How Regular servicing maintains the longevity of your engine
A new client to me asked me the other night if going over their service schedule was something to worry about. To which I said I would create a post to show them what could happen.
I could of answered this in many ways with complex explanations and diagrams etc, I could of said yes it’s so bad give me your money but I feel there is simple way to answer and that’s with an analogy. If you went for a steady run to the gym across a period of a few hours (motorway driving), then entered the gym did some weights (traffic driving) and finally then some interval sprints (hard acceleration) the whole way home. By the time you got home you would of burnt an excessive amount of calories (fuel), your muscles (engine) would of worked hard and you would of sweat an excessive amount of fluids (oil) the whole time. During this process you would ideally hydrate your body right? If the body is left de-hydrated (low or contaminated oil) you feel more tired, you will be more sluggish and the moving parts of your body won’t work as efficiently as you normally would!
The same goes for your engine, the oil is the water in your body and the engine is the muscles that make your body work.
The role of oil in a combustion engine is to lubricate all the moving parts and keep everything as it should. A little bit like your blood. Every combustion engine will contain oil with a specific viscosity and a temperature grade. For example 5w-30 semi synthetic.
As a muscle has various parts that make it work, an engine does also. To simplify things an engine has what is known as a crankshaft, this usually sits above/in a container of oil at the bottom of the engine and when the engine is running it spins through the oil and pushes it through various little gaps to get it around the engine keeping everything lubricated.
When this oil gets low the engine works harder as the moving metal parts have less lubrication to go around and you end up getting tiny metal particles that build up in the oil.
Now a brief outline of the basics has been covered, we can move onto the regular servicing explanation.
Every manufacture will have set a specific oil grade (like we mentioned earlier) and a specific oil change interval. The higher the performance vehicle, the lower the servicing interval timing or milage.
For a demonstration as shown in the photos at the bottom of the article, I will use a VW Transporter T6 2.0 turbo diesel. This vehicle and different models within the VAG group, can be set to run roughly 2 years and 18,000 miles on one oil change interval providing you use the right oil grade. (Longlife servicing)
If these servicing routines are not adhered to, the oil as pre-mentioned will gather an extensive amount of metal particles which makes the lubrication harder in turn creating a less sustainable oil.
Once the integrity of the oil has been compromised it will cause various different damages to the engine and thus causing failure of the moving parts. This is where start to see turbo failure, crankshaft / bottom end bearings to knock, oil pressure faults and many other issues.
Unfortunately for the customer I’m using as a demonstration in the pictures, they will be requiring a engine and possibly a turbo. Although their engine could be repaired, it is more economical to them to replace it with new engine pre-built.
As you can see the oil has a silver glimmer to it (metallic particles), you can even see metal particles in the sump if you look closely. There is particles in the oil strainer (like a filter) which should not be there at all. Finally the cause of the knocking noise from the engine, the big end bearings of the con-rod are destroyed which has scored the crankshaft.
I hope this has educated some of you and although this is a basic level of understanding, I hope it helps you realise that by spending on average £100-£150 on a oil service, it’s saving you potentially £3000-£4000 on a new engine.
Remember the harder you make your engine work, like your body the hotter it will get, the more chance it will need hydration and need for it to cool down properly. If this isn’t done then the higher the chance you will do damage which in turn will reduce the longevity of your oil.
This is why regular servicing is such an important request for your vehicle, so please do not ignore your service light when it comes on. Book in with us or any reputable mechanic and let’s me more pro-active to keep you and your vehicle safe.
Thankyou all for reading!
Oil with metalic particles
Oil strainer - Filter as such
Crankshaft scorn from lack of lubrication
Crankshaft bearings - scorn from lack of proper lubrication