Why do cars needs to have their oil changed? Will my car blowup if I don’t do it on time?
In: Engineering
The oil starts to break down and lose/change its ability to lubricate the engine, as well as start t fill up with impurities, eventually this will start to damage the engine, and some time later cause it to fail.
Only the engine will blow up. The rest of the car doesn’t have to contain exploding gasoline. Oil is slowly consumed.
The engine is a very hot place. So even if your oil will not actually burn it will slowly react with air and itself and change into different substances. So the big heavy hydrocarbons that helps lubricate the parts gets broken down into smaller molecules and black sot which does not lubricate as well. In addition the engine have a lot of metal pieces rubbing against each other and they may occasionally erode a bit on each other. The lubrication of the oil is supposed to help prevent this but it is still not perfect. The problem is that when the metal erode there will be small metal pieces that ends up in the oil. These might at some point make their way into other places that is being lubricated by the oil and these metal particles will act more like sandpaper then lubricant. Preferably these metal particles gets trapped in the oil filter but even this ends up clogged if there is too much. And some metal particles might be too small for the filter.
Your car does thousands of revolutions per minute, that’s a lot of motion for the gears & stuff in the motor to do, and the oil helps lubricate things to keep heat from friction to a minimum, and keep the engine operating efficiently.
If you don’t change the oil on time, it’s not a big deal, just remember to get it done sooner rather than later. You probably won’t notice a big change in how the engine performs, but it will be a little less efficient. Most of the time the oil change happens every 6 months or every 3000-6000 miles, mostly depending on your car, what kind of region/climate you’re in, and what kind of oil is being used (Synthetic oil tends to last a little longer).
If you don’t *ever* change the oil, then eventually the efficiency will hit a minimum. The parts that need that lubrication won’t have it, and lose a lot of their energy to friction & heat. That friction & heat can royally screw up the engine, bad enough that the repair bill will be upwards of $5000-10,000 to replace the whole engine. Which definitely makes it worth your while to get an oil change at a fraction of that cost.
Oil will break down over time due to high temperatures in the engine (known as thermal breakdown). Because of this, the oil isn’t capable of providing the necessary lubrication for metal parts after an extended period of use. Without lubrication, the moving joints in the engine will start rubbing against each other and cause premature wear. Oil also has a limited capacity on how much particulates it can hold. By not changing the oil, particles already in the oil will begin to settle and cause corrosion.
One of the biggest dangers of not changing your oil is sludge buildup. Sludge occurs when old oil begins to gel or solidify in an engine. When sludge begins to build up, oil isn’t able to flow freely through the engine and can cause oil starvation to crankshafts, bearings, camshafts, and other valve train components not be lubricated. In time, this can cause major damage to the engine and, in the worst situations, require an engine replacement or rebuild.
If the oil isn’t changed, your vehicle’s engine will start to have a lot of problems. The most common issue is that the parts in your engine will become too hot. This can cause the engine to run less efficiently, and as time goes on, it can cause the engine components to warp and wear out. The lack of lubrication between these parts will also contribute to these problems.
Eventually, if the oil is not changed, the entire engine will shut down and have to be replaced. This repair can cost thousands of dollars
The oil is used to lubricate the engine to ensure that all the parts are able to move freely.
Over time the oil will break down and become less effective at being a lubricant. So when you change the oil you are ensuring it is of a good quality and suitable to do its job.
If you don’t change your oil regularly enough it will not be doing its job of lubricating the engine as well as it should – this will cause extra wear to the engine, and cause it to run less efficiently. If you let this happen for too long a period, the wear and problems will build up until something fails in the engine and it stops working.
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