardly useful since there's nothing to compare too. Even in respect to monitoring the oils condition a single used oil analysis doesn't mean much since ambient changes as well as driving habits based on the changing seasons.
I look at the cost of a used oil analysis and if a person is going to get one you've gotta include tbn and tan which increases the price and once I consider that the cost of the data acquisition costs very close to new oil I'd choose new oil every time.
What if the data acquired comes back and says its time to change,now I've gotta spend the money to change the oil anyway,so the used oil analysis was just an added cost for nothing ,UNLESS a person is establishing trends for their equipment,I understand the point of getting them done in that situation.
And for me I use a different brand at every change interval anyways,and I adjust grades depending on ambient as well,so I'd need a whole slough of used oil analysis and years to put enough miles on to get to the mileage required to necessitate changing the oil so for me used oil analysis are pointless.
Except for my bike. I want to establish a change interval based on using a conventional hdeo that's a grade thinner than Harley wants,so in that case data is a must have because when going thinner than oem spec its smart to know how the oil holds up and how wear metals look.
Don't want my Harley's engine to dissolve on me.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: 285south
DONT GO BY THE COLOR OF THE OIL. GO AND GET A used oil analysis FROM BLACKSTONE..


For the price of the used oil analysis, I can just change the oil and sleep good.

You can do a used oil analysis only once in order to establish a safe OCI. Once you know how far you can go, you don't have to keep doing used oil analysis. Otherwise, if you don't know what a safe OCI is, you'll be like the OP - doing unnecessary 2K mile oil changes because the oil turned dark. Oh wait, you already do that...

 

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
For the price of the UOA, I can just change the oil and sleep good.

Same here, although with some of the oils I use will admittedly be more than a cheaper/lower quality UOA.

I figure if anything is going wrong internally, the engine has to be opened up, or replaced, anyway, so what's the point??!
(I SERIOUSLY doubt the top notch oils/filters I use, nor my OCIs could 'destroy' my LS1.

)

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: 285south
DONT GO BY THE COLOR OF THE OIL. GO AND GET A used oil analysis FROM BLACKSTONE..


For the price of the used oil analysis, I can just change the oil and sleep good.

You can do a used oil analysis only once in order to establish a safe OCI. Once you know how far you can go, you don't have to keep doing used oil analysis. Otherwise, if you don't know what a safe OCI is, you'll be like the OP - doing unnecessary 2K mile oil changes because the oil turned dark. Oh wait, you already do that...

That's a great idea if you use the same oil at every change however I never use the same oil for 2 changes in a row.
Well I've gone from pp to Quaker State Ultimate Durability so I guess they are pretty close to same but that's not lays the case in my vehicles.
And I vary grades as well depending on the seasons.
In summer my cars get driven much harder and may see some track time,definitely some high speed highway travel. Its a big prairie and very few RCMP.
I've given a lot of thought about getting a few used oil analysis done on my vehicles but due to the nature of me stocking up on stuff when its on sale and sometimes the sales are on different brands so I'd have to do 5 or 6 used oil analysis,one for each oil,which just doesn't make sense to me,not when the oil and filter costs are within a few bucks of the used oil analysis.
So I'm gonna stick with 10000 mile intervals using pp,Quaker State Ultimate Durability,PU,and the mighty M1(only when its on sale that is)and not worry too much.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Clevy
So I'm gonna stick with 10000 mile intervals using pp, Quaker State Ultimate Durability,PU,and the mighty M1(only when its on sale that is)and not worry too much.

See, this is what I was hoping for, too, but the way I drive, 10K miles with PU would have been too much (because it would have taken me 2+ years to get there), and I'm glad I did a used oil analysis to make me realize that.

And yeah, once I pick an oil, I usually stick with it. I've owned my 530i for 8 years now, and during that time I've only used two oils: GC and PU. I don't do seasonal changes either.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Yes, a used oil analysis is added cost. I did it a couple of times on my Buick Park Avenue with the Series II 3800 engine. I wanted to see if there was any hint of upper/lower intake manifold gasket leak and coolant contamination of the oil, so I'd know to have the gaskets changed. It turned out there wasn't any issue.

I'm also considering having one or two done on my Regal with the 2.4 DI engine, to see how much fuel dilution there is.