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Originally Posted by Strykar
I can’t say for certain, but I have seen right after doing an oil change on a customers car, the oil is clean like honey until I start the engine and it mixes in with a bit of dirty oil left inside taking away the newish color if that makes sense.
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That does make sense, thank you. I am hoping that is the case.
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Originally Posted by T4R416
Yes.. I would say they did an oil change .... only way to get clean honey like oil is to do an engine oil flush with the old oil filter thrown on ... and then before you throw in the new clean oil replace with new oil filter . Simple... or do oil changes more frequently.. I do them every 4K or so
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Gotcha. Thanks. The 4R has less than 5k miles on it and this was its first (and unexpected) oil change. And I just double checked, only put 100 miles on that oil in the picture.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dynamo
That's almost as dark as my oil when I change it at 5000 miles so I would say no, it does not look fresh.
I just went out and checked mine. Here's what it looks like with 742 miles on the oil (28000 miles on my T4R). It's still almost as clean as fresh oil from the bottle. For reference it is Genuine Toyota 0W-20 oil.
ETA: The dark spot at the lower left is where I wiped much of the length of the dipstick so it picked up whatever crud was on it.
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Oh man. Thanks a ton for taking a photo for me. Very kind of you. The oil in my picture has 100 miles on it. My 4R has less than 5k miles.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rightyouareken
It is hard to say. This is Mobil1 0w-20 after about 1,000 miles in my truck (~10,500 total miles on it).
Something else to note, is that I find it difficult to get a good oil reading after pulling the dipstick a few times. More than any other car I've had, the 4Runner seems to drag oil up into the dipstick tube and it smears on the dipstick as you put it in/out. After a few checks, it makes it hard to see where the true level is until the oil drips down out of the tube. I find my best reading is on the first or second check. After that it's kinda smeared all over the dipstick. This can cause the oil level to look higher than it really is.
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Thank you for a photo. I appreciate it. Gives me another good frame of reference.
I actually checked the level after it sat overnight and noticed exactly what you are saying. First couple were relatively clean to read, but after that it was all over the place.
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Originally Posted by JLTD
To me it looks like they only added some oil....
That said, only an oil analysis will tell you if it is fresh or not...in your place I would drain a little out and send it in to be analyzed.
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Thanks for the input. I hope it doesn't have to come to that. Frustrating. Thank you.
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Originally Posted by T4R416
Oil changes are not something shops and ESPECIALLY dealerships just don’t do or “top up” there’s no point and really not much to gain to save a few dollars.. I would never say a shop didn’t do an oil change or they just “topped up” if a car comes in for service it’s literally one easily accessible drain plug for the oil ... the filter takes a little more effort but still very easy... so I would say yes.. they did your oil change.. but maybe they didn’t replace filter? Which would also not make sense? Or they didn’t drain out the oil completely and the new oil mixed making it look like that.. anyways good practise is to do them more frequently .. like 3/4 times a year instead of 2, say every 3 months ?
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Thanks. Yeah I don't want to doubt it either, but seems dark for fresh oil. I actually got this done with less than
Quote:
Originally Posted by osugsxr
take it back and watch them do the oil change. They didnt change it!
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Unfortunately, technician areas aren't visible for customers. I assume there are liability concerns.