Effects of Using The Wrong Engine oil Viscosity

By way of clarification, motor oil is also the same as engine oil or engine lubricant. This is different from transmission/gear oil, power steering oil, or any other lubricant used in a vehicle. In today’s post, we shall critically analyze the effects of using the wrong Motor/engine oil viscosity in your vehicle. Not only that, but I will also touch on the effect of overfilling your engine with oil and the dangers of engine oil shortage in your vehicle.

I will briefly talk about why our cars need engine oil. Vehicles need it to operate smoothly. The role of engine oil is to keep the engine’s moving parts lubricated, protect them against rust and corrosion, and — with modern detergent oil additives — to keep them free of sludge and general engine gunk.

What is motor oil

Motor oil, engine oil, or engine lubricant is any of various substances comprising base oils enhanced with additives, particularly antiwear additives plus detergents, dispersants, and, for multi-grade oils, viscosity index improvers. Motor oil is used for the lubrication of internal combustion engines of vehicles.

Especially Relevant:

• What is premium unleaded gas/petrol? how important are they and where can you find them to buy?

• This is why leaving your car parked unused for an extended period is bad for your car

• How your driving behaviors can improve your vehicle’s fuel efficiency

What is high-mileage motor oil

To many, the term “high-mileage oil” makes no sense. Well, we will try to explain this in this section. A High mileage oil is designed for vehicles with more than 75,000 miles. These types of specially formulated oil are more expensive than conventional ones. Such oil features additives that help protect seals. Some high-mileage oil can be synthetic, while others can be a synthetic blend or base oil. As general advice,  if your vehicle is high in mileage(75k miles or higher) and has high performance, it’s suggested that you go with this type of oil. However, Not every car requires synthetic or high-mileage oil.

What are the best types of high-mileage motor oil?

We have a few good ones like Pennzoil Platinum High Mileage,  Mobil 1 (120769-3PK) High Mileage, AmazonBasics High Mileage Motor Oil, and Castrol  GTX High Mileage 

I prefer the Castrol brand. The reason is that Castrol is the most widely available and popular.  High mileage oils include additives to condition the seals to help reduce seals shrinking and allow oil to seep through, as well as other additives to help protect higher mileage motors from wear.

When you may not use a High-Mileage motor oil

If an engine isn’t burning or leaking oil, or if it uses less than a quart over 6,000 miles or so, switching to high-mileage oil may not be worth the extra cost for you.

It’s a judgment call if you should pay more for high-performance oil when your vehicle has 100,000 miles but uses little or no motor oil. High-mileage motor oil doesn’t hurt and could prevent leaks from starting. Most vehicle manufacturers would say it’s normal for an engine to consume some oil between oil changes.

Best oil change practices for every car owner

Here are some oil maintenance tips that, when applied, would make your vehicle’s engine last very

1. Keep your oil as clean as possible always: the manufacturer must recommend your oil weight/viscosity. Just make sure you keep it changed regularly.
2. Change your oil every year if that car has not been driven: Oil deteriorates over time, as much as it is good to change your oil before storing your vehicle for an extended period (like a year). It is equally good to replace the oil yearly when not driving the vehicle.
3. Use high-quality recommended oil filters only.
4. Change your oil filter every time you do an oil change
5. Don’t ever add any special oil additives to your engine
6. Buy your oil from only known and trusted brands

Major Types of Motor/Engine Oil

• Conventional motor oil

Conventional lubricants are made from crude oil. It’s extracted from the ground and then extensively refined to remove impurities. After that, it gets blended with other chemicals before landing on the shelf of your local auto parts store. No matter what you do, “conventional oils have a level of insoluble – paraffin, waxes, silicon, dirt – natural contaminants.” Under certain conditions, these substances can form deposits inside an engine.

• Synthetic Blend Engine oil

Part-synthetic, also called synthetic blend or semi-synthetic—oils are blends of mineral oil (conventional) and synthetic base oil. Part-synthetic motor oil is designed to have some benefits of a full synthetic but at a lower cost.

• What is Synthetic Motor/Engine oil?

By comparison, synthetic oils are typically artificial. Although unnecessary, they are usually derived from natural gas or alcohol,” meaning they’re pure from the get-go, containing no undesirable contaminants. They are also more stable at a variety of temperatures. They don’t thin out as much when they get hot or excessively thicken in cold weather.

Effects of using the wrong Motor/engine oil as regards mixing synthetic oil with a conventional/regular oil

Is it safe to mix synthetic with regular oil?

For example, you put synthetic oil in your car when you get your oil changed. Then one day, You see you are running about a quart of oil low, but all you can get is regular motor oil. Is it alright to use regular oil, or will you risk harming your engine?

According to Mobil Oil, it should be fine to mix oils. Besides, it would be unlikely anything terrible would happen, such as a gel-forming from an interaction of the chemicals (a common fear), because the oils are compatible. Just ensure you are mixing oil of the same viscosity(E.g 5w-30 vs 5w-30). Many oils are a blend of natural and synthetic oils. So, if you are low on oil, don’t be afraid to add a quart or two of synthetic oil if you are using regular oil or even regular oil if you are using a synthetic.

