Give your car the best oil change job

By Eric “Ayrton” S. Soriano

Your car’s engine oil is an excellent multi-tasker. Besides its critical role of lubricating moving engine parts, it also acts as a cooling medium; a cleaning agent; a sealant between piston rings and cylinder walls; and a shock absorber of sorts between bearings and rotating journals. It is therefore of utmost importance to do your oil changes properly. Here’s how to be obsessive-compulsive-esque about it:

1. Timing is everything

To know when your car is due for its next oil change, monitor the number of kilometers and the number of months that have elapsed since your last oil change. Note these down and program reminders on your mobile phone or PC. Check your owner’s manual for the recommended service interval but most cars on Philippine roads require oil changes every 5,000 km or three months, whichever comes first.

2. Pick the right oil

There is a staggering variety of engine oils in the market. Thankfully, engine oils may be differentiated based on their performance attributes and their thickness. Another way of categorizing oils is through their formulation (mineral-based or synthetic).

1. Performance categories

Just like the engines they are meant for, engine oils and the technology that go into developing them is continuously evolving. The engine oils available on store shelves today are therefore vastly superior to the oils that were on the market 10 years ago. Research and development efforts for lubricants have become so methodical and scientific that industry-wide performance standards for engine oils have been set, with the American Petroleum Institute (API) performance categories being the most widely accepted standards. As newer engine oils meet ever-stricter demands for new engines, the API introduces new performance categories every few years.

The letter “S” followed by another letter indicates the API performance category to which a gas engine oil belongs. For diesel engine oils, performance categories are indicated by the letter “C” followed by another letter and then, in recent years, a number. The rule of thumb is, the farther along the alphabet the second letter is, the more advanced it is and the better it performs.

For example, the current performance categories for gas engine oils are SJ, SL, and SM. In other words, oils with these ratings are currently acceptable for use and oils with pre-SJ performance ratings are obsolete (the API skipped SI and SK to avoid confusion as these acronyms are widely used in other fields). Introduced in November 2004, the SM category is the newest and best category so far. An SM oil is better than an SL one, which is in turn better than an SJ oil. When a new category comes along to exceed SM in the coming year or so, expect SJ to become obsolete.

Curiously, one of the Big Three oil companies in the Philippines still sells engine oil rated SG. The SG standard was launched way back in 1989(!) and the API website (www.api.org) declares that SG-rated oils are suitable only for gas engines introduced prior to 1994. 

The current standards for diesel engine oils are CF, CF-2, CF-4, CG-4, CH-4, and CI-4. Although the CI-4 standard was introduced in 2002, I still have to see a CI-4 oil in the Philippines; the highest-rating locally available diesel engine oil I’ve seen so far is rated CH-4. Any pre-CF oil is obsolete.

Some oils may be used for either gas engines or diesel engines and their labels display performance ratings for both. But an oil with the highest SM rating for gas engines may not necessarily be highly rated for diesel engines so read the fine print on the oil container.

The performance category indicated in your car’s owner’s manual will someday become obsolete so do not rely on your manual’s performance category recommendations. Instead, always keep abreast with the API’s latest performance standards and buy the oil complying with these.

Totally useless bits of information that won’t impress the chicks: the S in the performance rating for gas engine oils stands for Spark-ignition while the C for diesel engine oils is derived from Compression-ignition.

2. Viscosity

The next most important letters and numbers to look for when purchasing multi-grade engine oils are the viscosity rating denoted by a series of numbers and letters such as SAE 5W-30. Keep in mind that the viscosity rating refers to the thickness of the oil and is not an indication of its performance attributes.

The lower the first number, the better the oil’s ability to flow in extremely cold weather and the easier the engine will crank and come to life. The “W” means the oil is suitable for winter conditions. The second number indicates the oil’s suitability for use in hot weather. The higher the second number, the hotter the weather it could handle. In case you were wondering, SAE stands for Society of Automotive Engineers.

A single grade oil’s viscosity rating looks something like this: SAE 30. Single-grade oils are not very commonly used in the Philippines and are suitable for warmer climates or when engine block heaters are used.

ALWAYS follow the viscosity recommendations in your car’s owner’s manual.

3. Synthetic or mineral-based?

Synthetic oils tolerate heat better and produce less carbon deposits and sludge, thus offering an extra measure of protection compared to mineral-based oils. There is a common perception that synthetics could last up to 10,000 km (as opposed to 5,000 km for mineral-based oils) as long as you change your oil filter after 5,000 km. Is this a safe assumption?

The straightforward answer is…it depends. As a general rule, it is still best to follow your manufacturer’s recommended oil change interval, whether you use synthetic or mineral-based oil. Honda Philippines, for one, began prescribing a 10,000-km or 6 months (whichever comes first) preventive maintenance service intervals a few years ago for their newly launched models but synthetic oil must be used. Some European car manufacturers also recommend a similar oil change interval.

