Black oil 130TDI

[jack in oz]

My Passat 130TDI is my first diesel car. It has 8500km on the clock. I checked the oil today and it's pitch black. My 200,000+km commodore had cleaner oil than this. Is this normal for a diesel engine?

[h100vw]

Yeah, oil doing it's job.

Gavin

[gazzmo]

Difference between the 2 cars, turbo and diesel so heat and stress.

[jack in oz]

Thanks gents

[brad]

Normal - especially for "good" oil which will hold solids & contaminants in suspension. Poor quality oil will allow the solids to sink to the bottom of the sump & sludge up.

I get the feeling Holden doesn't spec a very high quality oil as my wife has a Captiva with the 3.0L Commodore V6 engine. It's supposed to do 15k between services but also has some form of oil sampling / testing system (VWs have this too). I'm not sure if the Holden version passes the oil through & orifice & checks the differential pressure (signifying a change in viscosity) or if it has a turbidy sensor to check for particulates. Either way, the warning light meaning "The sensor has detected an issue. Change the oil now!" came on at 7,000km & she had it changed, then she had the regular service done at 15,000km (supposedly) & the warning light has started to light up again at 18,000km (making me think the oil wasn't changed at 15k). Basically, the engine oil can't make it to 10,000km. I'm glad it's a company drive.

If you are driving under severe service conditions (it's in the handbook) then you might consider discussing a slight revision to your service schedule with your service advisor.