Engine Oils - making a change for the better

Preamble
In the last couple of ‘episodes’, I’ve talked about the pros and cons of ‘premium’ petrol’s and diesel’s. So it may be worthwhile to continue the dialogue and now talk about the most vital fluid in a car i.e. the engine oil – which is rightly equated to blood in the human body.

Today’s engines are efficient and sophisticated machines, often using multiple camshafts, turbo-chargers and other features. They also run faster and hotter, placing tremendous demands on engine oil performance. That’s why it is essential to follow a strict oil-and-filter change schedule for your car.

Changing the oil and filter remove harmful contaminants that build up in your oil with usage – time wise as well as distance wise. A fresh supply of engine oil with its specially selected AND blended additives will restore the protection your engine needs against corrosion, gum deposits, excessive wear, and other problems.

The oil and filter should be changed at the interval recommended in your owner’s manual. Every 5000 km or 3 months is a common recommendation in North America. Every 15,000 to 20,000 km/year is more common in Europe. Whereas in India now, with the advent of BS-III vehicles, 10,000 km or 6-12 months interval – whichever is earlier - is the norm.

Most car owners at some time or the other face a strong sales pitch to ‘fortify’ their engine oils with well-branded ‘Additives’. While most oils look, feel, and smell the same, their designed ‘performance’ can be vastly different - thanks in part to the special additives that their formulators blend them in with. Such additives suspend dirt, inhibit foam formation, improve cold-weather flow, prevent corrosion, reduce friction, and add other desirable qualities such as long life.

While many specialty additives or oil treatments are sold separately as brand names and promise longer life or extra performance for your engine, it’s worthwhile to remember that modern oils are complete ‘recipes’ by themselves having measured portions of all their ingredients. Upsetting such a ‘recipe balance’ can and more often than not, does lead to problems.

An oil formula may include a little anti-wear additive the same way a cake includes a pinch of salt to bring out its flavour. If a little salt works, should you add more? Probably not, and the same goes for oil additives. Choosing the best quality oil you can afford and changing it according to your Owners’ Manual is wiser in the long run.

Synthetic Oils are the ‘Ultimate’ Lubricants available in the World today and to the best of my knowledge, ‘Mobil-1′ is one of the ‘official one’ in India. Regrettably, most retailers don’t stock it as it costs ~ Rs: 750/- a Lr and the takers are very few. Besides, at this cost, the chances of it being spurious are more than bright.

On the flip side, given our Operating Environment, S/O’s can easily go > 3x the otherwise recommended drain interval for the conventional Oils - time as well as distance.

The next best option I’ve come across is the ‘Castrol-Magnatec’ at < half the cost. With this, one can safely do 1-1/2 times the distance/time on the recommended drain intervals.

However, for general info, it may be noted that Synthetic Oils are not recommended for a vast majority of mass produced stock engines, new or under ‘running-in’, to enable them fully ‘bed-in’. Further, as practically all new Cars today come with Warrantees upto 2- yrs/40 kkm, during this period the OEMs don’t permit using any Oils supplied by Customers - for understandable reasons - unless your Dealer is prepared to put-in these at your cost - which he won’t!