How dark do you let your oil get before changing?

How dark do you let your oil get before changing?

How dark is too dark?

Every 7,000 miles

I change every 12000km.

It gets dark within 3000km, but my engine runs beautifully. I have a small oil leak so I put in 2 quarters of topup over that 12000km so it is getting fresh oil anyway.

LPG car's oil never goes dark. Diesel car's oil goes black in 5 minutes. Do it when your service schedule says you should

On gasoline cars it's the detergents that turn black as a general indicator when they're used up. Diesel gets soot and other crap in their oil.

30k miles whether it needs it or not

Color is not indicative of condition. Go by the mileage.

I try to change it every 3k in my cars but ill let it go up to 5500 or so if im not feeling like changing it. The couple of times ive ran synthetic I changed it after 5-6k
My bike I change every spring. Which ends up being every 1k or so miles. But I hit the 14,000rpm redline often in it so I feel like clean oil is extra important
Its almost always dark brown no matter when I change it. Also keep in mind if you let your car idle for long periods of time you should change it earlier than the recommended milage

I go by smell and time, because my odometer doesn't work.

Will usually change it every 6-10 months

Heat makes oil go dark. You can freshly change your oil, go hard for 10mi and have dark oil.

I actually don't need to change my oil. It leaks 1 quart per month, so if I just top it off once a week, it's like the oil changes itself every 3 months.

Congratulations, you're retarded.

>I actually don't need to change my oil. It leaks 1 quart per month, so if I just top it off once a week, it's like the oil changes itself every 3 months.

You still have to change your oil despite the leak. That is because you have to remove the OIL FILTER before its blow-by feature is triggered. When you remove your oil filter, all the oil is going to come gushing out anyways.

Now, don't tell me you haven't bothered changing your oil filter in years??

Yeah this.
Synthetic. If I haven't driven 7k miles its every 6 months.
But I have an exploder with 270k miles on it so I'm not too worried about going too long.

>30k
Wew lad

Like... A little tiny bit of oil will come out compared to how much an average car takes. That is unless you like the challenge of replacing your oil filter when the car is running, spewing hot oil everywhere as you try to cram the new filter in place before the engine seizes.

why does oil in diesel cars turn black right away?

>tfw I didn't do an oil change for around 50,000 miles
It was black, but still flowed nice out the plug hole, didn't really look all too bad. The only real issue is the lack of cleaning detergent for 40k or so.

2200sfi stronk

It does in all cars.

Oh, my truck is carbureted, so it doesn't need an oil filter.

About halfway between Obama and Michael Brown, I don't want my engine to stop working.

You guys remember in gt3 a-spec how when doing an oil change, the new oil was green colored?

Is there oil like that?

Like this guys

in diesel cars i've owned it turned black in a couple of minutes.
in petrol cars it stayed clear for months

No it doesn't. Change your oil more often and with quality oil from now on.

>Oh, my truck is carbureted, so it doesn't need an oil filter.

Veeky Forums, what is the difference between store brand cheapo oil and name brand shit? same with oil filters. I've used expensive and cheap shit. Not really sure if I'm making a difference.

Figured I'd ask in this thread instead of posting a new one.

fucking stupid

>Is there oil like that?
Various coloured oils are in the oil discussion thread at Just read down a ways in the thread and you'll see the pictures of various coloured motor oils. There is a dark green motor oil.

Oil is oil, except for conventional vs synthetic vs synthetic blend (and viscosity) but don't cheap out on filters.

This guy knows absolutely nothing, feel free to act as if he hadn't posted.

>what is the difference between store brand cheapo oil and name brand shit? same with oil filters. I've used expensive and cheap shit.

The oil discussion thread has a URL to a database of test results on various oils (both dinosaur and synthetic). Go to

i use royal purple and change it about every 12k miles or 1-1 1/2 years if i dont make the mileage

my car doesnt burn a drop of oil though and it stays that rich purple color until about 10k when it starts to get darker and darker

even when i do change it you can still tell it's purple. love this stuff.

>I spend more money than I have to because I think it's better for my car when it really makes no difference
At least you're not a stancefag, I guess.

>I spend more money than I have to because I think it's better for my car when it really makes no difference

All oils are different. Different additives will do different things for your engine.

Saying all oil is equal is worse than stancefags because even they know that all oil is not the same.

But good luck with your rings and bearings when your car approaches high mileage.

You don't even seem to grasp the concept of a Base, I'm not sure you should be left in charge of Wat oil is gud

My F150 is at 360000 miles, 220000 of which are mine, and I've used nothing but Motorcraft conventional every 5000 miles. The compression is still great and it barely consumes any oil.

Enjoy your fancy oil, faggots.

And yes, it's the original engine.

Mileage is not indicative of condition. Consider your driving habits.

I change it whenever the engine starts sounding weird/feeling sluggish, so it varies.

I change both engine oil and transmission oil every month

>autism

It'll get dark quickly anyway. Means very little.
Change once a year, that's more important.

>original equipment
>frequent changes
Well done? Despite knowing nothing, you did gud.

What's autistic about that?

An oil change for my car costs $100 to DIY. Car says to do it every 15k but considering the use I do it every ~7500 miles

>How dark do you let your oil get before changing?

