Engine Oil Exchange

After a while working, engine oil loses its quality gradually. This fact has some reasons; despite of sitting oil layer on components, sometimes engine parts rub up against each other and because of that, some microscopic metallic particles are produced from the wearing of the surfaces. Such particles could circulate in the oil and grind against moving parts, causing wear. Because particles accumulate in the oil, it is typically circulated through an oil filter to remove harmful particles. Some of them cannot be gathered by filter. Oxidation of oil due to overheating causes loss of quality; it is chemical reaction of oil and air causing sludge formation. On the other hand, additives are depleted gradually and lose their performance, so after awhile harmful particles in the oil increase to amount which adding the materials available in market called “supplementary” to oil, cannot retain its desirable properties. By the way there are some factors which decrease engine oil’s life, the most important ones are:

1)        Short-trip Driving: The problem is most pronounced for frequent trips under five miles in cold wintertime conditions. Water and fuel have a tendency to accumulate in the crankcase when the oil temperature doesn’t reach the thermostat setting. In the fuel’s consumption in engine, some water vapor is produced too. If the engine is cold, the vapor is condensed and water drops pass through piston rings and enter the oil in crankcase. Presence of water in the engine oil causes rust and corrosion of engine components and also can cause early degradation of oil.

2)        Improper quality of fuel: The amount of sulfur has prominent effect on the oil quality. The higher is the amount of sulfur, the more acidic is oil, and therefore decreases the oil life. This factor is more reflected specially in diesel engines which use gas oil.

3)        Ambient temperature: In warm weather and high temperature, the engine oil is warm too, so after starting up the engine the time for warming up the engine is very short, therefore the amount of condensed water is very lesser than cold weather.

4)        Engine condition: The more older and worn out the engine is, the worse is engine oil condition, because of wear in engine parts, the distance between piston and cylinder is increased and consequently more gases of combustion penetrate the crankcase.

5)        Long sit: If the car has been sitting for long period of time without running and oil has stayed in the crankcase, despite of not running of engine the oil efficiency is decreased, which the main reasons will be complex formation and water presence.