From Basic Oil Properties To The Latest Synthetic Motor Oils

From Basic Oil Properties To The Latest Synthetic Motor Oils

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The importance of choosing the right motor oil

Conventional engine oils? Synthetic motor oils? Semi-synthetics? With our busy lives and long vehicle servicing intervals, it's easy to shut the bonnet and take motor oils for granted. But you shouldn't. Even if it's just so you can talk to your garage mechanic more knowledgeably, it's useful to know a bit about the importance of choosing the right gearbox or engine oils. And why there's more to oil than mere lubrication

The right motor oil grades? Read your owner's manual

With so many brands, motor oil grades and specifications, understanding what's right for your vehicle can seem daunting. In fact, the hard work was done by the vehicle manufacturer long before your vehicle was built. Manufacturers such as Toyota, General Motors and Ford work closely with lubricant manufacturers and invest millions identifying the best oil specifications for each vehicle. The results appear in your vehicle's owner's manual - the definitive guide to the right conventional or synthetic motor oils.

The properties behind advanced synthetic motor oils

Though they're vastly different in performance, conventional oils and the latest synthetic motor oils share one characteristic - a carefully designed mix of properties. Whatever their ingredients, the 'right' oil will have been formulated to combine properties such as these:

* Viscosity

* Viscosity index

* Flash point

* Pour point

* Sulphated ash percentage

Whether in synthetic motor oils for engines or specialist synthetic gear oil, viscosity is the most important. Viscosity is the oil's ability to flow around moving parts to protect them. Modern multi-viscosity synthetic and semi-synthetic motor oils are designed to perform well under a wide range of operating conditions - all specified on easy-to-read tables in the vehicle manual.

Related to viscosity is the viscosity Index. This describes the rate-of-change of oil's viscosity with changing temperature. For engine oils, higher is generally better.

Flash point (FP) indicates the quality of the base stock (the thick petroleum hydrocarbon liquid derived from crude oil) used to make the oil. A low FP means oil vaporises and burns easier - meaning higher oil consumption. In this case, higher is better.

Last but not least are pour point and sulphated ash percentage. These indicate how easily oil can be pumped around an engine or transmission and the amount of solids left after oil burns (more means more harmful deposits) respectively.

Conventional and synthetic motor oils

As well as having different properties, different oils use differing proportions of natural and synthetic components to vary their performance characteristics. The three main types of lubricants are as follows:

* Conventional motor oils

* Synthetic motor oils (including synthetic gear oil)

* Semi-synthetic oils

Again, the vehicle owner's manual specifies the type of oil to use: ignore its recommendations at your peril!

Conventional mineral oils, often with additives, are produced from an organic base stock without adding synthetic ingredients. Then there are the fully-synthetic motor oils that have become popular in recent years, especially for high-performance applications where superior longer-lasting performance is more important than cost.

Finally, there are the semi-synthetic motor oils (synthetic blend oils), combining synthetic oil with organic mineral oil for enhanced performance without costly over-specification - perfect for the majority of modern vehicles' advanced engines and transmissions.

Trust the vehicle maker and oil manufacturer

Oil technology is a complex, constantly changing subject. While it's useful to understand lubrication basics, there's no substitute for trusting vehicle and lubricant manufacturers' knowledge and doing the following:

* Read your vehicle's owner manual.

* Whether you use synthetic motor oil or not, change lubricants at the manufacturer's recommended frequencies.

* Insist on compliance with the manufacturer's lubricant specification.

* Don't cut costs by choosing cheap lubricants.

* Make sure your engine and gearbox oils come from a reputable manufacturer - not necessarily one of the high-profile multinationals such as Shell, BP or Exxon.

Enjoy the benefits of the right oil choice

Then relax and enjoy the peace of mind from having a reliable, economical vehicle with a long service life ahead of it. Whether you need conventional, semi-synthetic or synthetic motor oils, that may be the greatest benefit of choosing the right motor oils.

About the Author:
The selection of the correct oils and lubrication fluids is a vital part of the safe ownership of any mechanical equipment, be it a car or industrial plant. Graham Baylis is working with some of the best experts in the field, Exol Lubricants. See www.exol-lubricants.com



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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