[Amrish]

hi guys

my car (D2) has abouth 7000kms on it (about 4700 miles).
last night i checked the oil and it was black, what worried me was that it was also quite thin and appeared almost watery.
ive never had a diesel car before so im not entirely sure what to expect...
anything i should be concerned about ?

 

[nry]

At a guess the D2 uses 5w/30 fully synth which will be a pretty thin oil - black colour...yet to find a diesel engine that keeps the oil clean, my petrol engine oil looks almost as good as new when changed unlike my wife's diesel Zafira...

Getting black is what I guess the oil is for - it holds and retains the muck instead of letting it settle around the engine. I'll be honest, I'm kind of thinking of a 6 month change interval on my wife's V40 D2 when it turns up, just depends if I do it myself or what Volvo charge!

 

[Amrish]

i hear you.
my '99 honda has over 350k kms on it and the oil looks golden when its time for a change.
this just has me freaked out !

 

[Yellowbelly]

my '99 honda has over 350k kms on it and the oil looks golden when its time for a change.

After 2000 km the oil in my 2103 "T4-equivalent" petrol Ford Focus looks golden on the dipstick, but when I sucked some out from the bottom of the sump (via the dipstick tube, using a Pela oil extractor) to adjust the oil level it looked dirty. I don't know what to think.

 

[wizzy]

The D3 doesn't have a dipstick, so trying to see the colour of the oil is somewhat difficult. With modern oils and filters, I am content to leave the changes to the normal schedule.

 

[Amrish]

After 2000 km the oil in my 2103 "T4-equivalent" petrol Ford Focus looks golden on the dipstick, but when I sucked some out from the bottom of the sump (via the dipstick tube, using a Pela oil extractor) to adjust the oil level it looked dirty. I don't know what to think.

thats a little alarming, what oil is it ?
the last thing you want is sludge

 

[Yellowbelly]

thats a little alarming, what oil is it ?
the last thing you want is sludge

As far as I know it's the original factory-fill. The recommended oil is Castrol or Ford 5W-20 or 5W-30. I'll ask my dealer what they think about it and whether they'd recommend an oil change. Even though the car is fairly new I wouldn't mind paying for it.

 

[Amrish]

im not sure how much integrity the dealers in the UK have.
down here, certain dealers have been known to use inferior oils to increase their profits. Hence i do all my own work, you just cant trust them.

 

[Yellowbelly]

im not sure how much integrity the dealers in the UK have.
down here, certain dealers have been known to use inferior oils to increase their profits. Hence i do all my own work, you just cant trust them.

I've had all my car servicing work done at franchised dealers in the UK for over forty years, and never had cause for complaint. And there's nobody more particular than me. I learned early on that you have to specify exactly what you want doing, or more to the point what you don't want doing. I always say I don't want the windscreen washer bottle topping up. It avoids me having to (uneconomically) pay for small bottles of windscreen washer fluid ~ I buy it in 1 litre containers.