Changed oil in taurus: Old valvoline is orange-red color!

[speedygonzalez]

I just changed the oil in my wife's car: 2001 Ford Taurus. The old oil had an orange/red tint to it, which I have never seen before when chagning oil in any car. The oil was fairly clean looking, I mean not really dark. Another weird thing is in the plastic oil drain pain: I saw this grey crap, it kinda looked like a small worm or a slug. It was kinda like soft charcoal, when I touched it in my hand. Soft sludge?

It had Valvoline 5W20 in it for about 6-8 mths. Not sure how many miles. This car gets alot of short trips though; wife drives it 6 miles to work each way. Is that not long enough to get the water/moisture out?

It does get occasional highway runs, but it probably should get more, it doesn't get them very frequently; about once a month.

I'm probably going to switch to Motorcraft 5W20 at the next interval, and I will do it in 3 months, because of the short trips. This engine is nice and tight, dooes not use, burn or leak oil. It is the Vulcan engine, and has about 92K on it.

Well I have notice people here don't think too highly of valvoline. But what I like about Valvoline is that it is more clear-looking when you pour it in, not dark in color. It makes it easier to gauge the oil as far as how dirty it is getting over time.

Any thoughts or comments on the orange/red tint, or the little slug I found?

 

[bighead]

No, 6 miles is barely enough to get the water temp up, let alone the oil temp. I think it's more in the area of 15-20 miles for the oil to get hot enough to burn the moisture out. You're doing the right thing by changing it @ 3 months, because, while oil being dark means (almost) nothing, it being a weird color is not a very good thing to see. Unless of course it's an odd color to begin with (RP, Redline, etc), but even still, not too sure if they stay their original color (GC doesn't).

You might wanna do an Auto-Rx treatment on it, just to be safe. Are you the original owner or is this a recent used car purchase? If the latter is the case then without a doubt do an A-Rx clean/rinse....

 

[speedygonzalez]

I've had it about a year.

It just had a slight tint to it that is kind of reddish-orange. It's not dark like tranny fluid.

In fact I didn't notice it being that color on the dipstick, it was only really noticeable in the volume you see when it's draining.

That little grey turd in the oil drain pan was kinda wierd also. About 1.5 inches long, 1 cm wide.

Yeah I might do the Auto RX, or maybe just a half can of seafoam, then drain on the next OC.

 

[Dagwood]

It might be worth sending a samle away for an oil analysis. Maybe some contamination from antifreeze? Hard to tell. You might have a bad head gasket.

 

[hominid7]

8 months of short-trip driving with unknown miles is just too much for almost any oil.

If it were my car, i'd change this next oil out at 1000 miles, then go to a 4 month 4000 mile interval.

 

[speedygonzalez]

By the way, by unknown, I mean I am the one that changed it last, but did not log the miles. Probably about 6K miles or less.

I guess I should start logging the miles, huh? Sure wouldn't hurt!

Well seeing how she only drives about 12 miles a day...it's pretty low miles but alot of short trips.

I still have the old oil too.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Why are using 5W-20 in that 2001 engine? Use 5W-30 & get a UOA. You may have either a coolant leak or alot of moisture from not getting it hot with such short trips.

 

[ewetho]

Just the sun light showing through it. See it all the time when changing oil if it has not gone JET BLACK. With sunlight in the background perfectly normal. Seen it in Motorcraft, Castrol GTX, Syntec, Valvoline, Mobil 7500, Mobil1, Do I dare go on. If I don't see it then they went long time on oil change(or changed at 1000 miles youe tell me what I see more).

No worries.

 

[vronline]

I have a 2001 Taurus as well, and Ford calls for 5W-20.

 

[speedygonzalez]

Yeah I went and looked at the old oil again; this time it was cold, and it looked darker (more normalish). When I changed it, the oil was hot and the sunlight shined thru it more, making it more orange looking I suppose.

I did notice my old oil rags had a reddish-brownish tint to them.

I'm not as worried about it now.

I wonder what that stuff was in the drain pan, but I have a feeling going to a 4 month OCI will be better for this car because of the short trips.

And it will be Motorcraft 5W20, and the filter as well.

 

[bighead]

quote:

---

Originally posted by speedygonzalez:
I wonder what that stuff was in the drain pan, but I have a feeling going to a 4 month OCI will be better for this car because of the short trips.

And it will be Motorcraft 5W20, and the filter as well.

---

Good choice

 

[Ray H]

While the old oil is probably contaminated with additional dust crud sitting in an open drain pan, it might not be a bad idea to send a sample to blackstone with a notation to rule out glycol. Though that orange-reddish coloration may only be a streaming light anomaly as others suggested, it can't be completely ruled out yet as something more serious, either.

 

[hominid7]

Ford Taurus just named the LEAST likely vehicle to get stolen

As for the possibility of Coolant contamination, unless you are a) using a red dexcool product and b) seeing the coolant level drop quite a bit, i wouldn't worry too much about it.

I changed the oil one time in my mazda and the oil coming out had an odd look to it, but i knew what it was. Moisture from tons of cold starts, short trips and winter weather. It was a semi-milky orange appearance. No coolant loss at all however.

A 'friend' of mine has an older Taurus down in Hot-Steamy Austin and they put 5w20 in at the dealer. So far no problems.