As for me, I care too much for my sets of wheels to gamble on this; I’d rather go the sure route and put in mineral-based oils every 5,000 km, as recommended by the manufacturers.

One last word on choosing oils: some brands of oil are being copied and sold by counterfeiters so buy oils only from big, reputable establishments.

3. Pick the right oil filter

As much as possible, I patronize shops that allow me to bring not only my own engine oil but my own oil filter as well. Why bring my own filter? One, I’m sure the filter I use is the proper size and two, I could be certain that the filter is not counterfeit since the spare parts market is flooded with counterfeit products. If a service center doesn’t have the proper oil filter size for your car, expect the mechanic to sell you the next closest size they have and tell you that it fits well enough. Not good.

Vic is a Japanese brand of oil filters popular among consumers and service centers and, not surprisingly, counterfeiters. So if you decide to use this brand, make sure you buy the oil filter from a reputable shop. One thing I like about Ace hardware is their oil filters section has a list of various car makes and models and the corresponding Vic oil filter size.

Another brand of oil filters I trust is Bosch.

4. Check the drain plug and drain plug washer

Before draining the used engine oil, ask the mechanic to check the drain plug if it is coated with oil outside. If so, one of three things could be wrong: the drain plug wasn’t tight enough; the drain plug is worn out and needs replacement; the drain plug washer is worn out and needs replacement. If the mechanic says you need to replace the drain plug or drain plug washer or both, buy only original parts from your casa. You can’t afford to have an improperly fitting drain plug or washer because this could lead to a leak.

5. Drain, drain, go away, used engine oil

At this point, your mechanic should be ready to remove the drain plug and let out the used oil. However, letting gravity do the work isn’t enough to rid your engine of all its used oil as some used oil settles on some engine parts. After the used engine oil has been drained, rinse off any remaining used oil in this manner:

1. Ask the mechanic to return the drain plug
2. Pour 0.5 to 1 liter of unused oil into the engine. The oil I use for rinsing is cheap, ordinary motor oil (the SG-rated one), not flushing oil (more on this later). DO NOT start your engine.
3. Ask the mechanic to drain the oil you have just put. As you drain this newly poured oil, notice its color. If you love your car as much as I do, you will derive so much satisfaction from seeing the oil go black shortly after pouring it in—that’s how much used oil and other contaminants remained and is being rinsed out.
4. Ask the mechanic to return the drain plug and washer and to wipe them dry. Have him double check the plug’s tightness.

So why do I go through this extra step of rinsing off any remaining old oil? Brand new oil begins to go to work—and deteriorate—the moment it gets in contact with contaminants in your car’s engine. Detergent-dispersants in the oil act like soap and loosen and neutralize these contaminants such as old oil, microscopic metal particles, carbon, and grit. So the less used oil and contaminants your new oil has to contend with at the outset, the longer your new oil will last.

Warning: there are flushing oils in the market designed specifically to flush away used oil and other contaminants remaining after the used oil is drained. The instructions printed on these flushing oils’ containers require that the engine is run for a few minutes before draining the flushing oil. I strongly urge you NOT to do this since these flushing oils may not protect a running engine as well as motor oil does. However, you may also use the flushing oil to rinse out the old engine oil. Just make sure you DO NOT start your engine.

6. Pour in the new engine oil
1. Follow your owner’s manual’s specifications regarding how much oil your car needs as putting more oil than necessary could cause excessive oil pressure build-up and damage your lubricating system.

I got turned off by one casa I used to patronize because their very own mechanics sometimes didn’t know how much oil my car needs. I once had a car that required only 3.5 liters of oil. The casa mechanics always put in 4 liters (the oil on the dipstick always went beyond the maximum mark and the service center never gave me the excess 0.5 liters). Grrr.

2. Do NOT use any engine oil additives. Oil companies invest millions of dollars in R&D to give your engine the best protection possible. So forget about those engine additives you see on TV or on the shelves of auto supply shops; you don’t need them and they are a waste of money. Besides, when your engine oil comes into contact with the additive, the oil treats it as a contaminant and proceeds to neutralize it, thus reducing the oil’s capacity to neutralize other contaminants.

7. Check for leaks
1. A minute or two after the new engine oil has been poured in, start the engine. You will notice the oil warning light on your instrument panel will take longer to go off but it should go off after a few seconds. This is normal. 
2. Ask the mechanic to raise your car again then check the oil filter and drain plug for leaks. If there are none, then you are good to go!

Your mechanic may not be used to dealing with such a meticulous (read: pain in the @$$) customer so give him a generous tip. As for you and your car, your reward for going through all this is an oil change job that’s better than one you’d get at any casa.