What is high mileage oil and when do you need it?
It makes sense for us to watch the commercials for the special dog food that is formulated for older pets.They have selected ingredients that will help older dogs.
Our cars aren't alive, but wear and tear takes its toll on our cars' engines and this tends to start becoming acute at around 75,000 miles.It used to be that a car was about three-quarters of the way to the junkyard, but now it's 100,000 miles.
It's critical to give engines special care at 75,000 miles because they're going to need it to go the rest of the way.
At the 75,000-mile mark, here is what happens in your car's engine.Oil leaks can be caused by the rubber gasket and seal being shrink and hardened, which may force you to add oil and clean your driveway at the very least.
The gunk in the engine's nooks and crannies could be caused by the use of inferior oils throughout the life of the car.Like a bad apple ruining the barrel, oil deposits inside an engine can help create more deposits, acting as a chemical catalyst to convert oil to sludge.The metal surfaces that are lubricated by the motor oil will wear away over time, increasing the clearances between to greater than the design specification.
The Valvoline High Mileage with MaxLife Technology motor oils include ingredients specifically chosen to minimize the problems of automotive engine age.
High Mileage with Maxlife Technology uses a blend of natural and synthetic oils as its foundation, while Full syntheticHigh Mileage uses an even more robust base of entirely synthetic oil.They contain the same Additives to address the problems related to wear.Older seals and gaskets can cause cars to leak oil, even though most of these symptoms are invisible to drivers.
A switch to Valvoline MaxLife oil can have a visible effect on such cars, which helps drivers see concrete benefits from the switch.He said that consumers no longer saw spots of oil on the driveway.A consumer could see that.
The gaps that opened when the gasket material shrank and hardened are filled by MaxLife's seal conditioner.Smith warns that there are brands that only add seal conditioner without addressing any of the other problems older engines face.
According to the General GM certification for high-quality motor oil for Maxlife Full Synthetic, Valvoline MaxLife goes far beyond that simple upgrade.GM engineers set high standards for a range of additional factors, including deposit control, piston cleanliness, oil consumption, aeration and oxidation of the oil.Full synthetic High Mileage with Maxlife Technology is the only product that addresses these concerns effectively.
This isn't an easy thing for the average person to do, however, seeing these other benefits would require drivers to take a peek inside their cars' engines.In doing so, it would show that the MaxLife dispersants suspend the contaminants in the oil rather than letting them accumulate on engine services and form deposits.Smith reports that it is important to hold the gunk in the oil rather than letting it stick to the engine parts.
When washing your laundry, detergents prevent pollutants from getting on the interior surfaces of the engine.
Anti-wear Additives are included in MaxLife oil to help offset the wear on the metal surfaces inside the engines.The problem is that the best ingredient is phosphorus.It works well at reducing wear, but can be harmful to the environment at high concentrations.
Valvoline uses proprietary ashless anti-wear additives to make up for the limited use of phosphorus in motor oils.The anti-wrinkle creams we use to fight the human effects of aging may have the same secret ingredients.
In the old days, drivers would simply switch to a thicker motor oil to help bridge the large gaps inside worn engines to minimize how much oil gets burned in the combustion chamber.Modern engines don't need 50-weight oil.
Smith advises drivers to always use the oil specified by the manufacturer.Valvoline uses a thicker version of the oil that is acceptable within the rating of 0W-20 for MaxLife oils.
Oxygen is needed for life, but it can be hard on your engine's oil and internal parts.Anti-oxidation Additives are included in MaxLife to fight oxidation and the tendency of high temperatures inside engines to encourage oxidation.
Smith said that there has always been air present in the engine.Things oxidize when you have heat and oxygen.Anti-rust components are used to combat rust when steel oxidizes.
He said that the oil can suffer the equivalent of rust.There is heat and oxygen in the oil.The oil will stay fresh and do its job if we haveAntioxidants to combat that.
The world's first high-mileage motor oil, MaxLife Synthetic Blend, blends natural oil with synthetic oil as its base, and is the only one of its kind.
Synthetic oil is more resistant to breakdown than natural oil because of the engineered hydrocarbons.MaxLife Full Synthetic uses an entirely synthetic base oil.
Smith said that it has more cleaning agents, more ashless antiwear, and more protection.The added protection for modern engines contributes to the oil's dexos 1 Gen 2 certification.
You don't have to have a high mileage car to start using it if all this sounds good.Smith said there's no reason you can't use Maxlife from the beginning.That is what I do.
New cars can really benefit from the rigorous specifications of Valvoline Max Life, even if they don't have puppies.It's an easy decision to switch to MaxLife.
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Popular Science magazine's automotive editor, Dan is a member of the North American Car of The Year jury.He analyzes technical developments in the areas of efficiency and safety.He has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Popular Mechanics, and The Wall Street Journal.