Black Oil / JTS 2.0 engine

Any offers on this please ? we have a 156 T/S 2.0 well looked after, never uses oil & 7 months months since a service , oil is still golden & clear, so great! But on the JTS 2.0 the oil was rather black well before its service & has looked very black since just a few days after its recent oil change. Other JTS 2.0s oil goes BLACK? I am concerned about this, ALFA don't seem to think its anything. Is Selena Racing Oil black & straight out of the ground?

Oil will normally go black when the engines been turned over, its nothing to worry about.

Did you buy the JTS new ??? Maybe the oil services had been skimped on before and the engine internals were needing cleaned with fresh oil.

The oil going black isn't a problem as Gary says. Change th oil and monitor how soon it turns. You may have to change the oil more frequently to prevent it going totally black.

another misinterpretation ! oil contains additives which turn black after only a few working hours, this simply means that the additives do work and collect carbon deposits from the engine. Absolutely nothing to worry about, if you use the car every day the oil will stay active for more than a year regardless of mileage. Topiing up is the word !!!

I was told by a dealer that if the oil is excessivley dirty/black it could effect the variator..and pump, and advised on oil & filter change.

How true this is I am not sure but I am sure someone will advise on this shortly.


Chris

Thanks guys for replies, I feel somewhat happier now, and answers are, had car from new, ALFA serviced & never needed a top up yet!

Some oils do this, my dad had his 320td serviced by bmw, only to find the oil was black. The mechs insisted that this new synthetic oil turned black pretty much straight away. My dad wouldn't have it, so they changed the oil again in front of him. I saw him two days later, and he showed me that the oil already looked like it had been in there for ages!

2 Alfa's with JTS engines, both on Selenia Racing & driven hard daily.

Oil never looks black. Top ups regular but oil use not excessive (250 ml per 1000 miles on average for both). Great engines IMO but they do run hot!!

Originally Posted by Rob 156

Some oils do this, my dad had his 320td serviced by bmw, only to find the oil was black. The mechs insisted that this new synthetic oil turned black pretty much straight away. My dad wouldn't have it, so they changed the oil again in front of him. I saw him two days later, and he showed me that the oil already looked like it had been in there for ages!

So Humble pie was in the offer

Originally Posted by chrisd_b

I was told by a dealer that if the oil is excessivley dirty/black it could effect the variator..and pump, and advised on oil & filter change.

How true this is I am not sure but I am sure someone will advise on this shortly.

Dealer put down a 10000 km vidange slip
in my servicebook when I picked up the car.
So there maybe something to that.

Or maybe just looking for more $$$$.

alfajts2, you haven't told us if you are using the same oil in both your cars?

Selenia Racing in both cars, well, charged and paid for at last services anyway.

Anyone able to comment on the colour of Selenia Racing against 20k oils? One darker than the other?

Don't know about Selenia, I do know that Castrol RS in my 145 turns pretty dark in a few hundred miles, whereas Magnatec in my Xantia stays golden for a few thousand... both high mileage cars with good oil change history...

Originally Posted by mave

Don't know about Selenia, I do know that Castrol RS in my 145 turns pretty dark in a few hundred miles, whereas Magnatec in my Xantia stays golden for a few thousand... both high mileage cars with good oil change history...

The time it takes the oil to turn dark brown(and they all do sbaddison) is also dependent on the configuration of the oilways and galleries. Some engines retain more old oil than others during an oil change and this mixes with the new to darken it prematurely. Absolutely no problem with dark colouration as Rearbear says its due to the detergents keeping the soot deposits in suspension and this has no effect on the oils' lubrication properties until the designated change point (and well beyond in the case of fully synthetic grades).....

I think black oil is the norm for JTS engines. I normally check my oil the following day after each service (not that i don't trust the people who worked on my car) and the colour is "golden".

Inspecting the oil a week later shows it has truned "black". After speaking to numerous parties, the consensus is this is the norm. It shows the oil's ingredients are actually working.

Thanks, feeling happier that oil should be ok & not be a problem. Shame that the dealer or Fiat could not come up with a more definiative answer.

The dealers only want to sell fresh oil !!! 40 % profit on it....

advice: (again) do not change oil within one year, keep it max on the dipstick !! modern oils, especially the synthetic ones last forever.... colour is a non issue !