Oil color

Maintenance/Repairs
1

I know this has been gone over and over but its still a question unanswered in my pea brain

Ive been told on here that you can not tell the condition of your oil by color.
So what is going on when my oil turns dark color. It must be dirty and or breaking down (probably one in the same) Ive always changed my oil when it starts to look dirty (dark in color) this has always been around the normal mileage interval but i have never gone by mileage and have never had any problems

Anybody ??

2

It is dirty, because the various additives are suspending stuff in the oil. As long they have capacity to continue to suspend more stuff, your oil isn’t ‘breaking down’. You can read lots more here:

You’re doing OK changing it by color because it happens to pretty much match the recommended interval.

3

Any form of incomplete combustion (soot) ends up in your oil. We have 2 cars with very tight engines and even when the oil is due for a change, it still is not black. However, some of the other additives may be depleted, necessitating an oil change.

Black oil does not mean sludge. It’s carbon; of course too much of it is not good either.

So, just stick to the oil change schedule and stop worrying. Oil color in itself means little.

4

Thanks Guys

5

Although I change my oil based on time and miles if I check the oil and find the color or consistency is not as expected I change it regardless of miles and time and look for the cause of the condition.

6

There are also different kinds of oil filters. Oil in GM cars always looked dirty and Ford oil always looked cleaner. Nowadays the oil all looks kind of dirty.

7

Some of you must remember the oil weight discussion?
I dumped 0-30 in a 22re today

we will see how that goes

8

Oil color may not mean much about how well the oil is lubricating, but it’s hard to not cringe when you see oil that’s practically black. Common sense says that oil that looks that bad just can’t be as good as nice clean oil of the same weight and brand.

Despite what any oil analysis told me, I’d probably change oil that looked nasty.

9

Thats what i do. I never let it get black, only brown or dark brown.

Surely oil that looks as good or almost as good as when you put it in … must be good