Is all motor oil the same?

Answer 1

As a 20 yr mechanic...my opinion is NO . You get what you pay for. Buy quality oil, quality filters and change your oil regularly every 3000 miles.

Cheap oil breaks down quickly. So protect you best investment...your engine

Besides look at it this way... Lets say your car has a 5 qt oil capacity.

If the cheap oil is 2.00 a quart and the good oil is 4.00 a quart your looking at $10 vs $20 for an oil change...$10 dollars difference (not incl. filter and you do it yourself)

Now a lot of pppl are saying wow $10 savings.. BUT if your engine fails your looking at $3000+ to replace it.

Is it worth the $10? You can buy a whole lot of oil for $3000 dollars! Lets see how much:

$3000/$20 is 150...that's 150 oil changes...every 3000 miles (3000*150)...that's over 450,000 miles! Chances are your car wont last 450,000 miles, most cars don't....

So lets say you take good care of it and it lasts 200,000 miles....200,000/3000 miles is 66.66 so we'll say 67... 67 oil changes at $20 is $1,340. That's HALF of what a new engine will cost you... $3000-$1340 = 1660. You have a cost savings of $1660

Now some ppl will say yeah but if it only cost me $10 per change then my cost is only $670 for the 200,000 miles...true IF and this is a big IF...IF the car makes it 200,000 miles. If your oil fails or breaks down it wont gaurenteed

Chances are you paid a lot of money for your car...$20,000-30,000 on average. If your drive 15,000 miles/yr that car will last 13 yrs. Do you want to risk it for $670?

$670/13 is $51 a year I bet most of us spend more than that on coffee.