Toyota 3MZ-FE Oil has a red hue. Any ideas?

[Randy]

Hi everyone - I purchased a used Toyota Highlander (2007 V6 VVTi 3.3l) with 147,000mi last summer. Had it checked out by my mechanic before buying and he gave a thumbs up. It was a Toyota dealer trade in and I found info about the prior owner in the glove box. Looks like she's a married 50-ish nurse and apparently they traded in for a new Highlander. There were service records in the glove box and she was getting it serviced regularly at a local shop. Lots of oil change receipts, timing belt, serpentine, you get the picture. First thing I did was change the oil and filter. For many years now I have been running Rotella T6 in all my vehicles with great results, and used it in this case with a Motorcraft FL-910. My usual change interval is 5000mi. It's not burning any oil over the interval, nor is the coolant level dropping or changing.

Today, since we're now at 157K I changed the oil for the second time. As it was coming out it looked reddish. Wasn't expecting that at all and wasn't planning or prepared to catch some for an OA. The interesting thing is that when wiping around after the change, and wiping down the catch pan with paper towels after the color looked as expected: just slightly dirty oil. I only noticed the reddish color while it was draining and collecting in the pan in the sun. My first thought was maybe someone had run transmission fluid in it at some point to 'clean the engine' and this was just some residual stuff? Doesn't seem likely since this is my second change, but ??

Any ideas? Is oil sometimes phosphorescent like that making it look red? I've never seen it before that I can remember.

 

[Garak]

There is always the issue of the light you may have been under. Aside from that, varnish being dissolved?

 

[Randy]

You know, I had not even considered dissolved varnish. That might make sense, and varnish does look kind of red. Assuming all the prior services were done with bulk oil maybe the T6 is cleaning that out and that's what I saw? I do remember the filter I took off the first oil change was completely generic. On a side note, when I was at Walmart buying the oil I saw they sell actual OEM Toyota filters there now. That's what I used this time around.

 

[Garak]

Anything is possible. Good service records usually mean good service, but you never know. What were the intervals like? If a dealer is using generic filters, one never knows about the rest of the service. Was the oil always really changed? Was it the proper oil? All these things worry me about someone else doing the oil change.

Crimony, getting an oil changed at the dealer, the very least I'd expect, no matter what, is an actual OEM filter and bulk from one of the majors or the OEM branded oil, in the proper specification, of course.

 

[Randy]

It doesn't look like they got services done at the dealer. The receipts were from a local shop that also did other work on the car over the years so who knows what they were putting in or what filters they were using. The good news is it runs awesome and is in really great shape so there's that. I'll pay extra close attention next change and see if I still see the red tinge. But the more I think about it, if it's been running on conventional for 147K miles the switch to the T6 may be cleaning stuff out and that's what I saw.

 

[Garak]

Ahh, I understand. Just do what you're doing, which was the right thing, be it varnish or ATF.

Now, I had the experience of ATF being used in a MB power steering system, and that hasn't gone well.

 

[bbhero]

Likely varnish...

I had this happen with my lady's 98 Camry 2.2 .. while adding fresh oil. When I checked the level after adding 3.5 qts of Motorcraft 5w30 the oil had a very reddish color to it... Drove the car around the neighborhood... Rechecked it and it was normal translucent brown color.

 

[Trav]

+1 On it being most likely dissolved varnish, seen it many times.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Just had a long thread on this. I have been seeing this for years now. Surprised me the first time I saw it.