Motor Oil: The Life Blood of Your Car

Written by motorcycleadvisor on August 30th, 2011

Some like to call her “baby”, others refer to her as “big mama”, but to the average person “she” is just a car. But for many, their car is anything but “just”. To many people, their car is a status symbol, something they take pride in showing off to others. But with flaunting comes great responsibility. Those who love their cars take excellent car of them, and ensuring that your car receives regular oil changes is maintenance 101.

But not only vehicle enthusiasts should partake in regular oil changes. If you wish to maintain a clean and healthy vehicle, it is vital that you regularly change your oil. But why exactly do you need to change your oil? What good does changing your oil actually do?

The basic answer to this question is that oil is the life blood to a car, meaning it cannot function without it. The metal parts in the engine are positioned extremely close together, so close that sometimes they can be as little as .0010 inches apart. The oil serves as a lubricant between these parts, ensuring that they do not rub together.

But motor oil does much more than simply keep the engine parts from touching. The oil used in your car has several additional additives that help with other systems. Oil contains a detergent that keeps dirt suspended and moves it into the filter and out of the engine. It also has an anti-friction additive that melts out of the oil if, by chance, and metal parts ever do touch. Oil also contains anti-corrosion additives that help prevent corrosion of the metal pieces in the engine. Finally, motor oil has an anti-foaming agent that prevents bubbling when it is moved quickly through the engine.

As you use your car, your car uses the oil, which causes the oil to use its additives, and eventually those additives get used up. This chain of events is why you must change your oil. If you go too long without changing your oil the additives in it will run out which will then hurt your engine because it will not be able to run smoothly or properly.

To ensure that you receive the fullest life out of your car it is imperative that you change your oil. Yes it costs a bit of money, but the investment you make in oil for your car every six months or 3,000 miles will prove to be a small price when comparing it to the alternative of replacing your car when your engine explodes.

If this is new to you and you don’t know where to go, that’s okay, there are a few things you can do to find an oil changing center near you. You have a couple options:

Option 1: Search your local yellow pages. For example, if you live in Toledo, Ohio the local phone book will have pages specifically dedicated to local oil change centers.

Option 2: Search online for oil change locations in your town. For example, if you live in Chicago, you can go to Google and type in “Chicago Oil Change” and the results will be of oil change centers in your city.

Don’t put this off any longer. If you care for your car now it will repay you over time. And that is a promise.

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