I went to change my oil after 4k and the oil was pure black! I have never seen it this black before on a car---- does this mean there are problems? Anything I need to check?

 

I am running mobil one ....

 

all oil will change colors with mileage. i run mobil 1 and change at 3k.

 

Black oil means that you have some really dirty oil. You really need to change that oil sooner. Oil is a big part of the life of your engine.

 

thats completely and entirely false.

No, oil color has zero to do with the longevity of your oil. Don't worry about it, no oil only lasts 4k, much less mobil 1. You had an easy 4k more in that oil.

 

I just did my first oil change using Mobil 1 full synthetic (0w20) and it looked much darker than i had seen before (Motorcraft syn blend) at only 3,000 miles. Looking closer it appears to me that Mobil 1 is a darker color out of the bottle. I did have several Dyno runs on it however and i'm sure that is a major factor.

 

In addition to lubricating, modern high detergent oils are suppose to keep the junk in suspension so you can drain it out of the engine.

Durring operation carbon forms and gets by the rings, acids form, seals and gaskets break down and lots more.

To really tell whats going on you need to have it anylized at a lab. If you have a major oil distributor in your town like siegal they will give you a full report for about $24 including an oil sample bottle.

If you have been running dinasour oil for a few thosand miles and then switch to full synthetic you will see it darker also.

It is nothing to worry about. It is just doing its job. Even though you saw it dark in color I bet it felt realy slippery to the touch.

I always use a clean container to drain my oil into and then take it out in the bright sunshine and roll it around looking for metal particals. I leave it sit while I do some other things like replace filter and add new oil. Then poor the old oil into a 5 gallon container and take the pan back outside and look some more. Sometimes you see shiny little metal flakes and it is scarey but over time you will know what is normal and when there is a sign of trouble.

 

The Lighting is my toy. So my oil never gets beyond brown.

Rich

 

I've run mobil 1 synthetic in my work cars for the past 2 years and I only change my oil every 10K and my oil is still in good condition after all those miles.

My last grand prix I put 176,000 miles on it in 3 years and I used mobil 1 syn since day one at 10K changes and I never had one engine problem at all. Car ran great and I beat the living crap out of it!

 

I use Mobil 1. I changed my oil at 5k and sent a sample in for analysis. The oil had plenty of life left.

 

I have been running Mobil 1 and got 147k miles on my 99 Expy. I change my oil somewhere between 6k -10k miles. Oil still in good shape and I beat the crap out of my truck. I have ran 7100 miles since Jan 17 and I wasnt moving slow for the most of those miles.

 

Hate to tell you but dark oil usally means that the oil is dirty. Fresh oils is better on an engine than going over. I know oil can last longer than that 3k but its a proven fact that fresher oil is better.

 

sorry but proven facts state otherwise. Your right to a degree that dirty oil is better on an engine but dark has nothing to do with it really and is certainly no way to gauge oil.

 

I knew a guy that use to change oil filter every couple thousand miles, then he'd would just add new oil to bring it back to the proper level. He'd do an actually oil change every few 10k miles.

The engine was still kicking strong at over 160k miles on it.

Not that I would I recommend anyone does that.

 

oh yeah that works quite well actually esp with syns. I was doing that for awhile, doing filter changes at 3k and full changes at 6k with synthetics. I seem to recall there being an aritcle i read about a guy that had a tow truck that did this for 150k or so and never full changed the oil, just filter swaps and top offs.