The negative effects of mixing engine oil

Don’t make it a habit to mix oils routinely. This is because the additives in different products may interact, or the oils may become destabilized by the mixture. You may also reduce or negate the properties of the additives. You could lose the benefits of the more expensive synthetic oil. So, adding regular oil to your special synthetic oil will mean you’ll need to get your oil changed sooner than you would have otherwise.

Where to Find the Information About the Type of Oil to be used in A Vehicle

To avoid using the wrong Motor/engine oil, you need the correct place to find the right oil type for your vehicle. In addition, you must predetermine if your vehicle accepts synthetic oil or not. To answer this critical question, you can find the type of engine oil from the following locations.

1. Your engine oil fills cap: The above picture exemplifies a fill cap. Every vehicle has one. Get only the type of oil written on this cap.
2. There is even more detailed information about the type of oil required by your vehicle in your vehicle’s manual. This includes the option of synthetic oil as well as the temperature tolerance of your type of engine oil. Summarily, your car’s owner’s manual will list the recommended oil weight, whether that’s a standard like 10W-30, 5W-30, 5W-20, or something more unusual.

Which Type of Vehicles can use Synthetic oil?

This is an area I found very fascinating. In Africa, especially Nigeria, we often follow the bandwagon. If, for example, my neighbor is using Mobil high-performance conventional 20W-40 motor oil to service his 1990 Toyota Corolla sedan, without doing my own research, I may ask him about the type of oil that he is using and start using it on my Toyota Corolla, 2010 model.

This is a scientifically wrong practice. It goes without saying that engine components have been changed over the years. What oil is good for Mr. A may not be good for Mr. B.

Moving forward,  conventional/regular oil with the right viscosity or weight will be 100% compatible with both the 1989 Toyota and 2010 Toyota. However, your Corolla 2010 can safely use synthetic oil, while the 1989 synthetic oil might be detrimental to the engine performance of a 1989 Corolla. Furthermore, you augment the extra cost of buying synthetic oil with a comparatively longer oil change interval.

Let’s do basic mathematics on this. For example, if you bought pure synthetic oil for #16,000 for 5 liters, you will buy conventional oil for #4,500. Now, synthetic oils are designed to last way longer. If your car’s manual says you should change the oil every 5000 to even 15,000 miles in some cases, you can use it for a year or more(maximum of a year) regardless of how often your drive before a change.

On the contrary, you must change your conventional oil at least every 3 months. Now, 4500 x 4(months in a year) = #18,000 (this is minus the cost of labor and the cost of your oil filter, the stress and time wasted)

Determining what vehicle can use Synthetic oil

The best practice is to check the manual of your car to see if your car supports synthetic oil. From my research, most cars manufactured in 2000 and beyond can run on synthetic. High-performance vehicles will be more likely to require synthetic oil, as will vehicles with turbocharged or supercharged engines. However, if your vehicle does not require synthetic oil, the choice is trickier – and there is no clear answer, so please check your car’s manual. Let me quickly add that if your car’s manual does not require synthetic oil, you may still use it, but it will add no extra value to your vehicle.

Consequently, you should perform a cost/benefit analysis if your car doesn’t require synthetic oil. But that can be difficult due to vague claims made by manufacturers. There may be no reason to spend more on synthetic oil except for peace of mind or to save extra cash.

What is Motor/Engine oil Viscosity/Weight & its Significance?

First, the viscosity or weight of an oil is the rating or grade given to it by the manufacturers about how it holds up in temperature variations. You can see the oil viscosity of your vehicle on your owner’s manual written on your oil fill cap under the hood. Also, note that single-grade oil is different from multigrade oil. If you have SAE40, that is a single-grade viscosity but if you have 5w40, we are talking about multigrade oil here.

Note: in the case of Nigeria and any country of the world where we have a hot temperature, if your car manufacturer specifies 5w20 oil for your car for example, it is safe to use y a 5w30 or 10w30 oil. I will advise you not to go further higher though.

When the viscosity is explained, words that are too technical for the average person to grasp quickly are used. This leaves them still wondering what the viscosity numbers mean on a motor oil bottle.

Simply put, the viscosity is the oil’s resistance to flow or, for the layman, an oil’s flow speed as measured through a device known as a viscometer. The thicker (higher viscosity) of oil, the slower it will flow. You will see oil viscosity measurement in lube articles stated in kinematic (kv) and absolute (cSt) terms. These are translated into the easier-to-understand SAE viscosity numbers on an oil bottle.

What can a 5W-30 oil weight do that an SAE 30 won’t?

When you see a W on a viscosity rating, it means that this oil viscosity has been tested at a Colder temperature. The numbers without the W are all tested at 210° F or 100° C, approximating the engine operating temperature. In other words, an SAE 30 motor oil is the same viscosity as a 10w-30 or 5W-30 at 210° (100° C).

The major difference is when the viscosity is tested at a much colder temperature. For example, a 5W-30 motor oil performs as an SAE 5 would perform at the specified cold temperature. Still, it has the SAE 30 viscosity at 210° F (100° C), the engine operating temperature. This allows the engine to get a quick oil flow when it is started cold. The advantages of a low W viscosity number are obvious. The quicker the oil flows when the engine is cold, the lesser it experiences dry running. Less dry running means much less engine wear.

