Crop Circles

Have you ever come across someone who thought that changing your motor oil was a waste of time? Well, I have and call me crazy but I think they were the crazy one.  I met this guy and he insisted that all oil was the same, so he used the cheapest oil he could find to put in his car.  He thinks it is all the same stuff and that you can not wear out oil.  He’s going to have a rude awakening when he lives the reality of what happens when you use cheap oil and don’t change it.

First of all, engines use air to burn gas in its combustion chamber.  These are little fiery infernos that create exhaust gas.  Exhaust gas is extremely corrosive and unless there’s something to offset the effects, it will turn your engine oil acidic.  Acid is what causes corrosion!  This corrosion is going to chomp away at your engine as time goes on.   If you don’t prevent acid formation, you are essentially destroying your motor.  However, this is a sneaky problem and it doesn’t show up at 5,000 miles, but more like 50,000.

The detergents in the motor oil keep the engine clean from sludge and varnish.  Since this guy is never changing his oil he will be forming lots of sludge and varnish while his oil continues to breakdown.  Using cheap motor oil he didn’t have much detergent to start with but over a short period he will have used all the detergents up and his engine will start to become filthy inside.  Ultimately he’ll end up with hot spots and poor circulation as certain areas get mucked up with grime, ending up with localized mechanical failures since lubricant will seem to be his motor’s out of reach luxury while the engine’s rumming.

Can you imagine how dirty it will become inside your engine?

He could get lucky and providing his vehicle doesn’t have any electrical malfunctions his oil pressure sensor will give him fair warning of a lack of oil pressure once the filter is completely plugged.  There’s a bypass valve(spring loaded) in oil filters that is supposed to open when you start your engine and the cold engine will mean that the oil is thick.  Even if the oil filter media is totally plugged, it should still open.

Sadly, a cheap run-of-the-mill filter also has a cheap run-of-the-mill composite bypass valve that could likely stick.  Consequently, when you run a cheap filter over a period of time that has likely plugged media, you’re putting way too much trust into a  little valve that can easily fail and starve your engine for oil.  This engine catastrophe can occur a lot faster as well.

Bottom line is you have to control the acid level in your engine and you have to keep the oil filtered.  If you happen to be like this guy I met and share his ideology that “oil is oil” then you might want to make sure you have a waiting list of suckeres who want to buy your car once your engine starts to go downhill.

My suggestion is that you use the best motor oil there is and change your oil filter with your oil filter at the recommended intervals specified for your vehicle.