I know the best way to know the condition of your oil is to send it to an oil analyzer but can you tell anything from the color of your oil at your regular oil changes.
My Eclipse was run hard and ran dirty and even running synthetic it was black at 4000 miles (it was modded and run very hard) using a Puralator PureOne filter but with my Runner using Mobile 1 and a PureOne filter and going around 7500-8000 miles between changes it's more of a light brown. Is that a good sign for just a quick analysis?

Here's a pic from the oil on a paper towel after 7600miles and a spot of new oil for comparison.

 

id say your good...

 

looks good to me. mine has 187000 miles and still looks like that after each oil change. napa gold filter and 10/30 castrol

 

i'm at 138k miles. I change my oil at every 3k and it looks like this but I doubt it would look like that at 7600... haha. I use 5/30 castrol and a castrol oil filter.

 

What's it smell like? That's indicative just as much as color is.

 

Working in several lube center for quite a few years, I have always been trained and trained others that fluid change recommendations should never be based on color only Vehicle Manufacture Mileage Recommendations with some exceptions.

1. obvious cross contamination - water in oil (white milky oil) - oil in water
   • This goes for engine oil, gear oil in differentials, transfer cases and transmissions. Normally caused by head gasket failure, leaking intake manifold gasket, timing cover gaskets on some engines (22R-series for example), leaking differential, transmission, transfer case gaskets, failure of engine oil and transmission coolers.
   
   
2. obvious clumping of oil - sludge buildup. Under normal circumstances this would only happen if the engine is way over due for an oil change. However - At-risk engines Saab, Toyota and VW have said that these engines are prone to sludge. The Center for Auto Safety contends the listed Chrysler engines are, too.
   
   • Chrysler group 1 million - 2.7-liter V-6 - 1998-2002
     
   • Saab 132,000 - 2.0-liter - I-4, 2.3-liter I-4 - 1998-2003
     
   • 3.3 million owners of 1997-2002 Toyota and Lexus vehicles with 3.0-liter IMZ V-6 engines and all 1997-2001 Toyota vehicles with 5SFE 2.2-liter 4-cylinder engines that it will cover the cost of sludge-related repairs for eight years from date of initial sale. Toyota ended up extending warranties, replacing engines for free and changing the oil breather system in valve covers.
     
   • VW 426,000 - 1.8-liter I-4 - 1997-2004

There are probably others, but now my brain hurts and I can't think of any more right now.

 

I hear of SO many VW's with the turbocharged 1.8 fall victim to the sludge. I heard it had to do with the turbocharger heat interacting with a particluar weighted oil? I digress....

 

i usually go 7500 w/castrol syntec.
@196K now

apparently i missed the last change and went ~14K

the color (which isnt the best indicator!) looked 'perfect'

 

Here's what you do if you have really dark oil.

Dump half a quart of diesel in and run it for a minute or 2 just before you change your oil. Drain it, and then with the drain plug out, pour another half quart through the motor. Get some cheap oil, add another half quart of diesel to it, run it for a minute, drain it, pour another half quart of diesel through, fill it up again with ALL motor oil, drain it, and then run regular oil. It should be MUCH cleaner. I do this on vehicles at work a lot and it cleans the oil up good.

 

My oil usually looks like Alaskan Crude if I go a couple hundred miles past 3,000..... and state legislators here in CA say it's bad for the environment, and actually better for your motor to stretch oil changes to 6,000 miles....


I used to use the Purolator Pureone Filters, but I gave up on those, since I never noticed any difference, and they cost more.

 

Too much Taco Bell?

 

im sure it cleans everything very well, but things like that scare me.

 

i have known metal particles do the most wear and damage in oil i have a few old speaker magnets on the bottom of my oil filter to trap those things it works !!!

 

I've seen similar tricks done on homebrew drag cars. It does work as long as you got strong enough magnets.

I've done something similar except using trans fluid instead of diesel.