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Ford Focus mk2 - Oil getting dirty rather quickly - starfield

Hi All

I have a a 2007 focus 1.8 petrol. Since the car was serviced in April at Dees of Croydon (franchised dealer), i have only covered 4k miles. I checked the oil the other day and noticed that it has changed colour to dark brown. The level has not gone down at all. The service interval is 12.5k miles. Is this normal?

Ford Focus mk2 - Oil getting dirty rather quickly - craig-pd130

Yes, perfectly normal -- especially if you're mostly doing short runs. It's the combustion by-products etc that contaminate the oil that cause the change in colour.

Ford Focus mk2 - Oil getting dirty rather quickly - ED731PDH

Can you still get Duckhams oil? That particular brand used to get very scummy in use with a ring of mayo around the filler cap during the cold weather on short runs (cured by covering half the rad with tin foil). Other than that, decent enough stuff.