Benefits of using Synthetic Motor Oil
When it comes to car maintenance, there is perhaps nothing more important than keeping fresh oil in your crankcase. Without oil, a car’s engine would cease up in a matter of minutes. Even with oil that has broken down and is thus contaminated after a certain period of time, lubrication of an engine’s vital parts becomes greatly compromised. Regular oil changes are necessary to ensure that these parts remain properly lubricated which in turn increase your engine’s useful life.
The automobile has been around for 120 years or so, and conventional motor oil has been the industry standard for decades. In fact, most cars today still employ this type of lubrication. Such oil is refined from petroleum, and this unfortunately has its disadvantages. No matter how well this oil is refined upon extraction from Mother Earth, some impure ingredients will still remain . This will eventually contaminate not only the oil itself, but also the environment as it is expelled. High temperatures will cause conventional oil to break down and leave deposits on your engine’s moving parts. This increases wear. Low temperatures can cause conventional oil to sludge which will block the smooth and consistent flow from one part of your engine to another. Think of clogged arteries in a person with heart disease, and you’ll get the idea. Moreover, once the temperature reaches about -40 (Fahrenheit or Celsius; take your pick, for they are the same), conventional oil actually becomes too thick in consistency to flow.
Synthetic oil is manufactured in a laboratory and free of the impure ingredients that naturally occur in petroleum-based oil. Since it is man-made in this manner, the molecular structure can be manipulated to be far more stable, and thus the temperature issues found with conventional oil are all but eliminated. Synthetic oil was first used in fighter jets and then introduced into racecars by the early 1970s.
It was soon learned that synthetic oil provided much better protection in high-performance sport cars. It therefore stands to reason that this man-made oil will also prolong engine life in more sedate models as well. Today, cars equipped with turbocharged engines actually require the use of synthetic oil as opposed to that of the conventional variety. A couple of examples are the turbo engines found in Volkswagens and the S version of the Mini Cooper. Perhaps best of all, the interval between oil changes with synthetic brands is twice that of their conventional counterparts. Put simply, if every driver used synthetic oil, this would result in less drilling and a cleaner environment.
To be fair to the dinosaurs, there is one drawback to synthetic oil: the price. Because of the manufacturing process, a synthetic oil change will set you back about $80.00 as opposed to a $29.95 conventional oil change, so the extended intervals will only partially negate this differential. But here’s where you will come out a winner: If you choose to use synthetic oil from the very beginning; even in a car that doesn’t require it, there’s a good chance that your engine will enjoy an extra 100,000 miles of life!
