You spend a lot for buying a vehicle and when you make a purchase you make sure that you are buying the best in terms of your budget and affordability. After having bought the vehicle, you take extra care to ensure that you do not bump it with any other vehicle that naturally will leave a scratch on it or you may even end up with a dent on it. You also give it for servicing after every 5000 miles or when you feel the need for it. The mechanic at the garage does the entire thing for you like changing the engine oil, putting grease in all the right places for better lubrication and check if the car is smooth enough for a comfortable drive. Everything seems right till now. However, once thing that leave us with an opportunity to ponder is the fact “has the mechanic used the right engine oil for my vehicle?”
This is perhaps the most important question when it comes to servicing your vehicle. There are many engine oils available in the market; all have their importance in certain model of cars. No one engine oil can be used for all cars and it depends upon the type of engine the car has upon which the compatibility of the oil is considered. The engine oil can be considered as the oxygen of the engine without which the engine of the car becomes nothing but a piece of rusty metal.
Why do we need to change the engine oil?
In order to get an answer for this question, we need to first understand why an engine needs oil in it. Well, a vehicle has lot of moving parts which brushes each other quite often in the process of moving the vehicle. This friction of the moving parts creates heat. Here comes the function of the engine. The oil lubricates the engine which absorbs the heat that is generated from this friction and permits the parts to continue their function without getting over heated. The particles generated from the friction get mixed with the oil which ultimately wears out the quality of the oil and create the need to get it replaced with fresh oil. This is one of the major reasons why you need to change the oil.
How often should one change the engine oil?
The user manual gives instruction as to when should the customer change the engine oil. However, it also depends on some other factors which play a significant role in determining the frequency to change the engine oil. Factors such as “how you drive the vehicle”, “Where you live” “the age of the engine” etc. Ideally, you can just take your vehicle to the mechanic who will check if you should be changing the oil now or will give you a time frame as to when you should come back to him for full servicing. As stated above, basically we need to change oil after every 5000 miles. However, if you use special synthetic oil, it may run for another 5000 miles. These oils are very expensive but one may still find it to be affordable if they want their vehicle to perform in the long run.