Auto Insurance

Have you ever met someone that believed you didn’t have to change your motor oil?  I have.  Talk about crazy.  This guy swore up and down that “oil is oil” so he used the cheapest motor oil he could find for his poor car’s engine.  He truly believes that all oil is the same and it can’t be worn out…it’ll just last forever.  Well, he’s in for a doozy of a surprise because all sorts of things go wrong when you don’t change your oil…especially if it’s some cheap no name brand.

Engines use air to burn gasoline in their combustion chamber.  This creates exhaust gas.  Unless you want your engine oil to turn acidic, then you need something to counteract the effects of the exhaust gas.  Acid causes corrosion!  This corrosion is going to chomp away at your engine as time goes on.   If you don’t prevent acid formation, you are essentially destroying your motor.  It takes time though, your problems will be there but you won’t see them at 5,000 miles…more like 50,000.

The detergents in the motor oil keep the engine clean from sludge and varnish.  This guy who refuses to change his oil is going to wind up with a huge amount of sludge and varnish in his motor and in the meantime his oil will continue to break down.  He made the poor decision to use cheap motor oil which doesn’t contain much detergent to begin with, and over a short spell his detergents will be gone and his engine will develop into its own little cess pool.  Ultimately he’ll end up with hot spots and poor circulation as certain areas get mucked up with grime, ending up with localized mechanical failures since lubricant will seem to be his motor’s out of reach luxury while the engine’s rumming.

It might be difficult to imagine how dirty that engine will end up.

If he is lucky his oil pressure sensor will detect a lack of oil pressure when the filter gets completely plugged.  There’s a bypass valve(spring loaded) in oil filters that is supposed to open when you start your engine and the cold engine will mean that the oil is thick.  Even if the oil filter media is totally plugged, it should still open.

A cheap filter has a cheap composite bypass valve that could stick.  If you run a cheap filter over time that has plugged media, you’re going to be putting way too much faith into a crappy little valve, and when that valve fails your engine will be starving for oil.  Don’t count on this engine disaster to happen years down the road either.

Bottom line is you have to control the acid level in your engine and you have to keep the oil filtered.  If you believe oil is oil and you can change it whenever you want then make sure you have a line of suckers to sell your car to when the engine starts giving you problems.

My advice to you is to use the best motor oil available (synthetic is preferable!) as well as changing the oil filter along with the precise intervals that are recommended for oil changes.