I've been playing with diesel oil lately and noticed its a few shades darker vs car oil. Could be bias. Also playing with hydraulic oil, and its shades lighter vs car oil. Resisted a taste test but only barely.
Oil Color
- Thread starter Propflux01
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The 2.5 gallons of Traveller CJ 15w40 oil was deep amber color. The 3 vehicles I put in, no issues
Diesel oil color doesn't really matter. It's black as soon as It gets past the oil fill cap.
53 stude I forgot to mention there was a few black flakes of something right at the oil level on my dipstick that appeared and then disappeared right when the Quaker State oil stopped getting darker. Piston deposits maybe
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I’ll disagree on diesel oil color. Lately Delo 10w30 we use at work is light color. Put in the gf’s best friends Subaru; went 4k and wasn’t bad.Diesel oil color doesn't really matter. It's black as soon as It gets past the oil fill cap.
53 stude I forgot to mention there was a few black flakes of something right at the oil level on my dipstick that appeared and then disappeared right when the oil stopped getting darker. Piston deposits maybe
In a diesel engine yes it’s black instantly. I used some delo 15w40 in my 09’ Camry and it made the dipstick black with black flecks. Then went to rotella T5 10w30 and slowed down
Is there any proof of that ?
Aside from the observation that stinky decaying corpses don’t appear to be having a great time ?
Z
Yeah….
I stopped using QS in the late 90s when they had the clear bottles and you could see significant color variations in the quart bottles on the shelf. Don't know if it would have made a difference, but it was not a good look.
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Oil comes in all colors and shades my friend! I wouldn’t worry about it as long as its not black or has any kind of weird/burnt smell
on my 22 ranger, castrol edge black bottle gets extremely dark real fast. i do a 6 month OCI w/less than 4k each time. i also do 90% short trips which is to work.
today i changed my oil filter at 2,800 miles. oil was jet black. sharpie black. perhaps the cold, turbo, longer idle times and frequent short trips just beats the oil to death and caused it to get that dark this time. the oil that came from the old filter was black, thick and didnt flow to well. i had to top off less than 1/2 qt. used QSFS for that. im assuming the castrol thats in it is still good for another 2500 or till april for my next 6mo OC.
my son has a 2020 tacoma and uses QSFS every 5-7k. his oil today has 5200 miles and is clean as a whistle. see right through it. yet mine with 2800 (castrol) looked terrible. i had a similar issue once with the new QSUP. perhaps its just an ecoboost thing. ive read they are very hard on oil and frequent OCI should be observed.
today i changed my oil filter at 2,800 miles. oil was jet black. sharpie black. perhaps the cold, turbo, longer idle times and frequent short trips just beats the oil to death and caused it to get that dark this time. the oil that came from the old filter was black, thick and didnt flow to well. i had to top off less than 1/2 qt. used QSFS for that. im assuming the castrol thats in it is still good for another 2500 or till april for my next 6mo OC.
my son has a 2020 tacoma and uses QSFS every 5-7k. his oil today has 5200 miles and is clean as a whistle. see right through it. yet mine with 2800 (castrol) looked terrible. i had a similar issue once with the new QSUP. perhaps its just an ecoboost thing. ive read they are very hard on oil and frequent OCI should be observed.
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Base oils have gotten nearly water clear.
Some of the times a dye is added to make the oil a consistent color. To hide some of the base oil and additive color inconsistencies. Make the product more uniform over all.
Industrial fluids hilariously change color load to load. For whatever reason every load of a certain major brand WayOil 68 changes color. Hydraulic oils also change color a lot too, depending on where the base oil is coming from.
4 or 6 cyl?
3.5 v6. his tacoma trd 4wd has 81k miles. my ranger has almost 15k.
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I believe oil gets darker from heat cycles too. Look at the deep fryer at a fast food joint and you’ll see that the longer the oil is in use, the darker it gets. Engine oil also gets darker over time as it’s keeping contaminants in suspension
Some oils have different additives and base oils so that explains some of it.
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