Oil darkness

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Jan 1, 2018
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This thread is not necessarily meant to be too serious. Just a light hearted question.

I have a '15 Tacoma 4.0 that I bought new 5.5 years ago....80k miles currently. Factory specs 5/30 and 5k OCIs....so that's what I do. Over the years it's seen mostly M1....vanilla, EP, Truck and SUV....whatever was on sale. When M1 was not sale or available my back up oil is Valvoline Full Synthetic when it was. I always run an M1 or Fram Ultra filter.

So here's an observation I've seen more than once. By the end of the interval the M1 is always noticeably darker than the Valvoline....regardless of which filter I use.

Now I know from hanging out here that the darkness of an oil isn't necessarily an indication of it's condition. I'm not even slightly worried about it in the least.

I've always chalked it up to the M1 having a bit more detergent in it.

Thoughts?
 
I think your conclusion is right.
PUP goes down pitch black from my well maintained VQ engine, only after 3k intervals.
It all seems dark when I drain it....at least to my old eyes 🧐. My observation is when I check it...what's on the dipstick.
 
...Dark oil is good to see and means its working.

That's what I've always assumed.

When I bought my daughter's '10 Yaris about 3 years ago with a 126k on it, one of the 1st things I did was an OC. Dumped in some M1 HM and an Ultra filter. Within a couple of weeks that oil was jet black. Over the course of 2-3 more changes it gradually began to lighten some. But it still gets a dark honey brown....but not nearly as black.

Always heard M1 HM has a stout detergent pack.
 
It all seems dark when I drain it....at least to my old eyes 🧐. My observation is when I check it...what's on the dipstick.
It's just anecdotal but my metric for assessing 'darkness' is when the hot oil is running all over my gloved hand during an oil change. ATT I can assess the odor for fuel dilution also.
 
Yes. I suspect that M-1 is just high detergent stuff. I ran a truck to 238k miles with 6K M-1 intervals and it was clean as a whistle before being totaled in an accident.

I also suspect that brand-to-brand variation means that switching up brands from time to time means that the change-up brand will likely have a different formulation and loosen up stuff that your regular oil doesn’t get so well—-not that it’s necessarily better. A reason for going from one high quality oil to another from time to time in my opinion.
 
I like it when it turns black so I don't feel bad about draining it out. :) 07 tacoma 4.0 here. I run PP(sale) RGT(sale) QSUD(clearance) and M1 vanilla (sale) Not difference between them.

More anecdotal info is when I ran a yellow puralator pure one filter it seemed the oil never got dirty. :)
 
... Dark oil is good to see and means its working.
In that case, none of the three brands of synthetic I've used so far in the Toyota has worked properly. In does darken some, but very slowly, compared to any other engine I've been acquainted with. Maybe all the soot that's not in the oil is stuck to the pistons?
 
I like it when it turns black so I don't feel bad about draining it out. :) 07 tacoma 4.0 here. I run PP(sale) RGT(sale) QSUD(clearance) and M1 vanilla (sale) Not difference between them.

More anecdotal info is when I ran a yellow puralator pure one filter it seemed the oil never got dirty. :)
I used to always run P1's back in the day....they were blue then. But over the years I just settled in to my M1 and Ultra preference. In fact, the Ultra choice was almost solely on info I ran across on this site.

Like I said....when draining it, it all looks dark. It what's on the dipstick.....that's where I've seen the difference.
 
What color should it be if it starts out purple......

2y5ccu.jpg
 
I would also add to say that your conclusion could be right, I have a thread regarding pup on my is350 and my first 3 oci were basically black but afterwards it became lighter in color and I went to pp after the first 2 or 3 pup changes. M1 may have better detergents which is why it is darker than valvoline according to your post, if you used M1 or any oil consistently for 3+ oci maybe it would begin to lighten in color like pup did to me, but every engine is different.
 
Interesting!

every time I use dino or syn-blend, the oil gets dark MUCH quicker than synthetic.

does this mean dino/blend is doing a better job? Kind of unlikely. ⚠

How about oxidation and ability to neutralize , float and retain/trap bad stuff better?
 
Interesting!

every time I use dino or syn-blend, the oil gets dark MUCH quicker than synthetic.

does this mean dino/blend is doing a better job? Kind of unlikely. ⚠

How about oxidation and ability to neutralize , float and retain/trap bad stuff better?

Oxidation will also change an oil's colour, as can simply exposure to heat, that's what colour is a very poor metric to go by.
 
when i see the black oil going out of my engine the first thing that comes to my mind is "darkness everybody Charlie murphy".
 
The Toyota dipstick is so reflective it makes my 7500 mile synthetic oil changes look less worse. It's when I drain it, it looks pretty bad. However, the cams aren't stained and the oil level never changes by 7500 miles.
 
I noticed this more on my older Tacoma when I tried out Valvoline Modern Engine. It got dark pretty quick, like 1,000-1,500 miles. So far 2,500 miles into that change. I haven't used the same oil twice yet, so I dunno. The inside looks clean from what I can tell looking at the timing chains/cam from the oil fill. I do remember the previous oil change (RGT 5w30) drained out all nice and nasty looking...
 
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