How to determine oil change intervals

How to determine oil change intervals and why it is necessary to periodically add oil

It happens that the oil is subjected to premature aging. Typically, this happens to poor quality or counterfeit oils, but it may happen when using good oil, too. If the piston rings let in a lot of products of combustion from the cylinder to the interior chamber of the engine, the chemical components of the fuel can react with the oil. As a result, the oil can get oxidized and become too thick. It will no longer lubricate the engine the way it should.

If, after a start-up, the oil indicator on the dashboard does not go off for a long time, immediately check not only the oil level, but its condition as well: its colour and viscosity. If the oil has quickly become black and at the same time it flows down the dipstick very slowly, then it is an alarming sign. If the oil does not get dark at all in the course of the use of the vehicle, then the oil does not perform its function of cleaning, or it does not retain particles that are deposited on the inside surface of the engine.

However, oil should be checked regardless of what the oil control light shows. The fact remains that the vehicles equipped with engines with small volume of fill-in may signal an abnormal condition too late – you should agree that the loss of one liter of oil out of three is not the same as the loss of one liter out of five in engines with a large volume.

There is a special danger when drivers fill in oil at suspicious filling-in stations directly from the barrel. A large amount of sediment containing an over-proportional amount of the active substances may accumulate at the bottom of the barrel. And someone, according to the theory of probability, will get all this deposit. When that oil starts to work in the engine, you will need to overhaul the engine just after a few days.

If the premature deterioration of oil has not been caused by problems of oil itself, it means that wrong oil has been filled in.