Auto Tips

The Importance of Changing Your Engine Oil

22 December, 2017

The right choice for engine oil and its maintenance play an important factors to the car’s performance. When the car is turned on, the oil will be circulated to all engine components by the oil pump. Engine oil is an important part to support the engine performance. Due to continuous use, there will be a degradation in the quality and function, hence there needs to be periodical replacement.

Few Functions of Engine Oil

1. Lubricant

   When the car is turned on, the oil will be circulated to each engine component by the oil pump. The oil will go through moving parts, and forming a film layer to lubricate the components. With this, the engine components will be kept from damage and from being worn-out.

2. Sealant

   When the engine oil is circulating inside the engine, the oil will form a thin layer. This layer will seal the gap between two moving parts. For example, inside the engine there is a cylinder and piston rings that produce power in the engine. The oil in this part will seal the gap between the two, so that the compression or burning power will not leak. This will result in maximum power.

3. Cleaner

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   When the oil is circulating within the engine area, the filtered oil will go through the engine parts such as cylinder wall, metal, etc. When the areas are covered in dirt, such as the residue of combustion carbon, or metal particles due to friction, then the clean oil will push/take away the dirt. Thus the parts containing the metal particles and carbon residue will be clean again. For that reason, engine oil needs to be changed periodically, because the oil quality will decrease after being mixed with carbon and metal particles sediment.

4. Heat absorber

   When the engine is turned on, there will be a combustion process that will generate heat to be transformed into power. At the same time, the oil is circulating in the engine. When the engine oil moves through engine parts with high temperature such as piston, metal, and cylinder wall, then the heat of the components will be absorbed. This can keep the engine temperature and prevent it from excessive wear-out on the engine part.

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The Quality of Engine Oil

The quality of oil may degrade in time. That is why it needs to be changed periodically. there are a few oil types sold in the market and each of them has different quality. The better the quality, then the longer it will withstand the use. The cushioning are the parts that are easily damaged due to bad oil quality, e.g. The cushioning of wrench axis, piston, cylinder wall, and so on.

The right oil for your car is the oil that can give the best performance, engine durability, and the most reasonable price. Let’s not waste money to buy highly specified oil, but the actual engine performance generated is just the same with affordable oil. The easiest and safest way is by complying to the factory guides.

Car manufacturing must have done their research and long testing phase to decide the specification of the oil. That is why the chosen or issued genuine oil from the manufacturer will be suitable with various condition within reasonable driving use.

When You Have To Change Oil?

Most oil manufacturers recommend for the oil to be changed periodically, some will recommend every 3000 km, 5000 km, and even every 10,000 km. To be more precise, you may ask the expert when you go to the garage. Here are some consequences you may experience due to being late in changing the oil:

1. Long overdue oil usage will reduce the oil quality, hence the quality of the oil as lubricant will degrade as well. Thus the performance of the engine will degrade, gas consumption will be more excessive, and the components in friction will wear-out faster hence generating overheating. This will make the head cylinder to bend, and to fix it the car will need an overhaul and the part to be grinded.
2. This condition will worsen if the overdue is quite long, for example the distance has reached 20,000 km.  Therefore the content of the oil will run out as well, even some car will run out of oil. This will result in the need for overhaul because it has caused damage to the cushioning of the wrench axis.

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If you don’t want that to happen, do these steps:

• Starting from now, check your oil service as often. If it is time to change, don’t put it off, go straight ahead to the garage and change it with the best quality of an oil.
• check the amount or quantity of the oil monthly, if it’s reduced then add more with the new one until it’s full (to the F line on the deep stick oil). Don’t forget to change the oil filter, usually the garage will recommend to change it every 20,000 km.