black oil on dipstick confusion

[wemay]

•The old adage is change when the oil is black on dipstick.

•The new view is that this means very little other than the oil is doing its job.

Confusion - If the oil is already black, doesn't it mean that the undesirable particles are already suspended in the oil and the oils job is done? Hence the old adage being true?

 

[tig1]

Even with 10K OCIs my oil never gets black.

 

[threeputtpar]

Not always. An oil will also darken when it is exposed to heat and the indgredients become activated. QSUD used to advertise this to a point, but never came out and said that activation would darken the oil.

 

[Swift101]

I know what you mean wemay, I'm sure you can agree that after just 2K miles our oil looks rather dirty. Even if we use synthetic.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

My oil turns dark brown and is amber coming out. Never seen black oil on anything that has had the oil changed ... in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[KrisZ]

Black oil would worry me a bit on a gasser engine, but I never dealt with direct injection gassers. Perhaps it's normal on those engines.

 

[gregk24]

If I saw black oil I would change it. Mind you I said BLACK, not dark brown.

 

[19jacobob93]

My last drain came out almost black after being in just 2,000km (1,400mi)
That's the cleaning power of shell for ya!
The oil before it had been in for 10,000km so there was bound to be a bit of poopoo built up

 

[Ayrton]

I don't think I've ever really seen black either. My cars stay very clear close to 1000 miles then turn to yellow/orange up to about 3,000 miles. Then finally they get light brown/darker amber after that.

 

[wemay]

Originally Posted By: Swift101
I know what you mean wemay, I'm sure you can agree that after just 2K miles our oil looks rather dirty. Even if we use synthetic.


BINGO! Not that i am going to change it at such a conservative mileage but it makes you wonder, if only a little. My Santa Fe Sport 2.0T (d.i), the oil is very dark brown, approching black after about 3-4K miles. I usually change it between 3-5K miles anyway. The Infiniti never gets black, just a dark amber/brown.

 

[440Magnum]

Quote:
My oil turns dark brown and is amber coming out. Never seen black oil on anything that has had the oil changed ... in a reasonable amount of time.


Quote:
Black oil would worry me a bit on a gasser engine, but I never dealt with direct injection gassers. Perhaps it's normal on those engines


I can tell who on here didn't own cars in the carburetor and leaded gas days.

Black oil isn't bad- those tiny carbon particles are WAY smaller than anything a filter could catch, and don't interfere with the lubrication process until there are far, far more of them than it takes to simply make the oil "look" black. Diesel engines put many times more soot particles in the oil than gas engines, and soot loading CAN become a problem with extended drains on particularly sooty diesels (like the ones running high levels of EGR for NOx control). In practical terms, its never really been wise to change the oil just because its "dark" or "black" on the dipstick.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Quote:
My oil turns dark brown and is amber coming out. Never seen black oil on anything that has had the oil changed ... in a reasonable amount of time.


Quote:
Black oil would worry me a bit on a gasser engine, but I never dealt with direct injection gassers. Perhaps it's normal on those engines


I can tell who on here didn't own cars in the carburetor and leaded gas days.



Yes. And I am very thankful that I did not.

 

[Hyde244]

Old adage for old oil technology.

As oil has improved over the years, so too has the knowledge and expertise.

 

[Rand]

Depends on the engine too..

I had the 4.0 sohc "cologne"

It would blacken oil in 1000-1500 miles dirty opaque.. not quite "black"

the 2.0 duratech in my 2007 focus would still be golden at 6000miles easily.

I owned both from new.. they werent cleaning any crud out.. etc.

The fb25 in my 2011 forester.. darkens incrementally to dark brown in about 4000miles.

 

[Kuato]

Originally Posted By: wemay
•The old adage is change when the oil is black on dipstick.

•The new view is that this means very little other than the oil is doing its job.

Confusion - If the oil is already black, doesn't it mean that the undesirable particles are already suspended in the oil and the oils job is done? Hence the old adage being true?


All depends on the vehicle. Diesel? Black right away. Spotlessly clean gas engine with synthetic(nod to Tig1)? Might never get black.


The old adage has been disproven in this era of UOAs and better oil. Black might mean it's getting dirty, or is doing a great job cleaning the engine on that used vehicle you just bought, or might mean the oil is done but you can't tell without having the oil analyzed.

But as long as your engine is in good condition, and your OCI is reasonable (extended or not) IMO oil color no longer matters.

 

[Errtt]

Oil always look darker draining than on the stick.
Old days, dad would say if the oil doesn't turn black, then its not doing it cleaning job.
DD - DI, it turns dark but not black after 5k
Other two vehicles, one turns dark (not black) on 6-month OCIs.
Other, still looks like new on yearly OCI (least miles used/driven).

 

[fdcg27]

+1.
You wanna see black?
Drain the oil from a diesel MB W123.
As black as ink after 3K, with that distinctive diesel scent as well.
No gasser I've every seen makes the oil really black.
Dark brown at worst.

 

[Shannow]

My Nissan (diesel) stays see through on the dipstick for a fair part of it's 10,000km oil change...another reason for adding liquimoly.

My L67 has varnish (photos in the pic section), and I'm playing with very short OCIs (same filter) to see how I go. The oil was $3/L, which is insanely cheap for Oz.

Stays clean for 700km, then over a couple days commute goes very dark...drained oil is so dark you can't see the sun through an inch tube full of it....just playing at varnish removal, it's at that point that I feel (don't know) that it's lifted it's fill of varnish. The point IS getting longer.

 

[yvon_la]

The trucking industry made a research (beats me if it was oil filter maker or trucking tho)about particulate size and according to them,if the filter cant trap visible particulate,those visible particulate are hurtfull for the engine.my own experience?i had more engine problem because of computer wire being improperly fixed and wrong coolant then because of oil particulate size.why the coolant?on the coolant front particulate did mather .we used to have silicate (pretty much sand)and that sand was literally grinding everything it could .so you ended up with sleeve with hole in them or engine block problem.no silicate fixed the issue.oil parriculate wont be an issue very long i suspect,we ll probably move to graphene instead of todays zinc,calcium,phosphore,magnesium .molybden combo

 

[Merkava_4]

I can't deal with no black oil, not even in my lawn mower.