If your vehicle's engine is its heart, then the oil is its blood. Regular oil changes are essential for keeping your car, truck, or SUV running well. Without this maintenance, your vehicle's performance will suffer, and you could end up with costly damage. Keep reading to discover more about the benefits of oil changes, the signs you need new oil, the types of oil you can choose, and how oil changes work.
Why Regular Oil Changes Are Important
Oil lubricates many parts in your car's engine, preventing friction when the pistons move up and down inside the cylinders. Over time, heat from the engine and contaminants make the oil in your vehicle less effective. Dirty oil keeps engine parts from fitting together tightly, and it can lead to scratches on metal components and higher engine temperatures. Being heated and cooled frequently also increases the viscosity or thickness of the oil, reducing its ability to flow freely through the engine. Skipping oil changes can lead to harmful deposits inside the motor and extensive damage.
Getting regular oil changes and other
vehicle service increases fuel efficiency, lowers the amount of heat produced by the motor, and prevents wear and damage to the engine. It can extend your vehicle's life, and showing prospective buyers regular service records can make your car much more appealing, increasing its value.
When to Get an Oil Change
Check your car's owner's manual to find out how often you should get the oil changed. For most vehicles, you should have this service done every 3,000 to 5,000 miles. If you often drive in heavy traffic or you make many short trips, you may need to change your oil more frequently. Oil works best when the motor is warm, and it won't get a chance to heat up properly in those conditions.
Signs You Need an Oil Change
If your vehicle needs an oil change, you may notice some warning signs. Old oil often looks thicker or more watery than normal, and it's a darker color. You could see lots of exhaust when the engine is working, and it might be noisier than usual. A warning light to change the oil soon or a check engine light are common signs as well. If you see one of these lights and you changed your oil recently, you could have a bad sensor, or the technician may have forgotten to reset the oil life monitoring system at your last oil change. If you see a warning saying your oil pressure or your oil level is low, stop the vehicle and don't restart it until you add oil.
Get your vehicle examined by an experienced professional as soon as possible to correct any problems and keep them from becoming more serious. You could have an oil leak from a degraded seal in the engine, damage to the oil pan under the vehicle, a worn or loose oil drain plug, an oil filter that needs replacing, or a loose, broken, or missing oil filler cap. Oil leaks can stain the pavement in your driveway and damage your engine.
Types of Oil
When you get your oil changed, you can choose conventional, synthetic, synthetic blend, or high-mileage oil.
Conventional oil, also called mineral oil, is made from petroleum, and it contains additives to help it resist breakdown from engine heat. It works best for simple engine designs and people who don't need to push their car's performance limits. You should usually have conventional oil changed every 3,000 to 5,000 miles depending on driving conditions and the manufacturer's recommendation.
Synthetic oil is made in a lab, and it doesn't contain any natural petroleum. It has fewer impurities, and the structures of the hydrocarbon molecules are more uniform. These characteristics make it more resistant to high or low temperatures than conventional oil. It's more costly, but you'll need to change it less frequently, and it could improve your vehicle's performance. With this type of oil, you should get your vehicle checked by a professional every six months or 10,000 miles.
Synthetic blend or semi-synthetic oil uses a combination of conventional and synthetic oil. It provides a lower price than fully synthetic oil and better performance than conventional oil. You should get synthetic blend oil changed every 5,000 to 7,500 miles. High-mileage oil is made for newer vehicles with more than 75,000 miles. It has a unique formula and additives that reduce oil burnoff and residue caused by heat from the engine. It can help prevent oil leaks and extend the lives of engines with lots of wear.
Motor Oil Grades
The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) classifies oil by viscosity, a fluid's resistance to flow. Thinner fluids like water have low viscosity, and thicker fluids like honey have high viscosity. Motor oil changes in viscosity as it gets heated or cooled, and oil with a lower viscosity grade can pass through the engine and work well at lower temperatures. It often has a W next to the grade for winter.
If you need an oil that can work at high and low temperatures, consider a multi-grade option. Special polymers called viscosity index improvers (VIIs) are added to the oil, giving it the viscosity of the first grade when cold and the viscosity of the second grade when hot. For example, a 10W-30 oil has a viscosity grade of 10 in cold weather and 30 at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. You can use multi-grade oil all year, and people often call it all-season oil.
At Huffines Chevrolet Plano, we use certified technicians and genuine Chevy parts. With our express service, we can get your oil change done in just 20 to 30 minutes. You can also get a new oil filter, a tire rotation, and a thorough vehicle inspection that includes a wheel alignment check.
Contact us to find out more about oil changes and the other types of service available at Huffines Chevrolet Plano. We're open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturdays.