The use of a suitable oil is vital for the proper functioning of a car engine and, obviously, to ensure its durability and avoid serious and even catastrophic breakdowns.
That which, It does not seem that using vegetable cooking oil, like the one we use at home for frying or dressing a salad, as an engine lubricant in the car is a prudent action. In fact, as we will see in the case at hand, the consequences can be dramatic.
I have been a Reddit user for many years. and one of the subreddits The one that has generated the most addiction for me has been, without a doubt, that of Just Rolled Into the Shop, a meeting space in which mechanics and hobbyists showed us in photographs and videos some of the most disastrous breakdowns that had been found in their workshop. Breakdowns generally caused by ignorance, negligence, or recklessness of its customers.
I recently discovered the Just Rolled In channel on YouTube, which follows the theme of the famous subreddit followed by millions of users. And that is precisely where it was published the disaster caused in a Peugeot 308 HDi in which vegetable cooking oil had been used instead of the relevant motor oil that a diesel like this requires. At the beginning of the video embedded on these lines you can see the consequences of this imprudence. And then we are shown many other disasters caused by customers.
I don’t think it’s necessary to remember why you shouldn’t use cooking oil in a car engine. This video is explicit enough to understand that, in addition to being able to cause irreversible damage to the engine, the viscous mass into which the mixture of motor oil and cooking oil can become may require – in the best of cases – cleaning in depth of the engine.
The importance of our car’s engine oil
Understanding that using cooking oil in a car engine is not a good idea, it is not a bad time to remember the importance of using the right oil for our engine andespecially, some important advice in this regard:
- First of all, let’s use a suitable motor oil that meets the specifications determined by the manufacturer.
- Let’s avoid mixing engine oils with different specifications and viscosities. If our car consumes oil, the ideal is to acquire a bottle of oil in the workshop where we have carried out the maintenance and make sure to fill it only with that same oil.
- We comply with the maintenance periods. The consequences of using the same oil for tens of thousands of kilometers, and many years, can be very similar to those in this video, as we recently saw in the case of a SEAT León that did not change the oil for more than 95,000 kilometres.
- It is important to periodically check the oil levels, especially in old cars that do not warn of a low oil level, or if we know that our car loses or consumes oil. If our car’s engine runs out of oil, the consequences can also be serious.
- Let’s use the most suitable motor oil for our needs. It is important to be well advised and in a good workshop they will be able to recommend the right oil for our engine and the use we make of our car. The specifications of the most suitable oil for an engine will depend on the climatic conditions of the place where we use the car, and even on the type of driving we practice (daily, urban, highway, casual, sports driving). As if that were not enough, even the mileage and age of an engine can cause the recommended viscosity to vary with what we should use during break-in and for the first tens of thousands of kilometers.
