Colour of Oil

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AIJ615AJ

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Last week i made the big jump and traded my Freelander TD4 for a 52 Disco TD5.

Although the Disco has a full Service History it has done 3000 miles in the last 18 months and i thought i would have a look at the oil levels.

When i checked the dipstick the oil was a light brown colour (am i right in thinking a light brown colour is better than a jet black colour.)

Any advise on this please....

AJ
 
Just to be sure I put this question to my girlfriend that knows nothing about cars apart from that they take her shopping, she answered thus............

Its the chip pan theory............ new oil is an amber brown, if it's black change it!

Hope that helps. ;-)
 
I use to run on minerial oil that went blackish after 1000 miles, oils companies say that's ok it shows it's working.
Now I use fully synthetic that stays light brown for the 6000 miles till I change the oil I believe it would still be ok up to 12000 miles (the the oil companies mileage guide for synthetic oil). This is for a petrol engine which is cleaner than a diesel.
 
I've never owned a derv that left the oil any shade of brown for more than a few hundred miles.. the black color is I believe casued by carbon from the combustion being cleaned off ur injun into the oil - one of it's jobs... there's less carbon left behind when petrol burns so you don't get the same color change... light brown oil after 3k miles seems damn good to me.. but p'raps modern oil burners is diffrent... mine have all been old uns
 
mjltigger said:
I've never owned a derv that left the oil any shade of brown for more than a few hundred miles.. the black color is I believe casued by carbon from the combustion being cleaned off ur injun into the oil - one of it's jobs... there's less carbon left behind when petrol burns so you don't get the same color change... light brown oil after 3k miles seems damn good to me.. but p'raps modern oil burners is diffrent... mine have all been old uns
Click to expand...

The combustion of the TD5 engines, Disco especially, is so good that very little soot makes it into the oil.

The black soot is not harmful and you can ignore it as long as you change the oil once in a while.

What is much more harmful is WATER. like condensation from too much short runs. Water makes acids that eat up your bearings fast.

CharlesY
 
AIJ615AJ said:
Last week i made the big jump and traded my Freelander TD4 for a 52 Disco TD5.

Although the Disco has a full Service History it has done 3000 miles in the last 18 months and i thought i would have a look at the oil levels.

When i checked the dipstick the oil was a light brown colour (am i right in thinking a light brown colour is better than a jet black colour.)

Any advise on this please....

AJ
Click to expand...


If you want any machine to operate to it's optimum it's need regular quality lubrication.

In the context of you TD5 that means, imo, oil changes every 6000mls and or 6 months. Change the filters at the same time.

I've seen lots of information about how oil drades over time and even fully synth is past it's best after 6000mls. Oil changes are easy, cheap and quick to do, so why not do them regularly?
 
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