Changing your oil is a way of maintaining your car. Changing your oil and adding oil are two different things. To maintain your car properly, you need to change your oil often.
How often should you Change your Oil
You are meant to know that all vehicles are not created equal, so the proper oil change for your car comes from the manufacturer. From the owner manual, you need to know your specific oil interval and the type of oil your car needs. Some cars need an oil change after 5,000 miles, some after 7,500 to 10,000 miles. But the standard advice is to change your oil every 5,000 miles or 8,000 kilometers or every 4 months.
If you can’t keep track of your mileage (the distance that you have traveled), you can also know when its time to change your oil by looking at your dipstick. When the dipstick is dark, it means its time to change your oil.
Effects of not changing your oil
The function of oil is to reduce friction, but with time, the chemical structure in the oil breaks down and makes it less effective. Apart from the chemical structure breaking down, leaving oil in the oil tank for long will cause a lot of damage which includes:
- It causes engine heating (hot engine).
- The vehicle will run less efficiently.
- It destroys the engine.
Is Adding a Fresh Oil Bad?
Just adding oil into your oil tank without changing it is a very big mistake. Adding oil without changing it can damage your car, by changing your oil, you get rid of dirt and grime in the engine.
Type of Oil to Use?
We have two types of oil which are,
- The conventional oil
- Synthetic oil.
Conventional oil is very affordable to distill and refine from a barrel of crude oil that was easily pulled out of the ground, It is also cheap and it works. Conventional oil is extracted from the ground using traditional drilling methods. It is liquid at atmospheric temperature and pressure conditions and therefore flows without additional stimulation. Buy on Amazon.
While Synthetic oil is created by people using the Fischer-Tropsch process (a chemical reaction) that converts a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen into liquid hydrocarbons). This Fischer-Tropsch process can also be used on conventional oil.
Synthetic oils are superior and the best oil because of lack of impurities, and it has more uniform molecular structure. This makes the synthetic oil a more consistent and durable oil, which gives you better protection and a better flow at cold and hot temperatures. The synthetic oil easy ability to flow is beneficial for your engine, it usually makes a slight bump in gas mileage and power. You can buy it on Amazon here.
Types of Synthetic Oil
Thank you for the information. I use a Toyota Corolla 2004 model my egine oil always go down so I do top it up after like every 2000 miles, please what is the cause and possible solution. I use a synthetic oil which is the oil specification for the car.