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What is The Viscosity of Oil?

Posted on May 4, 2010
Filed Under Autos, Self Help, Technology | Leave a Comment

Before deciding which kind of motor oil to use in your car’s engine you need to understand some of the properties of the oil. Probably the most important one is viscosity, as this is a measure of the oil’s ability to flow around the engine.

In simple terms you can think of viscosity as the thickness of the oil. Although motor oil fulfills many tasks its main purpose is to lubricate the moving parts and prevent them from damaging each other as they work in the extreme conditions of pressure and heat inside the engine . For the engine to be lubricated effectively the oil needs to be the correct viscosity. Too thick and the  oil cannot flow freely. This inhibits its ability to reach all the parts of the engine that it needs to. Too thin and it flows easily, like water, but it cannot provide the required lubrication and can also result in low oil pressure. If this is a problem in your car you will be notified on the dashboard by the oil pressure gauge lamp coming on, you can learn what to do in this situation by visiting the oil pressure gauge guide blog.

In the United States viscosity is graded by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). There are two types of classification multi-grade and mono-grade. Mono-grade oils work best at a specific temperature. Because of this in cold weather they maybe too viscous (ie too think to flow freely) to protect the engine in the time it takes to get to its normal operating temperature. Due to this limitation multigrade oils were developed. They provide protection in the cold yet do not become too thin when the engine reaches its working temperature. Multigrade oils will have something like this on the container SAE 10W-30. The W stands for winter and means the oil is rated as a viscosity level 10 in cold temperatures, and a viscosity level of 30 at the engines operating temperature.

Always check in the owner’s manual which oil is right for your car. In these tough economic times it can be tempting to opt for a cheap oil change of some description, but saving a small amount on your engine oil could cost you a large amount in the future. If you’ve been using a specific type of oil for a long time it’s often a good idea to stick with the same type to avoid creating unnecessary problems. For example many monograde oils do not contain detergents. Switching to a multigrade with detergents can cause the accumulated muck inside the engine to be freed up. Such a release all at once can cause problems for the oil filter and the rest of moving parts inside the engine.

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