Stinky Used Oil - 2011 Hyundai Oil Change

[Carlostrece]

Havoline stinks to me.

True. I do remember Texaxo Havoline being stinky when I tried it years ago.

I wonder if that's because Texas crude is literally crude as in it has lots of sulfur in it.

Pennsylvania and Kentucky crude are naturally cleaner and don't have sulfur in them, which is why they have the best crude in the world. This was traditionally an advantage that Pennzoil, Quaker State, Kendall, Brad Penn, and Valvoline had.

I'm not sure how much that applies today with so many oils being group 3 or full syn. I suspect it might still apply somewhat to group 3 oils. It is defineately a factor with group 2 oils.

 

[chris719]

40 weight oil is a bit too thick for that engine

I'm not recommending it, since it's overkill, but it's not too thick.

 

[Carlostrece]

I'm slightly a thickie, but only in a conservative way. I'm planning to step up the Hyundai from an unknown brand of 5w20 to a thick (for American oil) 5w30. I think that will be a good, yet conservative, increase in viscosity.

 

[dubber09]

That engine will like 0w-30, 5w-30 or 10w-30 oil. My line of thought was to help with engine clean up thus was suggesting VRP.
Just looking under oil filler cap should give general idea on how dirty the engine is on inside. Copy receipts for oil and filter purchases and give the copy (on one page) to the lady with manually written down date and mileage of oil change service and what else you did. A windshield sticker with at least month/year and mileage (I always round it to nearest 100km or miles) for next service would be great.

 

[50yr Street Mech]

Not enough OCI's. Clean that piggy up. If the lady is too cheap to clean it up, not you're problem. you tried. Let her go buy a new car. Who cares.

 

[3GTL300k]

VRP is often $29 at mist Walmart. At the one near me, I was able to get the VRP 0W-20 on clearance for $20 recently. It wasn't selling well at that store. QS is always significantly cheaper.

This and there's a $5 Valvoline rebate for up to 6 five gallon jugs till the end of the month (and have to submit by the end of August). The rebate started last year. I'm going to buy two more jugs of VRP before the end of the month. Their rebate procedure is great. Text them the receipt after you sign up and you get the money in Paypal a day or two later.

 

[Gasbuggy]

Worst smelling oils to me have always come from engines that overheated

 

[Carlostrece]

Not enough OCI's. Clean that piggy up. If the lady is too cheap to clean it up, not you're problem. you tried. Let her go buy a new car. Who cares.

She's defineately too cheap combined with ignorance of car maintenance. She already thinks I'm OCD because I want to change her oil again in June 2026, which will be 1 year and around 3500 miles. This makes me wonder what her OCI has been. I'm guessing 3+ years. Maybe 4 or 5 years.

Her car is parked outside in the cold and wet. She does entirely short hop city driving. So a 3+ years OCI is horrendous for her. She only wants to do OCI by mileage and she's not taking into account the factors I mentioned.

By contrast... My 3 year OCI has been working well for my Buick, but my Buick is parked in a heated garage and only drives 400 miles a year, and that includes one 35 min highway drive per month. My oil still looks almost new at 3 years, and my oil doesn't smell.

I'm not going to go to extra efforts to clean her engine. She wouldn't appreciate it and would just think I'm an OCD nuisance. What I will do is get her on a better OCI and use good enough oil and best filter. That's what I'm willing to do. Keep in mind that I'm providing the labor and paying for supplies. I want to be helpful, but kindness has its limits.

 

[Carlostrece]

This and there's a $5 Valvoline rebate for up to 6 five gallon jugs till the end of the month (and have to submit by the end of August). The rebate started last year. I'm going to buy two more jugs of VRP before the end of the month. Their rebate procedure is great. Text them the receipt after you sign up and you get the money in Paypal a day or two later.

That's great info to know if I ever decide to buy VRP. Thanks!

 

[Carlostrece]

I've noticed at BITOG there are folks who want to do the best possible maintenance to the extreme, even to the point diminishing returns on investment. Then you've got folks who want to do adequate maintenance for lowest possible cost.

I'm in between those for my car. For her car, I'm going for adequate at low cost, which will be an improvement for her at no cost to her. Cause without me her car was headed for an early grave.

 

[50yr Street Mech]

WHAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You need a check up from the neck up my friend !! YOU'RE PAYING FOR THE SUPPLIES AND FREE LABOR ( or am I missing something here ) FRIG HER !!!!! Tell her to get a shopping cart wagon with those 2 big back wheels on them and WALK !!!!!!! She doesn't deserve you're kindness !!!!!!!!!!!! Let the engine blow right in her driveway and spill oil all over the place, on her property !

 

[Carlostrece]

WHAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You need a check up from the neck up my friend !! YOU'RE PAYING FOR THE SUPPLIES AND FREE LABOR ( or am I missing something here ) FRIG HER !!!!! Tell her to get a shopping cart wagon with those 2 big back wheels on them and WALK !!!!!!! She doesn't deserve you're kindness !!!!!!!!!!!! Let the engine blow right in her driveway and spill oil all over the place, on her property !

