[spicyredkoup]

Look at the oil in some older cars with over 100,000 miles on them. You will see shortly after an oil change the dip stick shows very dark and in some cases black. The oil is still good at that point.

Regular changes and you will be fine. I recommend synthetics but that is just my opinion. I prefer the DIY since then I can personally see the under side of the car and maybe notice some other things like boot tearing or dry rotting.

Also no matter how clean or dirty the dipstick is it will be very dark when draining. This just shows the color of the oil on the dipstick is not a good indicator of clean oil.

 

[spicyredkoup]

jcbel, Thanks for posting this. I never saw their test results before.

I was curious about a couple things. Did you get this sample while doing an oil change? I ask this since it was at 7546 KM. Did you suspect any problems or were you curious what the results would be?

 

[spicyredkoup]

Thanks guys for all the responses, I wasn't asking this to save money, i was just wondering if its normal, and i believe i got my response. I thought of going synthetic, but i found no sense in spending double the price for oil that i'll probably change the same amount (my plan is very 3000, so synthetic's long change interval won't help me much, and i don't have "severe" driving conditions, during summer i usually drive around 80 degree temps, and during winter its around 20, except for a couple of exceptions).

With oil changes at 3000 miles conventional oil will protect you fine. The reasons for synthetics are not just longer change intervals. I do see your point in not spending the extra money.