rzeiner

My TL has 5,500 miles on it now. At around 3,500 miles I changed the Honda OE oil which is supposedly high in molybdenum. At the time of oil change the oil was still fairly clean, it had a dark maple syrup appearance. When I changed the oil myself I used Mobil-1 5W20 with a Pure-One oil filter(good stuff). Now with half the miles on the Mobil-1 I had on my breakin oil, it is very dirty. I'm wondering if it is cleaning better than the Honda oil or is it perhaps breaking down(burning) quicker. Anyone else notice this ? My oil life is at 80% now and when I look at the dipstick I feel like it's time for a change. I think I may try some Amsoil next time around.

rzeiner

BUMP

Don't any of you service your own car ? I guess I'm more use to the responses from more serious gearheads on the SVT forums I frequent.

Hawhyen51

Okay, I remember a post by either Michael Wan or RR and the subject of "dirty" oil came up. I believe the response was "The oil is looks dirty because it's doing its job" or something to that effect. After reading that, I really wasn't to concerned about how the oil looked. FYI, I'm using the same oil/filter combo. BTW, Michael is the resident lubrication expert and RoadRage is just as knowledgeable on the subject as well as a bevy of other topics.

HiTEC

Dirty looking oil is good. That means it's doing it's job.

You can't judge oil by looking at it, you need to send it out for analysis if anything. You will never drain oil out of your car that isn't black

Brettg

I do not know why your oil would look dirty.
i changed my oil at about 2500 miles I think, and used the havoline
5w20 oil as it closely matches the initial fill oil.
The original oil did not look bad, it did not look new, but it did not look like sludge.
I then changed the oil again at 5000 miles and it looked the same.

I now have about 8000? miles on the car and the oil on the dip stick looks dirty, and the mid shows 40%.

Brett

rzeiner

I don't understand why the oil is getting dirty so fast. I use the same oil and viscosity in my supercharged cobra where it stays cleaner much longer. Needless to say my Cobra gets the tar beat out of it on every ride.

I'm a Mechanical Engineer with a Fluid Dynamics background, there are many factors that make oil discolor quickly. In a car these factors include but are not limited to temperature, blow-by due to poor compression ring seating of shear stresses due to high loads at close tolerances. I just don't understand why the Mobil-1 changed color so much faster than the breakin oil !

Brettg

Well, I know why oil gets dirty looking, I just do not know why the mobil1 would get dirtier faster than the initial fill oil.
Mobil1 is not known to cause excessive wear, it is good at removing sludge and varnish a bit in older engines, but your engine is not old.

Perhaps if you used other oil like the havoline, it would look dirty also.

Brett

Pure Adrenaline

iTrader: (2)

I've run Mobil1 ever since I got the car, and it does turn dark pretty quickly. But our resident oil guru Michael has said that color isn't a proper indicator of oil condition. So I wouldn't worry about the color change too much. If you're that worried, then send it out for an analysis.

My car has been tested for all emissions tests, compression ratio, etc., and it's perfectly fine. And that's with Mobil1, changing color quickly. So yeah, just because it gets discolored, that doesn't necessarily mean it's not able to do its job anymore, I guess.

Send a PM to "Michael Wan" because he knows a lot about oil stuff.

HiTEC

One of the things oil is supposed to do is collect contaminants from the engine. Hence it gets dark when it's doing it's job.

Oswald Vater

Your Mobil 1 oil probably got dirtier quicker not because there was anything wrong with it but because you didn't get all the old oil out to begin with. Gravity discharge can only do so much. No doubt some oil will get left behind in the upper engine as well as in the nooks and crannies of the pan. It then circulates with the new oil making it look dirtier quicker. Just my 02.

MichaelBenz

iTrader: (2)

BTW folks...stock honda oil is Mobil oil. I have a parts guide that lists all that part #'s and they state on the honda oil...to order it from Mobil and it has X case minimimum or something like that. Anyway....it is Mobil in there from the get-go I think? Just has those break in additives in it.

SNS Performance

Why not send it out for a UOA if you're really concerned.

honda nut

iTrader: (1)

A salesman for lubemaster told me honda treats there engines with moly during assembly, if this is true, it explaines why we see it in the oil anaylisis.

Brettg

I changed my oil today, I used the havoline 5w20 that is recomended, and noticed the formulation has changed, along with the rating, its now SM.
The old havoline was darker out of the bottle, the new stuff is more clear.

They likely took some good additives out...

Brett