why is this??

[mrjlube]

My father and I both have ford focus's with the 2.0 motor. I have 54,000 on mine and he has 45,000. We both change our oil at the same intervals and basically do the same type of driving(a mix of city and some highway) Today at work I changed the oil in both the cars and in mine I use mobil-1 5w20 and my father uses motorcraft 5w20! His oil is always MUCH cleaner than mine when I change it!? I can't figure out why! He laughs at me and says I'm waustung my money and pounds it in my head that he only paid $1.99/qt. What do you experts think? Would the motorcraft be a better choice? Sorry to make this so long!

Thanks, as always for your replies

 

[moribundman]

Your dad's engine is clearly not getting cleaned.

 

[LargeCarMan]

Well............U...........Know, Now you both are going to have to run them till they give up the ghost. The engine with the most miles when it dies....Wins (

))

 

[jtantare]

It seems kind of silly to use a $5 a quart oil in a Focus. But to each his own. The color of the used oil coming out of an engine really doesn't tell you anything. But if you want to prove him wrong, have an oil analysis done on both cars.

 

[J. A. Rizzo]

Buy him enough AutoRX for a clean and rinse phase, and see what the oil and filter look like after those cycles compared to yours that was run without the AutoRX. Whether or not synthetic oils or AutoRX are providing enough benefits to justify their cost is another matter entirely, but at least you'll have proven or disproven the cleanliness theory.

 

[TC8]

quote:

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Well............U...........Know, Now you both are going to have to run them till they give up the ghost. The engine with the most miles when it dies....Wins

---

Yeah, that should be the one and only rule. Don't forget to come back and update us once the contest is over.

 

[Alex P.]

I'm with jtantare. While he's right that it doesn't seem economical, color of the oil is about as useful at determining the state of the engine as the color of the paint. Red car = strong engine. Purple car = engine in need of rebuild.

Wait, I take that back. Don't want to give manufacturers any ideas on color-shifting paint... purple would force (most) any man to change his oil though!

 

[michaelc80]

As a couple of others have said oil color means little to nothing. The only way to get a good handle on what's going on is to do a UOA (if it's that important and you really want to know).

If you're using M1 why are you doing the same OCI's as someone who is using a blend? Your advantage should be in the length of time you can run that oil.

 

[-SyN-]

MrJlube: The darker oil is doing its job--->Cleaning as it goes!

With U using M1: U can extend your drain interval to at least 7 to 10K miles.

Don't waste the gold and change it every 3K.

 

[JAG]

Oils can darken simply due to being heated and the amount of color change depends partly on what basestocks are present. For example, esters can darken much more than Group 4 and below basestocks. Of course, in an engine, this effect is compounded by holding particles in suspension. The color of used oil is dependent on both of these factors and darker oil does not necessarily mean the oil is dirtier or more degraded than another that has different basestocks. Mobil 1 does darken more than some other oils when heated. Tell your father he can no longer make fun of your darker oil!

 

[T-Keith]

"! His oil is always MUCH cleaner than mine when I change it!? I can't figure out why! He laughs at me and says I'm waustung my money and pounds it in my head that he only paid $1.99/qt. "

Maybe he's on to something there.

Woudl it help if I told you I pay 49 cents a quart?

 

[Doug C]

UOA is the only way to settle this issue.

 

[turbochem]

quote:

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It seems kind of silly to use a $5 a quart oil in a Focus.

---

Luckily that sounds only slightly snobbish...

 

[Ray H]

It would've helped to know what oil change interval is involved. If it's 5,000 miles or under, it is silly to use $5.00/qt oil when 60%+ synthetic content blend for $2.00 is widely available. (of course it doesn't carry the snob appeal, though...

)

 

[LarryL]

MrJLube, you could really contribute to your/our knowledge base by doing a couple of uoa's on both cars. There is a lot of speculation about synthetic vs conventional oil and because you have two similar cars in the same location the comparison would be very interesting. Posted uoa's would draw a lot of comments that hopefully would return some value to you for your time an expenses.

 

[bruce381]

JAG is mostly right remember that diferent AO react differently and most likely that is the dif NOT cleaning ability.

I use AO that darken while you LOOK at them but they will out last anything SO colot is NOT an indication of cleaning or anything else Unless you do a TBN or full lab run up color means nothing good or bad.
bruce

 

[greg_J35]

Listen to your Father and save your money for something else.I have posted my disgust with M1 on this site many times.