Thread: Oils aint Oils

Patty from memory detergemt oil is marked HD meaning High Detergent and non detergent should be clearky marked Non Detergent

Virtually all modern multi-weight oils are detergent oils.

Detergent oil cleans the soot off internal engine parts and suspends the particles in the oil. The particles are too small to be trapped by the oil filter and stay in the oil until you change it. These particles are what makes the oil turn darker. These tiny particles do not harm your engine, it would only be the larger particles from metallic sources (bearings, cylinder linings etc) that could, but only if you didn't change your filter (ever) as the filter catches these, as does a magnetic sump plug. When the oil becomes saturated with soot particles and is unable to suspend any more, the particles remain on the engine parts. With current oil change intervals though, the oil is changed long before the oil is saturated.

Non-detergent oil is not used in modern passenger vehicle engines. It is still used in some gasoline engines such as lawnmowers.

There is a scale of how 'detergent' an oil is (high, med or low) and its best to consult an expert on this as I'm not sure that this is on the label of all products. Companies like Mobil (I'm not an employee or shareholder, just a customer) have their normal oil Mobil 1 which is still a detergent oil and they have oils like Mobil Clean 7500 / Mobil Clean 5000 which have higher levels of detergent agents to further prevent the build up of deposits.


Hope this helps.



Cheers

Jamie

Thx Gents Appreciated