OK, so I did make a partial mistake in putting a low-SAPS oil in my Forester, but hey. I like experimentation at least as much as the next guy. This replaced a fill of Harvest King 5W30 about 550 miles ago.
Startup- just as good as it has always been; my car has some slight piston slap until it is warmed up. This is no better nor worse than any other oil I've tried.
Operating- again, no real change here. Quiet and smooth, and thanks to the boxer 4 unless the windows are open you can barely hear the gentle idle.
Consumption- filled right to the little notch in the dipstick just over the F mark. Still right at the notch.
Cleaning- here's where it gets interesting. Like I said, this has only been in for around 550 miles including a nearly 300-mile day this past Friday. I checked the oil early in the day after about 20 miles in while I filled up, and the oil was still the very light amber that Pennzoil PurePlus typically is. So imagine my surprise when, 250 miles later when I was topping off the tank again, the color had changed significantly! It's now, after only about 550 miles total, the same color brown that my Fusion's PUP is after 15k+ miles.
Now, I know that color does not affect the performance of the oil; that's not my question. Do you think it is possible that there was really that much cleaning going on following up several OCI of RT6, one of Mobil1 0w40, and the barely 3k OCI with Harvest King (Dexos1 certified)? Or is this one of the side effects of running an ACEA C3 oil in a gasoline engine?
Startup- just as good as it has always been; my car has some slight piston slap until it is warmed up. This is no better nor worse than any other oil I've tried.
Operating- again, no real change here. Quiet and smooth, and thanks to the boxer 4 unless the windows are open you can barely hear the gentle idle.
Consumption- filled right to the little notch in the dipstick just over the F mark. Still right at the notch.
Cleaning- here's where it gets interesting. Like I said, this has only been in for around 550 miles including a nearly 300-mile day this past Friday. I checked the oil early in the day after about 20 miles in while I filled up, and the oil was still the very light amber that Pennzoil PurePlus typically is. So imagine my surprise when, 250 miles later when I was topping off the tank again, the color had changed significantly! It's now, after only about 550 miles total, the same color brown that my Fusion's PUP is after 15k+ miles.
Now, I know that color does not affect the performance of the oil; that's not my question. Do you think it is possible that there was really that much cleaning going on following up several OCI of RT6, one of Mobil1 0w40, and the barely 3k OCI with Harvest King (Dexos1 certified)? Or is this one of the side effects of running an ACEA C3 oil in a gasoline engine?