Why You Should Always Check Your Engine Oil in Cold Weather – Jalopnik

Oil is the lifeblood of your engine, whether you’re behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi Mirage, Ferrari Roma, or a Cummins-powered Ram truck. While every aspect of vehicle maintenance is important, if you want to do just one thing right, make your choice about engine oil.

Every car manufacturer and model has a preferred brand and viscosity of oil, so when you change oil it’s important to make sure you have the right type for your engine. It is also imperative that you check your engine oil before it gets cold, even if you know it is the right quality.

See, just like water, oil reacts differently in cold and freezing temperatures. When that cold front hits, the oil will thicken, slow down and potentially wreak havoc on your engine, leading to big bills and a whole bunch of easily avoidable problems. So be sure to add regular oil checks to the ever-growing list of maintenance tasks you’ll need to perform on your car in colder weather. Making maintenance mistakes like this will only line your mechanic’s pockets.

The main reason why you should check your oil before winter arrives is that oil thickens when it gets cold. Believe it or not, motor oil can look like sludge in freezing temperatures, so it won’t flow around your engine as effectively as it should when it’s in this thickened state.

The best first step is to consult your owner’s manual, as it may specify a different oil viscosity for these types of weather conditions. A thinner oil would be better suited to freezing temperatures as it will only thicken slightly, rather than turning into a blob that won’t even drip off the dipstick.

When choosing an oil for cold-weather driving, pay attention to the pour point of the fluid; this is the lowest temperature at which the oil can actually flow easily before it turns into a thick sludge. Fluids with a lower pour point are sensible choices for winter driving, so don’t choose a winter oil based on viscosity alone.

Stretching oil services is never a wise idea. You might save a few dollars, but you’ll be putting your engine at risk; an oil change is always cheaper than invasive engine repairs. However, cutting corners when cold weather is fast approaching is an especially bad decision.

When oil gets cold and thickens, it requires more work and energy to heat and properly lubricate. This leads to difficult cold starts, and the extra work involved in warming up your oil will only accelerate its depletion. If the oil in your engine is already old and worn out, you will really be putting a lot more effort into it, which will cause you to have much more serious engine problems in your life. Who needs that?

Fortunately, changing your own oil is cheap and easy, so if saving a few dollars is the order of the day, skip the garage and learn to do it yourself.

Having a low oil level is one thing, but if you drop below the minimum, you’re unlikely to be stranded on the side of the road anytime soon. On the other hand, low oil pressure is a little more serious, and if you ignore your oil situation in the winter, that pressure light can quickly start flickering on your dashboard.

Especially during cold starts, your engine often suffers from low oil pressure in cold weather. At this point the oil has settled and thickened; When your engine first comes to life, the oil has to catch up. As we discussed, it will take more energy and time to adequately disperse that thickened oil, and while it struggles, your oil pressure won’t be where it needs to be.

Checking the pour point, viscosity and level of your oil can help avoid this problem. Replacing your old oil with something more suitable for colder weather and in the right quantity will ensure that a cold start is easier for your engine, allowing pressure to be built up as efficiently as possible.

So you’ve decided to play it safe and change your engine oil before a long, cold winter arrives. Great, but now the challenge of choosing the best motor oil comes into play. You’ll find that everyone has a different opinion on this, so it’s best to stick to the facts.

Choose something recommended by the car manufacturer, with a low enough pour point, and make sure you use the right amount. At this point it is also wise to consider switching to synthetic oil. While traditional oils will gel at lower temperatures and become more of a sludge than a liquid, synthetic oil will not. It is much more stable than old-fashioned motor oil, both at high and low temperatures. Plus, it flows faster on start-up, reducing the risk of low pressure on cold mornings, and it’s not even that much more expensive.

The bottom line is that if you want ultimate cold weather protection, grab a bottle of something completely synthetic, rather than reaching for a traditional solution.