Oil Colour

If it helps, I can give a reference. I?ve just changed the oil in my wife?s Smart Car. Since the last change, almost exactly a year ago, it has done almost exactly 2000 miles. The oil I drained out was black. I use fully synthetic oil, drain via the sump plug (it is the 451 engine which has a sump plug, the earlier 450s don?t). From memory it hasn?t needed topping up since the oil was changed last year.

The car has only done about 19k miles so the engine is still in good shape. (No visible muck in the top end visible via the oil filler or sludge when you drain etc.)

You could always mark the old oil filter with a cross etc before the car goes in to be serviced. If they change the filter, chances are the do the oil.

As for sucking the oil from the sump rather than draining via the sump plug, I understand it is quite common in the US. The earlier Smart Cars didn?t even have a sump plug, they were designed to have the oil changed by being sucked out. Whether they changed the design due to issues or due to customer acceptance ( a common mod was to change the sump pan for one which had been modified to include a drain plug), I can?t comment.

Wiping the dipstick on a clean rag, it's still pretty clean after 4 months (petrol and synthetic btw).

This car has an outer cannister which needs to be removed to access the filter. Which in turn needs the car up on blocks and the splash shield removing. By the time you've done that you might as well do it yourself ;-)

I'm not sure how common the vacuum system is tbh.

I suspect it is more mileage related. I used to have a car that only did about 500 miles / year but I still changed the oil. It looked all but new- just a slight tinge of dark colour.

Fair enough.

Once our vehicles are out of warranty I generally do basic servicing myself- I quite enjoy it.

I think a certain large company (in)famous for supplying tyres etc use(d) it- in fact that was how I became aware of it when someone said they'd seen it done. (Some years back.)