Thanks for the update, my older car was a VW tiguan sport at 180k miles (do about 20k miles a year on personal mileage) - so never bothered with official warranties as such (unless it was a major fail - i.e. sunroof subframe weld fail / EGR cooler on the VW) - but did without fail change the oils / cambelt. Heat kills oil, so the only bit of worry (hence the post), was from the front diff oil, it was black on the VW at 120k miles. Thanks for the heads up, may just give our MG4 a quick oil change - I dont suppose you have the specs?
I’ve just been using the MG official oil (made by Shell but only available through dealers). It’s called SL2808, there’s a couple of pics I believe and a bit more on the specs etc. a few pages back the last couple of times I’ve changed it if you look at my past posts (today was the 3rd time) ?.
Yeah, I’ve always believed in preventative maintenance, this car is my main livelihood doing school transport & I knew I was going to have this well over the warranty period mileage (MG list price for the drive unit is over £8k alone!) & knew this was a possible weak spot (also we know how bad parts availability can be which is another concern for me) but for a lot of people I suspect they don’t care or will be rid of the car well before the warranty runs out!
If anyone is planning on keeping them long term I would definitely recommend, what harm can it do, on the other hand they may well be fine into big miles on the official 60k change schedule, I suppose a bit more time will tell.
As looking at your drained oil, I would not be satisfied with that look on a drivetrain oil in that short period of time, considering this is not even the initial fill. You are not tracking the car? Do you live in a very humid place? It would equal to a 70W or 75W gear oil, which one is not good to know as the 150.000 cP dynamic viscosity temperature is not known. As being GTL oil I would guess 75W with minimum usage temperature of -40 degrees C (when the oil is new - not looking like that).
Yeah, you sound more clued up on the mechanics & chemistry of oil than me but it probably comes across darker on pics, I mean it is dark but not like black engine oil dark in person.
The car has never been tracked but on occasion does get a hard short B road blast but generally lives an easy(ish) life I’d say doing school transport (2x 130 mile stints morning and afternoon) never at mega high speed but does most of them on A roads at sustained 55/65 mph so I imagine there is a bit of diff heat build up but I’m never cruising at high speeds.
The oil doesn’t smell burnt at all (doesn’t smell of anything really unlike the fresh stuff) as that was my main understanding of heat etc. unfortunately I’ve discarded it now otherwise I may have had a look at doing that out of curiosity, I’m not too concerned tbh as I change it quite regular etc. but I suppose time will tell how reliable these units are, with them being a combined drive unit there not cheap at all to replace!