Types of motor oils

Motor oil, engine oil, or engine lubricant is a mixture of essential oils and other additives, such as anti-wear additives, detergents, dispersants, and viscosity index improvers for multi-grade oils. Internal combustion engines are lubricated with motor oil. The primary function of motor oil is to minimize friction and wear on moving parts and clean the engine of sludge and varnish (which is one of the dispersant’s functions) (detergents). It also improves piston ring sealing, neutralizes acids created by gasoline and lubricant oxidation (detergents), and cools the engine by transporting heat away from moving parts.

Types of motor oils

When engine oil is being chosen, first, the types must be known.

Mineral Oils

They are typically used on “traditional” engines, older versions, or engines without turbochargers and are obtained by refining petroleum.

Semi-synthetic oils

They’re made up of a mix of mineral and synthetic oils. Performance and protection are increased by mixing synthetic oil with mineral oil.

Synthetic oils

These have been chemically manipulated to improve their performance, contain fewer contaminants than mineral oils, and have higher quality. They are made for high-performance

Picture taken from buycarparts.co.uk

Description:

There are two main classification criteria for these motor oils. One of them is based on Viscosity(SAE). And the other is based on performance (API, ACEA, manufacturer’s specifications).

Motor oils have some of the most popular manufacturers, including Castrol, Kennol- Performance oil, Shell, Total, AIMOL, Optimal, Mobil Delvac, Total Energies, Unil Lubricants, etc.

Oil is a lifeline for a car and needs to be changed every 3000 miles or a few months, depending on the car. Some of the signs that can help you to know whether a car oil needs to be changed can be like checking your engine oil ( if both lights illuminate, there’s a chance that the oil level is low), hearing knocking sounds from the engine, change of oil colour ( dark shaded oil), smelling fumes or oil leakage, smoke coming out of the exhaust, or if your car has done a distance of 5000 or 10000 kilometres or above.

Once it is time to change a car’s oil, specific steps can be performed to change the oil. These steps are as follows

• Firstly choose the right oil and oil filter
• Start by covering the ground with plastic sheets. Then drive over it with your car. Lower the automobile by jacking it up and securing it using jack stands.

Place squares of plywood beneath the jack stands for support. Remove the stopper from the oil stream by unscrewing it and immediately pulling it out.

• Remove the old oil filter and check certain the rubber gasket is still attached. If it isn’t, take it out of the engine.
• Before tossing it into the recycle bin, use a funnel to fill the engine and cap the bottle (to prevent leaks).

Enough oil should be available for this purpose. This differs from vehicle to vehicle. For a passenger car, 3 to 7 litres or, in some cases, 10 to 12 litres. The exact oil volume can be found in the user handbook or can be found by a service partner.