It's not darkness. There are two different criteria based upon that car's usage situation. First, mileage is a reasonable and proven approach if the car is not one of those leaky piston ring smokers. That means you can go up to 5K miles or so with good full synthetic because there is enough additive package in it to not be used up unless you have leaky rings. The main thing is TBN (total base number) which is used up in order to keep the oil from becoming acidic. If you drive the car normally with a mix of 20 minute or longer trips mixed with shorter ones, then you can go by mileage. That's because the long trips heat the oil up for a long enough period of time to boil off both the water and volatiles that dilute the oil.

If you just take a lot of short trips and don't drive the car that much, then you should change the oil once per year regardless of mineral or synthetic. That's because you aren't getting the oil hot enough for a long period of time to boil off the stuff that dilutes the oil. Thus, your oil is getting more and more dilute and acidic over time. By changing it once per year, you put a stop to the dilution problem.

Pictured is dark green japanese motor oil with MSRP 2625 yen per liter.

>dark

i go 8000 miles on synthetic, then it's time to switch

the very moment it changes color I start worrying. the moment my oil bypass activates or the oil pressure guage starts moving when not under boost.
after 3000km, a diesels oil will never not be black

it's acidity that turns gas engine oil black. it can still be perfectly fine if black. a car with a fuel problem or leaking piston rings will turn its oil black quickly and the oil will still work. I run the dipstick along a white piece of paper and inspect for particles.

oil isnt just oil. it has additives. friction modifiers, corrosion inhibitors, stabilizers.

Oil in diesels goes black in the same day you change it.

that's what I said. they're sooty little fuckers. sorry about not not using double negatives i realize some people dont not find them hard to understand.

>oil is black
>own diesel
>friends
>mechanics
>omg user your engine is broken the oil isnt meant to turn black like that
>it's a diesel
>no user it means its broken

>Every month
You're gonna be like one of those old neurotic people who vacuum their lawns

I simply care about my car.

>transmission oil
>every month
even abusing the shit out of your car, changing transmission oil more than once every 5 years is pretty over the top

At least i don't flush it every month

For oil, there's going to be a price difference between straight mineral, semi-synthetic, and full synthetic, and the additives put in them that helps with longevity, keeping your engine clean, protecting against wear, etc.

Oil filters will mostly be based around how fine the filter paper is, and whether it has fancy stuff like anti-drainback valves or not.

Once every two months

>not changing your oil every week

>$100 to DIY
How is it that much?

>dark
Not an indication of wear at all.

Every 5,000kms or 3 months due to the boost i'm running. In normal pleb shit i use synth and just do 15,000kms or 6 months.

You're a fucking retard.

Try running generic cheap shit oil in a brand new s-class and see how far you get. WHEN it explodes, mercedes will laugh in your fucking face.

Yeah, bullshit. Ask anybody who has actually done track time, the gearbox is the single most fragile part of the car and the oil gets changed absolutely religiously.
It should be done once every year if you do anything remotely stressful, like you do if you're on Veeky Forums.

Prabaly some yanky doodle bullshot mobile with a 15 litre sump.

Or some fancy german shite that demands some rare form of Mobil 1 that's been filtered through the knickers of a 12 year old virgin or some shit.

>tfw diesel
>tfw oil goes black within 5 miles of an oil change

3000 Miles dark

were we talking about track cars? I change my tires every hour as well.

t. formula 1 racing car driver

10K miles or one year, then take the next weekend to do it.

Still need to change the filter.

Not much, far as I can tell. Maybe better additives.
The general rule is 'does your car leak/burn oil over time'. If it does, the more it loses, the cheaper oil you use. My old car got cheapass own-brand oil because it was going to go out the exhaust or end up wherever it parked anyway. My current car maintains oil levels for months, so it gets name-brand oil.
But because I'm a cheapskate, it gets whatever name-brand is on sale.
And it's going to get the same stuff next year because I didn't know how much it took and bought two 5L bottles 'just in case' and only used one.

If user's anything like me, that covers trips to get more tools when you run into an issue.
Last time, socket wrench, ramps. It was my first time.
The next time, ramp extensions, new car because I couldn't be bothered maintaining that unreliable lump of heavy unergonomic shit any longer. Passed the new oil and filter onto the new owners as a throw-in.
This time, torx head screwdriver, and oil filter removal tool.
Next one, probably a sleeping mat to lie on to avoid bruising

One day, I'll start a maintenance procedure and NOT need new tools.

I've done that with Amsoil before. It came out lighter-colored after 30k than conventional oil after 5k miles.

I wish I could have afforded oil analysis testing to see if the oil was still good.

I put some oil on my finger and taste it, if it's salty and bitter it's not good anymore, but if it's smooth and neutral tasting it's still good

l was running low so l mixed 0w30 with 5w40. ls my car gonna die? Gonna do a swap asap l swear user

relax your car won't die
the oils should supposedly mix together ( this sometimes depends on the brand of each you use, how well they mix)
you'll just end up with a strange viscosity in the end which is some blend of the 2 that you used

I usually run it with the oil cap off so the enginebay can self-lubricate and just fill up whenever the oil lamp comes on

I have a remote dump valve in place of my drainplug so when I'm a mile before home I can hit the valve and lubricate/rust-proof the underside of the car . When I get home, just change the filter and add 5 quarts.

lel

Proof

o fuck i drive an LpG and ive just been waiting til it turns black