Castrol Syntec question

[kauffman@IMAP2.ASU.EDU]

Hi all,

Was just changing the oil in the 5OOO, pouring in the fresh Syntec, when 
I noticed that it was much darker than the last dozen quarts I'd used 
before.  So I took a sniff, and it even smelled different than usual!?!  
I opened another of the new bottles... same thing.  Has anybody noticed 
this out there?  I just don't want to put possibly contaminated oil into 
the Audi.  Probably nothing wrong, but why would this batch be _so_ 
different??  Anybody know of a phone # for Castrol?  I'm going to try to 
look something up on the net in the meantime.  Can't wait too long on 
this... need the car tomorrow!

TIA

Karl K.      '86 5OOOS  132k mi
Mesa, AZ     '79 Fox  145k mi