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Evaluating a Used Car - DipStick (Oil) Reading
Dodge Dodge Cars Discussions (alt.autos.dodge)
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#11
 
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Re: Evaluating a Used Car - DipStick (Oil) Reading -
05-20-2007
, 11:08 PM
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They oil may be contaminated due to excessive blow-by caused by worn out piston rings among many other things -- |
To separate the blow-by hypothesis from the other things, could it be as
simple as removing the oil filler cap and seeing how much smoke comes out? A
compression test might be better, but the smoke test is fast and free.
#12
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"april1st" <alexnak (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote in message news:1179628677.699078.37710 (AT) p47g2000hsd (DOT) googlegroups.com... They oil may be contaminated due to excessive blow-by caused by worn out piston rings among many other things -- To separate the blow-by hypothesis from the other things, |
incorrect. If you change the oil often enough you can keep the inside of
any engine clean even if it burns a quart of oil every 50 miles and it
has compression of 50 lbs. and leaves a trail of blue smoke wherever it
goes.
It may well be that because the oil wasn't changed often enough the
rings are more worn than they otherwise would be. And/or it may well be
that because the engine used a lot of oil the previous owner thought
that the oil didn't need to be changed very often because they were
always adding oil. So there may well be a correlation between the
appearance of black oil and blow-by. But the cause of the oil being
black is not blow-by. It is either they didn't really change the oil as
the salesman said or the engine has a history of the oil not being
changed as often as some people do. In my opinion its unlikely that they
skipped the oil change if they were seriously trying to sell the car. As
for the other theories that they didn't drain all the oil or didn't
change the filter - it is much more likely that the previous owner was
the one doing those things. The dealer probably changed the oil and
filter properly.
-jim
Quote:
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could it be as simple as removing the oil filler cap and seeing how much smoke comes out? A compression test might be better, but the smoke test is fast and free. |
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#13
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"HKEK" <coolmale (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote in message news:1179627511.912166.240550 (AT) q75g2000hsh (DOT) googlegroups.com... I'm looking at a 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan 3.3L with 57,000 miles. I pulled the dipstick and the oil looked dark and smelled a bit cooked. The vehicle had been taken in trade at a [Dodge] dealer. The salesman showed me the shop work that had been performed on this vehicle to ready it for resale. Among other things such as brakes and stabilizer bushings, the engine oil and filter had been changed. The van had about 50 miles on it since the oil change. It's hard to say. Likely as not, they falsified the work report. |
in only 57k miles. Yeah, extreme, extreme neglect would do it, but that
should be fairly obvious in other ways. I bet they just didn't change
the oil.
#14
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I can have the vehicle inspected and the deposit is refundable if my mechanic finds any serious issues. It has been suggested that some shops do not drain the oil during changes but pump it out instead through the dipstick tube. It was further suggested that this practice may leave enough used oil behind to contaminated the fresh oil being added. Correct. When I drain oil for a change, I drain it hot and for an hour or two if not overnight. That's how I do it. |
Over the years I've noticed very very dirty oil in some rental cars with
over 15K miles on the clock. I'm sure they only change the oil just
before selling the rental. How to shorten engine life!
I'll not mention the worst rental car oil I've noticed, not wanting to
be sued! <
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