What Happens if You Don’t Change Your Car’s Engine Oil?
You keep being told that it’s important to have your car’s engine oil changed frequently. But how necessary is it to actually do that? Won’t the engine run fine with the oil it has? How bad could it be to postpone an oil change for a year? This is what mechanics say will happen if you never change your car’s engine oil.
Basic Maintenance Requirements: Make sure you’re following these crucial serve needs to protect your car
The danger of skipping an oil change
Engine oil is a key component of your car’s mechanical operations. Although it’s not a mechanical component in itself, it helps those metal components move and operate safely and effectively. Without engine oil present to lubricate the mechanized parts, the system would break down and cease functioning.
So why does your car need new engine oil all the time? As the engine runs, two things happen to the current oil: It becomes dirty with grime and its chemical elements break down. Oil can only function as a lubricant for so long until it begins breaking apart and becoming coarse — hastened by oxidation.
According to Quaker State’s Jeff Hsu, as interviewed by Kelley Blue Book in its KBB’s Oil Explained! series on YouTube, this will inevitably lead to “a catastrophic failure” where “every light on your dashboard will light up in a Christmas tree, and then it will quit on you.” You wouldn’t want that to happen when you’re driving on the highway!
Thus, if you wait too long to change your engine’s oil with fresh, clean liquid, the inner workings of your vehicle’s motor will grind together and seize up. Your car will become a fancy block of $25,000 metal and cloth.
For tips on changing engine oil yourself, here’s our simple step-by-step tutorial and a guide to understanding how to read those confusing oil bottle labels.
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Aaron is unashamed to be a native Clevelander and the proud driver of a Hyundai Veloster Turbo (which recently replaced his 1995 Saturn SC-2). He gleefully utilizes his background in theater, literature, and communication to dramatically recite his own articles to nearby youth. Mr. Widmar happily resides in Dayton, Ohio with his magnificent wife, Vicki, but is often on the road with her exploring new destinations. Aaron has high aspirations for his writing career but often gets distracted pondering the profound nature of the human condition and forgets what he was writing… See more articles by Aaron.