Oil degradation
 

I checked my oil the other day, as anyone should do on a regular basis and found the color to be VERY dark after only 1k.

The oil smells a little like fuel, which I read was a normal trait of our engines, but should the oil appear to be in such rough shape after only 1k miles of use?

The car has 5k on the clock.
1st oil change was at 1k with mobil 1
2nd oil change was at 4k with PP, both oils being 5w30 in weight.

I have worked at Jiffy Lube for 4 years and have seen some oil in rough shape. The viscosity of the oil seems to be fine other than the dark dark color.

I seem to be rambling on, but I guess what I am getting at is... do any of you experience similar results? I feel as though changing my oil on this car at 3k intervals should be fine Im just not used to my oil looking like its ready for a change 1/3 of the way through its interval.

Any input is greatly appreciated! :fing02:

pvc system blows on this car, get the PTP pvc restrictor for $30 and it will clean up a lot of that and reduce knock also

an oil CC will help also and catch a lot of crap out that potentially could go back into your oil

haltech mentioned mazda has now recommended 5w40 so i'm switching to rotella next time. fuel dilution is a motherfucker.

Remember, you never fully drain all the oil out of your car when you change your oil, the color of the remaining oil in your oil pan will greatly affect the color of the fresh oil you just put in. I've been using Pennzoil Platinum 10w30 for the past 28,000 miles and have had great success with this oil. I've gone as far as 4K oil change and the oil looked like shit and smelled awfully bad. I suggest oil changes at 3500.

On another note, fuel dilution also depends on your driving style and driving conditions.

How much fuel dilution is there roughly over the coarse of 3k? Enough where it will cause issues? I know that anything extra in the oil is a concern but I don't want to run into problems.

excellent point. i was shocked at how much oil was left in the pan when i did my bsd.

its very normal. I've run my oil up to 6k miles and yeah it looks extra dark, but the Blackstone guys say its fine.

http://members.cox.net/shpankey/MS3_OIL_OTHER.JPG

i think our engine just beats the piss out of oil...

my oil gets black quickly too.
i need to change my oil now. ugh.

this car runs very dirty. Check the uoa's, even with the horrible color and smell you can go from 4-6k between changes safely. Change over to 5w40 as well. Rotella and PP seem to be the most popular.

Its wise to switch to 5w40 even though I'm not having smoking issues? Its not just a band-aid?

I've ran PP 5w30 since the first oil change. Now sitting at 43,500 miles I've never had any smoking issues, granted I don't have a downpipe or test pipe so the cats could be "masking" the smoking.

The oil being black at 1k miles doesn't mean you need an oil change. That's a myth. The oil is black because the detergents in the oil are doing their job; to clean and protect the engine. UOAs have shown is safe to run PP over 5k miles.

so black and stinky is okay?

no its not just a bandaid, its good oil for this car and several of us have had our oil tested with great results. my last test of my rotella 5w40 said i could go 5500-6000 miles with it no problem.

It's not as simple as that. Black and stinky seems to work for those like bova80, but black and stinky doesn't work for me because I drive mostly short trips where the engine doesn't get hot enough to burn off all of the crap regularly. I change my oil at 2000 miles now without the catch can. With the catch can installed, I could run 5000 miles without issue and the oil was noticeably cleaner and thicker than it is now running only 2000 miles without the CC. I need to find a way to keep the CC from freezing in cold weather for next year because my fuel dilution was 1.8% in only 2000 miles this last time. Not good.

The short answer is: Get a UOA, then you will know if your oil, with your driving habits, are good for your car.

this will be my first oil change with 5-40

this weight is actually recommended for turbo diesel trucks which oldly enough have alot of similarities with our engines. #1 they both run dirty as hell and work hard. Plus the 40 weight shears down to a 30 by the time an oil change is needed. Im running it and I had no smoking issues either.

Does anyone know if 5w40 is recommended by mazda for the 2010 as well? The dealer is trying to tell me they use 5w30 non-synthetic and do not recommend synthetic.

bnoon, what was your fuel dilution % w/ your occ?

fuck your dealer, they suck

The color of the oil does not necessarily indicate its condition. Having your oil analyzed at your next change will help you identify how well it is actually holding up in your engine.

your dealer is a jackass the car comes stock with synthetic, usually mobil 1.

The dealer specifically stated they use and recommend Mobil 1 Non-Synthetic (Clean 5000). The reason I am asking is the dealer provides free oil changes for life and if I can prove that Mazda says to use Synthetic, I think I can talk them into doing full synthetic oil changes for free.

Can anyone link me to Mazda documentation stating to use synthetic?

15W40 is for OTR trucks not 5W40, unless you mean pickup trucks. I ran 15W40 in my blower drag car for 13 years and that stuff took it as if it liked it.

Nonetheless, 5W40 is fine for this car. Any turbo car beats the hell out of oil. It's just the reality of using oil to lube and cool the turbo's shaft. That and the fact the car make a shytload of power for its displacement and # of cylinders, loading engine parts heavily.

^ yea was talking about pickup trucks. Im curious though how 10W40 would do since this engine has a tendency to get extremely hot, especially in traffic.

What do you guys use to capture and ship your oil with?

I've used 10W40 and, in my extremely unscientific viscosity/condition test (rubbing a bit between my fingers and sniffing it), it holds up better between changes than the 5W stuff. The broader the spread between the 2 numbers, generally, the faster the oil breaks down as more additives are required.

If you go their website they will send you a canister for free

The oil's color isn't a good indicator of how good or bad it is. Don't even sweat it. Get a UOA done to figure out how well a particular oil holds up to your driving style in your car. Or just get some Rotella T Syn 5w40 and be happy. That oil is stout as hell!

Im running the rotella now, since so many have said previous uoa's werent all that great.

Cheveyboy:
go to blackstone-labs.com and they will ship you containers for free