Up until just a few years back, most car owners used regular motor oil in their vehicles; however, today many people prefer synthetic oil. Synthetic oil is very different from standard motor oil, and it is often lasts longer and seems to perform better than regular oil. If you are still using regular oil in your car, you should understand why synthetic oil is becoming so popular. Here are several things you should know about synthetic oil and the differences it offers compared to regular oil.
The Purpose of Oil in General
Every vehicle needs oil, and getting regular oil changes is the most common form of routine maintenance people choose for their vehicles. Oil is a substance your car's engine needs, and it serves two main roles.
The first role is lubricating your engine and its parts. For all the parts in your engine to work properly, they need lubrication, and this is exactly what oil offers. If you feel oil with your hands, you will notice it is very slippery. This slippery feel of oil makes it ideal for lubricating the parts of your car's engine.
The other thing oil does is help keep an engine cool. In other words, oil serves as a cooling agent in a car. Without oil, a car would be more likely to overheat, simply because the engine would not have the ability to stay as cool. As you can see, oil is a vital component of your car's engine, and this is why most people get oil changes on a regular basis.
The Benefits of Synthetic Oil Over Regular Oil
Regular oil, which people have used for many years, is a product that comes from the ground, which means it is a natural resource. Synthetic oil, as the name implies, is a product companies manufacture from a variety of different compounds. The compounds used, when mixed together, properly mimic the same structure and qualities of regular oil, yet these two products are very different.
One of the key differences is in the cleanliness of these two types of oil products. Synthetic oil tends to be a lot cleaner than conventional motor oil, which means your engine stays cleaner and more protected when you use synthetic oil. In addition, synthetic oil tends to protect engines better in extreme temperatures, and synthetic oil tends to last longer.
As a car runs, the oil in it thickens and becomes dirty. As this occurs, the oil loses the ability to do its job. With synthetic oil, the oil will last a lot longer, which means you will need fewer oil changes.
Many car manufacturers recommend oil changes every 3,000 miles, but this is assuming that car owners choose conventional oil. With synthetic oil, you might be able to go 7,000 to 10,000 miles before changing your oil. In some cases, cars can drive even further than this without needing to get oil changes.
The only downside to using synthetic oil is the price. To get an oil change with synthetic oil, you will probably pay around twice the cost of an oil change with regular oil. This is one of the top reasons a lot of people still use regular oil. If this factor bothers you, you should consider all the benefits synthetic oil offers over regular oil, because there are a lot.
If you want to protect your car and make sure it lasts a long time, you should get regular oil changes. You can talk to an oil change shop like PDR Automotive Inc to find out which type of oil would be best for your car and for your budget, and you can schedule an appointment by contacting a shop today.
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