Recently, my little sister completely ruined her car and had to buy a new one.
Why? Because she didn't check her oil.
Every car-savvy member of my family felt guilty for not teaching her
how to check her oil, and why it was important. Frankly, it never
occurred to any of us that she didn't know how.
This gap in people's knowledge is actually becoming more and more
common. With cheap, ten-minute oil change shops everywhere you look,
many young people have gotten into the habit of simply getting their
oil changed every three months or 3,000 miles, and don't worry about
their vehicle's oil in the meantime.
This is what happened to my sister. She developed an oil leak
between changes. Because she didn't know how to check her oil (or even
why it was important), she had no idea there was a problem until the
car parts in her engine locked up for good. To prevent her fate from
happening to you, this article will tell you how to check your car's
oil, (and other vehicles) how to read the dipstick, why oil is
important in car engines and other vehicles, and the consequences of
ignoring oil levels.
Why Oil Is Important in Vehicles
Internal combustion engines contain a lot of heat and moving metal
car parts. This is an inherently bad combination. To keep
temperatures down to safe levels, moving car parts are lubricated with
oil to keep them moving quickly, easily, and with little friction.
The Consequences of Ignoring Oil Levels
If a car's oil is too low or runs out, car parts in the engine lose
lubrication. Instead, they create friction as they move. Friction
generates heat, and this pushes temperatures past the safe point in
vehicles
Under high heat, metal expands. Expanding metal in moving car parts
can quickly break housings, get stuck, fused together, or damage
vehicle engines in dozens of other ways. In a worst-case scenario, the
whole engine block "locks up." The moving car parts have become stuck
and won't move.
Fixing a locked-up engine in cars or other vehicles is time and
labor intensive, it is more cost efficient to just buy a new engine.
Given the high cost of installing new engine blocks in vehicles, it may
be cheaper just to buy a new vehicle.
How to Check the Oil in Vehicles
In a car, the oil dipstick is under the hood of your car, often with
a yellow handle. For other vehicles (everything from speedboats to
lawn mowers), you may need to check your owner's manual to figure out
where the dipstick is.
As you drive a vehicle, the oil can slosh around in the oil pan or
splash up, coating your dipstick with oil higher up than where the oil
actually rests in your oil pan. As a result, the dipstick may appear
to tell you that you have more oil in your vehicle than you actually
do. To prevent this, pull out your dipstick, wipe it off, put it back
in, draw it out again, and then check the oil level.
How to Read the Dipstick
Dipstick markings vary, but they almost always have at least two
things: a "Full" line and a large area labeled "Add." If the oil level
is below the "Add" area, you may have already done damage to some car
parts in the engine. Add oil right away. If you oil level is still in
the "Add' area, your engine may be undamaged, but it's still best to
add more oil to be safe. Make sure it is the right kind of oil for
your vehicle (you may need to check the owner's manual for this).
Most passenger cars or small trucks hold between four and six liters
of oil, with the average being about four and a half liters. If your
dipstick is in the "add" level, you probably have about one liter of
oil left. Add up to three liters of oil, one liter at a time, checking
the oil level in between liters.
Do NOT let your oil go over the "Full" line. Having too much oil is
almost as bad as not having enough. The crankshaft of the vehicle's
engine sits above the oil pan. If the oil level is too high, the
spinning crankshaft whips the oil into foam, the same way eggbeaters
whip eggs into meringue. Air gets mixed in with the oil, and this
prevents oil from being properly pumped throughout the engine. Car
parts , without sufficient lubrication, get overheated and become
damaged.
The Moral of the Story
Check your oil ... Frequently .
The easiest way to remember is to check your oil whenever you're at
a gas station waiting for your tank to fill up. If oil levels are low,
you can usually purchase a liter of oil at the gas station. Better
yet, keep a litter or two of spare oil in your trunk, just in case.
With a few seconds of regular attention and a few dollars worth of oil,
you can avoid a catastrophic and expensive engine failure.
Disclaimer: All information on this site is provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice provided to you by any health care or other professional
or organization.
tweet this!