![]() If you live in Siberia and it’s -20 degrees outside, when you go to start your car’s engine, the oil inside it needs to be thin enough to flow and lubricate all the internal components as soon as you turn the key. The heat has reduced the viscosity and allowed the syrup to flow more quickly. Now take your jar of syrup and stick it in the oven for 20 minutes at 100 degrees C then take the lid off and pour it out. It will start to flow but extremely slowly as the cold temperature has made it more viscous. To put this in perspective, imagine a jar of Golden Syrup, put it in the fridge (at roughly 1-3 degrees C) for a few hours, then take off the lid and try to pour the syrup out. However, In order to lubricate an engine properly the oil must be able to flow at a consistent rate through a broad range of temperatures. When it’s cold, the oil will flow more slowly, when it’s hot, the oil will flow more quickly. Ambient temperature, i.e how hot or cold it is outside also has an effect on the engine oil in your car. So for example, beer has low viscosity and golden syrup has high viscosity. Put another way, thin oil has low viscosity, while thick oil has high viscosity. It's loosely defined as the 'flowability' of the oil. The large numbers on a bottle of oil like 5W30 or 10w40 refer to its viscosity. Semi-synthetic oil is a blend of mineral and synthetic oil to help bring the price down.It also actively cleans the engine's internals as it’s pumped around. It has been engineered by scientists to work over a wide range of temperatures and conditions, while reducing drag on the engine to help reduce fuel consumption. Synthetic oil is the most expensive, but for a reason.Saying all that, it's perfectly fine for older engines whose tolerances are less extreme and that are used in a mild climate without freezing or really hot weather. Few car companies recommend this these days as it generally doesn't come with the engine-cleaning detergents that are required these days and has a limited temperature operation range. Mineral oil is the cheapest and is essentially a constituent of crude oil, produced after it is refined.There are three core types of engine oil on the market: mineral, semi-synthetic and synthetic. If you’re not really interested in what all the jargon means but just want to make sure you get the right motor oil for your car you can use our 'oil finder' - simply enter your reg and away you go The Basics of Car Engine Oil We've let the boffins get in on this though as they're the only ones that truly understand it all. ![]() When you pick up a bottle or look more closely at the specifications you’ll be met with a seemingly random series of letters and numbers and, what's worse, they're similar to those on another identically priced bottle, but different enough to make you wonder if there's something else you should know! Fear not, we’re here to talk you through what it all means, in a (mostly) jargon-free manner. Oil is oil, right? But when you go to buy the stuff, there’s a huge range of options available at all kinds of prices. But what oil suits your car? Which Engine Oil? So you want to top up your car's engine oil and you want to do it yourself - maybe you've seen our DIY videos! You know where the dipstick is, you know the procedure and all you need now is some oil. ![]()
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