I keep hearing that skipping oil changes is bad for my car, but I don’t get it. Is it really that serious, or is this just mechanic drama? Imagine I’m five why is this a big deal?
I keep hearing that skipping oil changes is bad for my car, but I don’t get it. Is it really that serious, or is this just mechanic drama? Imagine I’m five why is this a big deal?
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You know how if you eat too many fatty foods, your arteries get clogged up and your heart gets strained?
Your oil gets dirty, and full of soot and other particles that increase wear on your engine.
The oil can get real thick and gunky and it doesnt get to places it needs to be.
Car has lots of moving parts rubbing against each other. Oil helps those parts move without damaging each other. If you don’t change the oil it stops working and parts will break.
Your car engine has metal parts sliding very quickly against other metal parts.
Oil keeps friction very low.
When the oil degrades and gets dirty, friction increases.
When the friction increases, your engine gets much hotter.
When your engine gets much hotter, the oil degrades even more, the metal piston expands with heat, pushing against the cylinder harder, friction increases fast, and everything gets much hotter much faster.
This alone is very damaging to your engine, but let that feedback loop go for a few seconds too long and it will get so hot it will literally weld itself into a useless brick.
Extended cycles of heating and cooling combined with contamination build up break down the oil, reducing its lubricant properties.
Imagine a slip n slide that has less and less water as you get to the end. By the time you get to the end, it’s bare skin, rubber, and all friction.
Oil degrades over time with heat cycles and carbon deposits (from fuel) as a byproduct of the combustion process. This is why engine oil starts off amber/orange and clear and becomes increasingly darker. Eventually the amount of carbon deposits in the oil will become so great that the oil will not have the viscosity (among other things) that the car and its components are specced for, and will get thicker and turn to sludge. Every moving part in an engine rides on a thin film of oil and as such it won’t be able to lubricate them properly. Ultimately, stress and friction greatly increase inside the engine, increasing wear quickly, components will heat up exponentially, and ultimately something will snap or otherwise fail
Drink water. That’s easy, right? Now drink ice. Not so easy. Oil becomes thick, heavy, and hard to use with use.
What I find odd is why oil must be changed so frequently in the US. Are engines made differently, is the oil just poorer, or is it just advertising and common knowledge?
I lived in the US for a few years and my friends were horrified I was only changing my oil at the annual service, rather than twice a year or more.
Back in Europe I’d get the oil in my Golf changed at the service only, which was frequently far more than a year – the car told me when it needed servicing. Well over 100k miles and the only problem was a scratched bumper which was more down to my poor parking than old oil, or so I thought.
What’s cheaper, an oil change or a new engine?
Do not get cheap on oil changes, do them sooner than required.
Your engine WILL fail prematurely if you fail to do oil changes.
Oil breaks down over time and ceases to lubricate the bearings (the spinning things inside your engine).
The oil in your car lubricates the bearings, pistons, and other moving parts inside of the engine. Your engine is designed for a certain viscosity of oil (That what the different oil weights are.) Over time, metal shavings start to build up in the oil. Also the high temperatures cause oil to break down over time. These processes turn your oil into a sludge. You can look up pictures of new oil vs oil that’s been used vs past due oil look like.
If you allow the oil to go too long it will stop lubricating the engine properly. This can lead to seized bearings, which can lock up the engine, cause you to throw a rod, etc. These are catastrophic malfunctions that, in general, cannot be repaired and will require a new engine.