Effects of Using the Wrong Motor/engine oil Viscosity in Your Vehicle

When you use engine oil with too high of a cold viscosity rating in cold weather, your car will not start.

Similarly, If you use an oil with too low of a hot viscosity/weight rating, the oil can shear and lose film strength or thin out at high temperatures. This can, by extension, lead to improper lubrication and oil burning.

Thick vs. thin oil is a film strength vs. flow rate tradeoff. Thinner oil means the oil film is more likely to be “squeezed out,” and thick oil means less will get there in the first place.

So the main concerns with oil weight are how much damage is caused by the oil being too thick when cold (it is said that most of the engine’s wear happens when the engine is cold, and a thinner oil will flow better at cold temperatures). And how much damage is caused by oil being too thin when it is hot(This is why I said a 0w20, 5w20 oil may be too thin for hot temperatures.

Ideally, choose an oil with the lowest cold rating possible with the narrowest span of viscosity for the expected temperatures. And it never hurts to use the manufacturer’s recommended viscosity.

Can I go Back and Forth Between Synthetic & Regular oil?

You can go back and forth between conventional and synthetic oils without damaging the engine. This is particularly true considering many synthetics have conventional oil in them already. Use true synthetic oils for maximum performance.

The Advantages of  Synthetic oil Over Conventional Oil

• One major benefit of synthetic oil is molecular consistency. Being an impure substance, conventional lubricants are made up of molecules that are of different lengths. There are small, medium, and long hydrocarbon chains. Synthetic oil is comprised of only medium-length molecules.

The problem with conventional oil is that those short, lightweight hydrocarbons tend to burn off when they get hot. This causes the oil to thicken the longer it’s in an engine, resulting in frequent changes.

• Another advantage is that synthetic oils handle high temperatures better than conventional lubricants. They’re better at transferring heat; synthetic oils can help a vehicle’s engine run cooler.
• A Longer draining interval results from being more resistant to breakdown or “shearing”. Synthetics are much more robust than conventional lubricants, which can pay off. The drain interval can safely be extended anywhere from 10,000 to 12,000 miles, or three to four times regular oil, while the added cost of synthetic is nowhere close to that.
• Synthetic oil offers better fuel economy: Yet another way synthetic oil can save drivers money is through improved fuel economy. Don’t look for a massive increase if you make the switch, but it can boost efficiency by around 2 to 3 percent, a modest but welcome improvement. Ford has also started to use variable-displacement oil pumps, which move less oil at lower engine speeds to help boost efficiency even further. With these improvements, Ford has started advocating 10,000-mile change intervals on its vehicles, helping lower customer maintenance costs.

Best Synthetic Oil for Individual Vehicle Models

Generally, you can buy your oil from any reputable seller. If you use a German vehicle like the Mercedes Benz, Audi, Opel, BMW, or Volkswagen, the manufacturers recommend “Liqui Moly” motor oil. This doesn’t mean you cannot use liqui moly on other vehicles, just that it performs best in German cars.

Other synthetic motor oils that are very popular and great are:

• Amsoil,
• royal purple,
• Amazonbasics
• Castrol Edge (now becoming popular in Nigeria)
• , Mobil 1(from our dear Mobil oil company. extremely popular in Nigeria)
•  Valvoline,
• liqui moly(superior oil for German machines. also becoming popular in Nigeria
•  Pennzoil,
• shell Rotella,
• Total oil(their best synthetic oil is scarce in many cities in Nigeria, unlike mobil Oil)
• Oando(has synthetic oil for average cars but has a very good conventional oil)

Dangers Associated with Engine Oil Overfill & Underfill

I won’t dwell much on the consequences of oil underfill because we know that when your oil level is extremely low, it causes imminent or fast damage to your engine. What happens when you put too much oil n your engine?

Effects of too much Engine Oil in Your Vehicle’s Engine

• if you overfill (not just by a cm or so), then internal crankcase pressure can force lube oil along the valve stems and into the cylinders.  Currently, the engine is not under the control of the diesel fuel injection pump and can “run away” with masses of white smoke. In other words, you cannot stop your vehicle usually. The only way to stop your car in such a situation may be to jam the vehicle into gear and stall it on the clutch.
• Whenever you detect an overfill(the standard gauge is when the oil is in between the upper and lower mark of the dipstick, I don’t think a small overfill will hurt, but to be safe, use an extractor and get the level down to normal.
• The level of damage depends on the amount of overfill. A smoky engine identifies consequences with lots of smoke from the exhaust.
• Also, an oil overfill can cause damage to the oil seals.
• Oil spillage over the engine and compartment.
• Bent connecting rods or broken rods that would end up smashing the engine block.

CONCLUSION

We cannot overemphasize the correct use of motor/engine oils. Using the wrong Motor/engine oil weights comes with dire consequences. We have also learned that underfill and overfill of oil into the engine are bad for your engine. Finally, we have learned one or two things about determining whether your car can use synthetic oil. See you in the following article.