Owning a car is a costly convenience. You need to set aside time and money to service and maintain the vehicle and prevent it from dying on you when you need it the most. While this might be clear to most car owners, others don’t know how essential a simple service like changing the engine oil is.
They keep postponing it as other important things crop up. So, what happens if you go for too long without changing your oil regardless of whether it was deliberate or you just forgot the due date?
To understand what happens if you neglect your oil change for too long, we first have to figure out what motor oil does in a car.
What Does Oil Do For Your Engine?
Engine oil’s primary and most celebrated purpose is to keep moving parts in the engine properly lubricated. An oil pump pressurizes it and sends it through special channels in the engine block to flow over bearings, pistons, valve trains, and other engine components.
This lubricates and cleans them, preventing quick-wear due to frictional abrasion. The oil then sinks bank to the oil pan before going through the oil filter and repeating the process.
Prevents Corrosion and Carbon Deposits
Apart from lubricating, engine oil also has additives that prevent oxidation, rusting, and carbon build-up. It will bind to stray carbon particles and hold them until the filter cleans them out.
Additional elements like Zinc are perfect anti-wearing agents that reduce the internal engine components’ wear-out rate. The engine oil does more than lubricate by keeping rust and debris out. It becomes an efficient engine cleaner.
Helps Cool Down the Engine
Even though your coolant, water pump, and radiator do the actual engine cooling, oil also play a crucial role in keeping internal components cool. Oil circulates very close to most of the combustion and frictional heat.
As it passes through, it heats up. Since its travel channels are in the engine block next to where the coolant flows, it will draw heat from the components it lubricates and dissipates over the relatively cooler engine block.
The engine block is relatively cooler because the coolant flowing through it keeps its temperature lower than internal components that don’t have coolant channels right next to them.
Motor oil helps transfer up to 40% of the heat from inside the engine to the outside.
What Happens To Engine Oil As You Drive?
The moment you change the oil in your engine, it starts cleaning up debris and protecting the engine.
During the process, it will:
- Accumulate trace particles of debris, most of which are captured by the filter (this is why it changes color)
- Start burning out. All engines burn oil. The difference is how fast they burn it
- Start losing its ability to clean and lubricate as it ages and gets dirty
- Over time, it will start forming gunk and crude that making it thicker and harder to flow
What Will Happen If You Don’t Change Your Engine Oil On Time?
With the above main functions of oil mind, we can delve into what happens if you don’t change your engine oil soon enough.
Dirt and Debris Will Start Building Up
The first thing that will happen is the size and amount of debris in the oil will start building up as the oil gets dirtier and overwhelms the unchanged filter.
This will make the oil more abrasive even if it’s still flowing. As the debris builds up, it will block some oil channels. Different engine parts will be oil starved, or the pump will have to generate higher pressure to keep the oil moving.
The increased resistance will reduce effective power to the ground, making it feel like your car is losing power.
If you don’t change the oil and keep driving, the oil will eventually gel, solidify and form sludge. At this point, your engine will be oil starved and will start dying.
Engine Components Will Wear Out Faster
As soon as debris starts building up in the oil, it loses its lubricating properties. It will no longer protect the engine sufficiently, and all components that rely on oil to reduce friction will start abrading at a faster rate.
Moreover, anti-corrosion and cleaners in the oil will stop being efficient, leaving your engine more exposed to other forms of deterioration.
Oil Levels Will Drop Drastically
Since it’s normal for engines to burn oil, the levels steadily drop over time. Typically, you should still have enough oil in the sump if you change it on time. If you don’t, the levels will keep dropping as you lose more oil.
Apart from losing it to the steady but slow burn, the oil levels also start dropping as it begins to gel and solidify.
The Oil Will Be Too Thick to Efficiently Move Around
Coagulation and more debris in the oil increase viscosity. While more viscous oil might lubricate slightly better, it is harder to move around. Even if debris doesn’t block any channels, you will lose some horsepower as your engine expends more energy pressurizing and forcing around the oil.
Your Engine Will Start Overheating
With less oil moving around the engine, you will lose a good portion of your engine’s cooling system. The oil will no longer draw heat from internal components efficiently. It doesn’t matter how effective your cooling system is. Chances are, the temperatures will start creeping up as you go for longer without changing oil.
Engine overheating will lead to other problems like blown head gaskets or reduced efficiency as the temperatures creep out of spec.
Your Gas Mileage Will Get Worse
So far, we’ve created the relationship between thicker oil or blocked oil channels with oil starvation and reduced engine power.
The engine will be translating more of the generated energy to overcome friction and keep the thick oil moving. You will be effectively getting less horsepower and torque per fuel consumed.
This will eventually translate to worse fuel economy as you will have to burn more to cover any given distance at a given speed.
You Will Void Your Warranty
If your car is still on warranty, one of the terms in the fine print is it’s your responsibility to keep it serviced and in good condition. Coming in late for oil changes effectively breaches this agreement.
The manufacturer can pin damage to your negligence regardless of whether it’s directly related or not.
Don’t be late for oil changes if your car is on warranty. You could end up losing a lot in case something goes wrong.
The Engine Will Finally Give Up the Ghost
If you keep ignoring the oil change, tear and wear will eventually catch up with your engine. Unlubricated bearings and moving parts will mill themselves out of spec. They will start leaking or stop moving smoothly altogether.
Your overheating engine will most probably warp the block blowing your head gasket. The engine will get more inefficient and unreliable after it develops tons of problems. The problems will either be expensive to repair, and you might end up having to buy a new engine (or car) in the worst-case scenario.
How Often Should You Change Your Engine Oil?
Consult your user manual and determine how often you should be changing your engine oil. The mileage and time duration varies from one engine to another. The most common are:
- 5000 miles or once a year
- 10000 miles or once a year
- 15000 miles or once a year
In most cases, we recommend going for an oil change every 5000 miles or once a year, especially if you drive a gasoline or diesel family vehicle. Diesel commercial vehicles can last longer.
ProTip: Even if you don’t hit the 5000 miles bare minimum in a year, you still have to change your oil. Oil ages as it sits in the engine. Don’t rely on the 5000-mile rule alone if you don’t drive often.
Changing engine oil is easy and fast. You can even change the oil, oil, and air filters by yourself on your driveway as long as you don’t make a mess. Ensure that you replace your oil within the recommended intervals to avoid straining and damaging your engine. This will keep it reliable and efficient for many years to come.