What Kind of Motor Oil Do You Need?

You probably know you need an oil change in your car every three thousand miles or so, but what you may not realize as you reach for that quart of oil, is what you are reaching for. There are three different types of oil you can buy for your car- conventional, synthetic and a blend or hybrid of both of these. What may be ideal for one car may not be ideal for another so before you blindly buy you need to make sure you are making the best oil choice for your car possible.

All motor oil is made of base oil with additives added but not all motor oil is the same. Conventional oil comes from crude oil, which comes from the ground. Good old Texas tea. It has a few disadvantages to its use though. For one thing when the temperature exceeds 240 degrees it can break down and led to oxidation which increase the wear on your car’s engine.

Another disadvantage to petroleum or conventional oil is on the other end of the temperature spectrum. Very low temperatures such as -40 can make it too thick to flow through your engine correctly. And low temperatures can cause sludge to form which is the kiss of death to many engines. This oil needs to be changed every three thousand miles but it is less expensive than its manmade synthetic oil.

Synthetic oil which is manufactured in a lab has the advantage of flowing easily in all temperatures and can let you go longer- five to seven thousand miles to be precise- between oil changes instead of the traditional three thousand miles. The con to synthetic oil is the higher cost but once you figure your longer life span between an oil change that cost is only about 60% more than conventional motor oil cost.

Another advantage to synthetic motor oil is found in its slippery nature. Your engine will experience less wear thanks to the slipperiness of synthetic and last longer.

Of course as good as synthetic motor oil sounds it isn’t for every car. Older cars with a lot of miles on their engines don’t do as well with synthetic oil. While newer cars do great with the thin slippery nature of synthetic oil, older cars tend to have high mechanical wear and internal oil leaks that is not compatible with the nature of synthetic oils.

Finally there is a choice of both synthetic and petroleum in a hybrid blend of both. Hybrid motor oil falls somewhere in between the two but fails to be as popular as synthetic or conventional oil with most consumers who get an oil change done.