Oil black, Oil brown - same miles dif cars - why?

[RalphVa]

Black is usually caused by soot getting into the oil. On my diesel Benz, it turns black almost instantly after a change from the little bit of black oil still left in there.

Have you checked the tail pipes of these two? Maybe the Jeep's tail pipe has black soot in it, but the Honda's is clear.

Ralph

 

[Darren]

In the mid-nineties I rented a new Ryder box truck with a gas engine. When I picked it up it had 600 miles on the odometer. I drove it over 4,000 miles in five days. At the end of the trip the oil had never changed color. It still looked fresh.