How Does Maintaining Motor Oil Help Keep an Engine in Working Order?

Proper Lubrication

Maintaining your car's motor oil is of extreme importance to the functionality and longevity of your car's engine. Motor oil circulates through a car engine and lubricates all its intricate components and hardware. Friction and wear are the two biggest enemies to an engine's longevity and performance; motor oil reduces both and keeps your car's engine humming.

Proper Cooling

Motor oil, besides its excellent friction and wear fighting capabilities, is also responsible for helping to keep your car's engine from overheating. As oil circulates throughout your car's engine, the heat that is produced from the friction of all the moving engine parts is partially absorbed by the engine oil. Although water and/or antifreeze are responsible for the majority of the cooling effect within a car engine, oil provides a substantial amount of cooling as well. In addition to reducing the friction within an engine, which causes the majority of engine heat, oil helps to keep an engine cool by absorbing heat.

Absorbtion of Wear Particulate

As oil circulates throughout a car's engine, it absorbs microscopic wear particles that are created as a result of friction. These wear particles, which can build up rather quickly, would wreak havoc on a car's engine if they were allowed to build up. Thankfully, oil absorbs these hazardous wear particles and transports them out of the engine and into the oil filter, where they are trapped. An engine that has its oil properly maintained will last much longer than an engine that runs on dirty or low oil levels.