What the mechanic told me about the oil in my Puma

**spudfan** · 24th January 2016, 01:32 AM

While getting the Defender serviced last week I mentioned to the mechanic that I was considering getting the oil changed at six monthly intervals. He dipped a finger into the oil that had just come out of my sump, rubbed the oil between his thumb and finger then wiped his finger with a cloth. The cloth took ALL of the oil off his finger. This test he said showed that the oil was still O.K. and did not warrant twice yearly changes.
He did the same test on oil that had come out of somebody else's car but the cloth could not remove the oil from his fingers which showed, he said, that it was well used and should have been changed earlier.
He showed me my old filter element but apart from oil it was "clean" whereas the filter from the other car had blotches of thick oil adhering to it which again showed that my service interval was fine but the other car should have been serviced earlier.
So if you want to check the condition of your oil just rub your finger on the bottom of the dipstick and wipe it off with a cloth.
Not scientific I admit but it's from a mechanic of many years experience

**debruiser** · 24th January 2016, 05:41 AM

Seems like a sound concept, for a quick and easy test. I'll be using this on my series....

**bsperka** · 24th January 2016, 07:41 AM

Basically it is indicating how much soot is in the oil. I use this check when looking at second hand diesels. Won't tell you the overall oil condition though.... ;/ wasn't me.

**Blknight.aus** · 24th January 2016, 07:46 AM

its a field assessment of the "skinning" and "shear" values of the oil.

if you want to practically demonstrate good V bad for yourself in the kitchen grab some cooking oil do the test with fresh oil then heat it up a lot in a pan (careful of fire) let it cool and test it again and then add some neat washing liquid, a little water, mix it up slowly but thoroughly (dont want bubbles in the sample you test) and test it again.

its not usually reccomended as a test because everyones skin is different, because my skin is quite dry the oil "penetreates" into my skin easier giving me early fails, someone who has manicured and moisturised soft hands (auto drivers?

) will deliver fails later.

combined with the blotter paper test you can tell a lot about your oil

**DazzaTD5** · 24th January 2016, 12:53 PM

As Dave (Blknight.aus) pointed out, different skin types will give u a different result..... not that I consider that to be any type of test for anything... If one does feel the need to dip ones finger into used engine oil and look forward too long term skin/health issues.... go for it.

Being in Ireland I'm assuming ur Defender TDCi (puma) is DPF equipped? so the oil it uses meets the far higher ford spec 934 (just from memory here folks, do correct as necessary), so the quality of the oil isnt going to deteriorate much at all, but again, IMHO its not a good oil suited for that engine/application in a Defender as talked about in the link below.... its basically doing its job to a far higher specification than is needed and not allowing for correct run in, wear, soot loading etc etc etc.

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/90-110-130...r-service.html

I'd hazard a guess that Defender TDCi models in Europe go through engines or have engine related issues far more than non DPF spec'd model.

Regards
Daz

**spudfan** · 24th January 2016, 09:16 PM

No DPF on my Puma. I agree that subjecting your skin to used engine oil on a regular basis is not a wise thing to do. However the point was that this is just a quick test to give an idea on the overall condition of the oil. It just shows if there is any "life" left in the oil, it was not ment to take the place of in depth laboratory testing.

MrLandy · 24th January 2016, 09:32 PM

I don't think a bit of oil on your finger is going to kill you.

**Blknight.aus** · 24th January 2016, 09:44 PM

touch that greasy finger on the breast of a brides dress the morning of her wedding just as she gets out of the car, have a friend tell us what the coroner writes

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