Very good. What car btw?
Do you often encounter traffic jams and are you an aggressive driver who likes to rev harder?

Last time my automotive trainer told me
If the engine oil easily change to black colour
The engine oil had better cleaning agent than other engine oil.

Thank you for your valuable comments, folks.

This is a 2007 Toyota Avanza K3VE 1.3L (same as Myvi 1.3L engine).

It has been on minerals Shell 15W40 and 20W50 (SL) for 5000 to 6500 km OCI till around 2010.
From 2010 to 2014 , I switched to better minerals ( ...... I bellieve) in Diesel Engine Oil i.e Petronas Supremo 15W40 CI4/SL/A3B4/MB etc approvals for 6000 to 8500 km OCI.
From 2014 it has been on semi synthetic Quartz 7000 Energy 10W40 till todate.

Driving style ..... I would say it's gentle and smooth gear-change for components protection ...
But morning start never wait for warm up and drive away from stationary within half a minute or so and touching 3000 to 3500 rpm in top gear within say, 1 km travel.
Whenever engine is hot enough, sometimes push to 4500/4700 rpm.
Never drive below 3000 rpm though !
To and fro USJ/KL Sentral about 20-25 minutes or thereabout one way, with short internal travels within Subang Jaya.
Back to Malacca on average 4 to 5 trips in about every 3 months.
Do you consider this as aggressive ? IDK.

Yes, I heard Mobil 1 full synthetic turns dark/black a bit faster as they claim it cleans better than other oils ........ Is that true ?

Hope it helps...

This post has been edited by zeng: Feb 8 2017, 01:10 PM

wow. your oil at 12kkm still look so clean , same like mine at 1kkm.
using same oil like you but at 6kkm the color is almost black .
oci at 6.5kkm. total quartz 7000 semi from tesco. 3rd round already on my saga blm auto.

same color goes to my naza ria using same oil.at 5kkm..

Hard to say as colour hue on dipstick probably is not comparable against colour on Blotter Spots.
I have a feeling your Total could go at least 8000-10000 km no sweat assuming typical history of local oil replacement.
Why not share with us here your Blotter spot test sample.
You need a chromatograhy paper or white coloured name card ...... but I use a letter head ........other people say coarser paper and thinner paper maybe slightly different. IDK.
Mine is a bit coarse type paper and the sample above is about 48 hours after putting the blot, though shorter hours one looks marginally 'better' than this sample.
Refer to my links above in BITOG for some basics if you can.

Edit: My history of oil replacement above would suggest that my sample should be dirtier than others here.
Edit2: This Tesco Quartz Energy 10W40 is fourth round here.

This post has been edited by zeng: Feb 8 2017, 03:05 PM

Just changed my oil last month .
Just snap the oil on both vehicles @1000km
Color almost same..
Top naza ria
Bottom saga blm
Left new (cannot see) above the 500ms mark


Attached thumbnail(s)

Kudos for having taken the first step ....... and it's free and easy ..... keep 'playing' around with Blotter Spot Tests further ...... and along the way , take some 'guessing' out of equation....... enabling quite equal comparison of USA sunkist oranges against Australian sunkist oranges.

You may want to use separate 'paper' of say, A4 size for differrent engine/vehicle/auto transmisssion etc for trending (at a glance without fumbling around with different images while comparing..... ) ....
recording times/km travelled progressively.

Edit: if you are sharing images, may be good to write up oil brand/viscosity grade etc and vehicle brand/model/Turbo/engine or auto transmission etc.

This post has been edited by zeng: Feb 8 2017, 04:19 PM

Hmm maybe I'll give it a try sometime later but I doubt it'll come as clean as yours. Now is already about 9k km so normally I'd change at 10k.

If your targeted OCI is 10k km, then it's best to take Blotter Spot Test sample around 8500-9000 km and/or 9500 km sample with a view of ascertaining whether :
a )You must replace said oil at 10000 km as planned/scheduled if sample shows bad/lousy signs, or
b ) You may have option to extend OCI further if 9000 km sample or 9500 km shows that oil sample still looks nice and promising.

My previous OCI was 11000 km in Aug 2016.
So I took Blotter Spot sample at 10441 km (and at earlier mileage), which I felt OCI could be extended further to either 12000 or 13000 km.
Then at 11700 km and 12200 km , I took another two samples separately (showing far better result than previous Aug 2016 sample of 11000 km ) giving me confidence to possibly push to 13000 km OCI.
Hence my current posting here and on Bitog soliciting for comments .......which you could do the same!

This post has been edited by zeng: Feb 9 2017, 12:54 AM

Where can I get chromatography paper, Sir?

In Malaysia ? Honestly I don't know, mate.
You may have better luck with US online stores like Amazon/Ebay though.
Alternatively business card and coarse texture company correspondence letter head should be easily available.
In times to come, I may try Blotter Spot Tests (BST) on fine texture computer printer paper for comparisons.

Goohtj, do you have 48 hours( or thereabout ) pictures for sharing ?
Appreciate that.

u mean leave the oil sample for 48 hrs?

I mean taking pictures 48 hours or thereabout AFTER depositing the above Blotter Spots of yours ...... as is my picture in post #1.
There is usually minor variations against those taken say, 2 hours after depositing the Blotter BST.

Curious..Did you change the oil filter in between the oil changes? If yes on what mileage?

No.
Filter is of same mileage as this oil, now approaching 12600 km.
Is there something to be wary of ?

This post has been edited by zeng: Feb 10 2017, 08:14 PM

Hmmm...In read somewhere it says that it is better to change the filter every 5k-8k eventhough the oil didn't change. Then just too up the oil. Forgotten where and not sure how true is that though. All i know is original oil filter is the best if compared to other aftermarket brands. Seen the video and filter elements inside in YouTube.

Agree with you that the rule of thumb was filter change in every 2 oil changes totaling 10,000 km.
But, from what I read at bobistheoilguy.com the Americans are habitually changing oil filter at more than 10,000 miles (not km)........
granted our filters used here might differ from theirs.
From this Blotter Spot Tests picture above at 12,238 km mileage (and other pictures with me as well) , I'm of the opinion that this RM12 filter is holding up well so far ......
though it's always to safer to change earlier or as recommended by OEM etc.

I think it highly depends on our driving conditions. For daily stop go traffic as in Penang,Kl, Johor..I think it is better to change the filter earlier. Engines are more strained in these conditions, furthermore the air will be more dusty.
I do not know how well foreign particles are suspended in the oil, so no comment on the blotter spot test for this dirt aspect. . Best is take out the filter and cut it open to check the filter elements.

It's up to 30000 km, the engine keeps record of how you drive, and under what condition, and calculates when it is time to go for an oil change. French and Italian manufacturers go up to 35000 km between oil changes (or even 50000 km for diesel engines). However VW demands inspections at other intervals it seems, which is good because there they hopefully find any upcoming defects before they get serious. IMHO that is very important, 35000 km between oil changes... not much of an issue I believe, but not noticing a small defect that causes other, bigger ones... that is.

wow. Never drive below 3000 rpm? I rarely ever drive above 3000 rpm... usually in town I'm at around 1000 rpm, maybe 1300. Shift gear at 1500-1700. Only on the highway the rpm is higher, because I run out of gears... May I ask why your revs are so high?