PP Seems Really Dark After 3000miles

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MrBiglund

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Hey Guys, I bought a used 2006 Dodge Caravan a few months ago with 138,000km on the odometer and changed the oil right away with Quaker State GB conventional 5W30 and OEM filter. The engine is 3.3liter and it doesn't need any make up oil between changes. Did the second change at 145,000km with PP SL rated 5W30, which I had laying around, was thinking of doing a 10,000km oci this time due to it being synthetic. Been checking the oil regularly and it hasn't used any oil, but the oil has gotten quiet dark. Much darker than the QSGB when drained and it's only been 5,000km yet, another 5,000km to go before doing my planned oci. Engine is running great, no startup noise or anything. I mostly do city driving but long enough to get the engine upto normal temperatures. The only thing I'm worried about is the color of the oil being so dark.

Should I change the oil now or should I wait until the 10,000km mark as planned. Please advice.
 
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I've been experiencing this as well with my Montero (PP 5W-30). Considering it's a good cleaner oil, I'm not really worried. Just goes to show the oil is doing it's job.
grin.gif


Then again, I'm one of these people who believe color it not an indicator (unless you see something serious, such as symptoms of a failing head gasket, etc.). So it'll be interesting to see what the UOA will show when I send a sample in.

I would leave it and change at the 10,000 km mark as planned.
thumbsup2.gif
 
I dont know if Id do a long "synth" run on the first OCi with "synth". Maybe the second. The high detergent package may have a lot of cleanup to do - even though you ran qsgb for a short oci 1st. I had a sim exp with Castrol Syntec AFTER running syn 3x. It got VERY dirty fast and continued getting super dirty. The car didnt run well after 1k into the oci (piston slap) either - So out that came. Im back to dino
 
Unless you do a UOA you'll never know the truth so leave it in and sample.

Arco's example doesn't mean much since no oil can cause or cure piston slap.
 
10k km is not extended drains... that's about 6.2k miles. Run it out and don't worry about it. The color of the oil has nothing to do with the shape that it's in. I've noticed PP gets dark quick in my Subaru as well. I don't think twice about it.
 
I think not knowing the history of the car and also because of mostly city driving, I might just go upto 7,000km oci instead. However, my next oil, it won't be a synthetic oil. The PP I used this oci was the last of the synthetic oil I had. Now, all of my stash consists of dino oil bought from sales at Walmart. I'll probably finish up the QSGB 5L jugs I have first and then move onto the PYB Jugs, after that I have a 5 jugs of VWB as well. Enough oil to last me a few years (about 60quarts).

Before coming to bitog I was strict synthetic user, but from all of the knowledge I gained from this place, I've started using dino oil and sticking to 5000miles ocis. Works great for me.
 
Originally Posted By: MrBiglund
Hey Guys, I bought a used 2006 Dodge Caravan a few months ago with 138,000km on the odometer and changed the oil right away with Quaker State GB conventional 5W30 and OEM filter. The engine is 3.3liter and it doesn't need any make up oil between changes. Did the second change at 145,000km with PP SL rated 5W30, which I had laying around, was thinking of doing a 10,000km oci this time due to it being synthetic. Been checking the oil regularly and it hasn't used any oil, but the oil has gotten quiet dark. Much darker than the QSGB when drained and it's only been 5,000km yet, another 5,000km to go before doing my planned oci. Engine is running great, no startup noise or anything. I mostly do city driving but long enough to get the engine upto normal temperatures. The only thing I'm worried about is the color of the oil being so dark.

Should I change the oil now or should I wait until the 10,000km mark as planned. Please advice.


i had the same thing happen in my wifes explorer when we put pp in it. i changed at 3000 miles and kept running it. on the third oil change i saw that it didnt get that dark anymore. and it was very clean looking in the oil fill hole. pp is great at cleaning. i would change the oil now and let the next oci with PP go longer because it will not get as dirty
 
IIRC PP was a little on the dark side fresh out of the bottle. I'm sure its cleaning but it might have been a bit darker right from the start. OTOH Amsoil ASM was one of the cleanest oils out of the bottle, so clean in fact it was hard to read on the stick.
 
I just did an OC on my Ranger, had run 5-20PP/ MC filter for 5000 mi.and it was DARK. Engine only has 7500 mi. though( FF dumped at 2500), so in my case I don't think there was a lot of cleaning to be done. To be fair, 2500 mi. of boat towing is tough on that 2.3 engine. Had some Mobile 1/ Pure1 lying around so I will see how much of a difference there is next time.
 
Originally Posted By: Thermo1223
Unless you do a UOA you'll never know the truth so leave it in and sample.

Arco's example doesn't mean much since no oil can cause or cure piston slap.
Of course! that's why when I changed the oil (with NO OTHER VARIABLE CHANGES) out the excessive noise "evaporated". Explain.
 
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted By: Thermo1223
Unless you do a UOA you'll never know the truth so leave it in and sample.

Arco's example doesn't mean much since no oil can cause or cure piston slap.
Of course! that's why when I changed the oil (with NO OTHER VARIABLE CHANGES) out the excessive noise "evaporated". Explain.


Different acoustic damping characteristics, I had a similar experience with an old Hyundai, GC made it sound like a very soft knock but when the dealer put a mechanical gauge on it oil pressure was fine. You could also hear the engine pumping oil through the heads, it was really weird. Used a regular dino after that and you couldn't here it anymore.

I think sometimes you can hit the sweet spot where frequencies tend to play tricks on your ears.
 
Originally Posted By: Thermo1223
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted By: Thermo1223
Unless you do a UOA you'll never know the truth so leave it in and sample.

Arco's example doesn't mean much since no oil can cause or cure piston slap.
Of course! that's why when I changed the oil (with NO OTHER VARIABLE CHANGES) out the excessive noise "evaporated". Explain.


Different acoustic damping characteristics, I had a similar experience with an old Hyundai, GC made it sound like a very soft knock but when the dealer put a mechanical gauge on it oil pressure was fine. You could also hear the engine pumping oil through the heads, it was really weird. Used a regular dino after that and you couldn't here it anymore.

I think sometimes you can hit the sweet spot where frequencies tend to play tricks on your ears.




Uh....say that again??
 
Ya it was weird...cold you could here it, I really can't describe it because I didn't believe it myself. However that is what the dealer told me, 2 techs, one service manager. Maybe they threw me a line just to get me from complaining about it again but it had to be that as we eliminated every other possible noise.

The car had various issues from day one, maybe a screw was left in there somewhere
lol.gif
 
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Just means that it's cleaning well. As others have suggested, I wouldn't leave your current fill in for 10k, because it's probably filled with gunk or whatever from cleaning so well. Do it next time.
 
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted By: Thermo1223
Unless you do a UOA you'll never know the truth so leave it in and sample.

Arco's example doesn't mean much since no oil can cause or cure piston slap.
Of course! that's why when I changed the oil (with NO OTHER VARIABLE CHANGES) out the excessive noise "evaporated". Explain.


No other variables changed? How did you keep the ambient air temperature the same all year long? How did you keep the fuel in the gas tank at the same volume?

Just because you didn't change the variables, doesn't mean they weren't changed.
 
Originally Posted By: Ram01
Yea because you are using a very cheap OEM mopar bull [censored] filter. thats why your oil is dark


I am pretty sure they are made by Wix, so they can't be that bad.
 
Originally Posted By: MrBiglund
Originally Posted By: Ram01
Yea because you are using a very cheap OEM mopar bull [censored] filter. thats why your oil is dark


I am pretty sure they are made by Wix, so they can't be that bad.


Should be Purolator.
 
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