She's not knowledgable about car maintenance, but she's a good neighbor who helps me in many ways. I'm severely handicapped. So I often need help.

She's worth the help I provide her, but I'm going to limit it to minimum necessary/adequate car maintenance, which is more than her car would get without me.

Cleaning her filthy engine? It needs it, but I'm not going to. Providing an adequate OCI is as much as I'm willing to do, which will be a big improvement.

 

[Speedbird001]

Sounds like a very good reason to get a used oil analysis

Lots of good guess' here... Only solution I could speculate is this Fuel Fragrance Additive

 

[50yr Street Mech]

Ok. sorry for blowin up. Didn't know she helps you out and that you're severely handicapped. This is a whole nother ball of wax now. Just do what you can to help with the OCI situation. Maybe there's something in the owner's manual that says " Oil change with filter X miles or X months, whichever comes first" You could show her that ? But, don't make yourself nuts over this.

 

[Carlostrece]

Ok. sorry for blowin up. Didn't know she helps you out and that you're severely handicapped. This is a whole nother ball of wax now. Just do what you can to help with the OCI situation. Maybe there's something in the owner's manual that says " Oil change with filter X miles or X months, whichever comes first" You could show her that ? But, don't make yourself nuts over this.

It's OK. You couldn't have known the situation.

I'm not going to let it make me crazy, but it bothers me enough that a nagging voice in my head wants me to clean it up some. At least by changing oil early for one OCI. Ideally I'd like to change it again at 500 miles, then every 3500 miles thereafter, which would be annually. However, I don't think she'd even let me change it early. She was already shocked that I want to change it annually, which she thinks is unnecessary. However, the black watery viscosity and super stinky used oil was screaming to be changed more often than the every few years she was having it done.

It's not only a question of how much I'm willing to spend, but also how much cooperation I can get from her. She already thinks I'm OCD about car maintenance, when in reality I'm trying to do the bare minimum needed.

 

[shurguywutt]

You could have let her sniff a sample of her oil and then let her sniff the oil from your Buick and notice the difference. In my experience, women are more convinced by this kind of example, HA

 

[50yr Street Mech]

You can't change her. She seems too stubborn. Just sway her the best you can being that she helps you.

 

[ATex7239]

We have a high milage Hyundai Elantra 1.8L in the stable. The oil doesn’t really seem to get dark or stinky quickly but we do seasonal changes with store brands due to short trips. Currently using Supetech 5w-30 full synthetic.

 

[Carlostrece]

You could have let her sniff a sample of her oil and then let her sniff the oil from your Buick and notice the difference. In my experience, women are more convinced by this kind of example, HA

You're probably correct. I didn't think of that.

However, we changed the 2 cars a month apart. So it would have been an added nuisance to store used oil from my Buick to do a side-by-side sniff test a month later. Next year (next oil change) I'm going to follow your advice if it's stinky again. Sniff it!!! Smell that? Let that be a lesson to you!

I will note that at least her Hyundai oil level was good before (and after) we changed it. So at least she didn't let it get low on oil.

My other neighbor lady (who also helps me) has a 03 Honda CR-V. My cousin and I changed her oil too. Her oil was 2 quarts low in an engine that only has 4.5 quarts capacity! There was no oil showing on the dipstick! Her remaining oil was filthy (but not stinky) when we drained it. The Honda was driving around without enough oil for an unknown amount of time. I estimate at least a year.

Yet somehow the Hyundai and Honda still run great. Japanese cars seem to have a high tolerance for neglect. Same with Jeep 4L.

When I was a kid, my mom drove a 79 Mazda GLC 30K miles on the original factory fill motor oil and filter. She also let it get severely low on oil a few times too. By that time I was 12 years old and I started changing her oil every 10K miles using Pennzoil yellow bottle and the cheapest non Fram filter I could get. I should have changed it more often, but I was an untrained, unsupervised kid. Her car lasted 12 years, 120K miles. It wasn't the motor oil practices that finally killed it. It was never changing the coolant and never changing nor topping off the manual transmission that finally euthanized it.

 

[Carlostrece]

I come from a family that did no car maintenance ever, except for the oil changes I did for my mom and dad once a year, which was 10K miles on 1980s Pennzoil yellow bottle. I had to walk home with my mom on a couple of occasions. My dad was worse because he'd sit in his car and steer while I (was required to) push his mid 80s Old Cutlass car home. A midsize Olds Cutless is a lot harder for a kid to push than a light weight Mazda GLC. Especially with a 265 lbs man sitting in it.

My cousin and I are the only people in our families who care about car maintenance. His dad was even worse than mine. My cousin and I are self taught along with reading maintenance manuals back in the day. The only things our dad's taught us about cars was teaching by example what not to do. There was no Internet back then. There was maintenance manual (if you could afford one) and the guy at the local auto store. If you were lucky, maybe a kindly old man neighbor who'd teach you a few things.