Well, I changed the oil for the first time in the new 03 today and I have a question or two. Why did the factory oil smell like 90W gear oil and why was it army green in color. I'm thinking maybe dye was added at the factory or some other type additive. It had 3080 miles on it and was thicker than the Premium Blue that took it's place. I've never drained factory oil that had these characteristics and it's got me curious. Thanks.

 

I had seen an answer to your question awhile back. Dodge uses a dye in the oil to see any leaks and they use a straight 40w oil in some engines.

 

interesting. I changed my 04 at 2,000 miles -- oil looked completely normal. maybe they used dye on a sampling basis or stopped the practice.

 

Mine also looked normal when it came out at 1200 miles

 

Mine had the green tint. When I sent the sample to Blackstone's it came back as 15W40.

 

Thanks everyone for your input...Crabjoe and I must be the lucky ones.

 

I changed my 04's at 370 miles.... it had a green tint to it as well.......

 

I changed mine at 1400 miles and it had the same green tint.

 

The green tint is an additive to make your oil glow under blacklight. At the factory during testing high power blacklights are used for detecting oil leaks.
I dont know if this is done to every engine.

 

For those that would like to see the analysis of my green factory oil, here it is.