I dipped my engine oil on my fairly newly aquired Crossfire and it is a reddish colour, similar to the CrossfireForum.org colour at the top of the page? I know transmission fluid is this colour but have never seen engine oil this colour? It did look clean though. Should I be worried?

 

Why Is My Engine Oil Red? What's It Mean? (vehiclefreak.com)
Motor oil is now red in color | Bob Is The Oil Guy
If you have never changed your oil since you bought the car I would change it.

 

Just change the oil and filter today. THen you know what is in it, and if it turns red, see Wadsworth's post.

Try to NOT do something wrong that so many do wrong: Put in the "Crossfire" filter. You do not tell the parts counter guy what car you are buying for, their moronic parts pages will steer you wrong. You do not want a paper oil filter, you want a FLEECE filter. It is none of their business what car you are driving. Buy the right filter.
Get one of those below or click this:

THese are re-boxed MANN fleece filters:


FLeece filter in white on left, lousy paper filter on right. Paper filters collapse and spill paper fibers into the engine.

 

Don’t worry the so called ‘fleece” filter does not come from a sheep, they are made from Polyester.
It says on the box “ No animals were harmed making this product”. 😉

 

Some engine oils are reddish in color: redline synthetic oil is I would try to contact the former owner to verify

 

Thanks or allaying my fears a bit!
Unfortunately I bought the car from a dealer so he is hardly likely to know its full history. Although 'red' oil ,it's a clean looking red that I could read a newspaper through! The car has a full stamped service history and is standing at 90,000 miles.It's last service was 88,000 miles and it runs like a dream?

 

I always change the oil myself after buying a used car, even if he came from the dealership with a receipt of service, because who really knows. Heck, I do my own oil services on my new RAM Rebel because I don't trust the dealer to do it better than me.

Either way, if you are concerned, I would buy a couple of gallon Jugs of Mobil 1 0W-40 and the correct filter, should be about $70 in supplies.

 

What an eejit I am! The oil isn't red, its the dipstick that's red!
Added a couple of picies to show what I

Red dipstick!

Oil on dipstick!
mean!

 

It Happens, I've been there several times, I think it's called a senior moment

 

Yes, it is the worst dipstick I have ever had in car. Very difficult to see clean oil on it.

 

I would still recommend changing the oil though if you've just bought the car. People are notoriously unbothered about maintenance for cars they're selling.

(that said, the oil in that picture doesn't look too bad).