Understanding what happens when skipping an oil change is extremely important to understand the different negative consequences. Typically, when you go too long without an oil change, you'll deal with the following:
⚠️ If It's Broken, Don't Fix It - Get Paid Cash for Your Vehicle ⚠️
- Dealing with premature engine wear
- Reducing the vehicle's fuel efficiency
- Reducing the vehicle's performance
- Emitting more bad emissions
- Voiding the warranty
- Lowering the resale value
- Missing frequent inspection
- Losing seasonal reminders
- Missing reminders of scheduled maintenance
- Shortening the lifetime of your car
- Developing oil sludge
- Dealing with major catastrophic outcomes
Your vehicle contains different types of fluids that play major roles, and without having the right level of this fluid, you'll deal with major negative consequences. Therefore, you must maintain the fluid level and flush it out between now and then to ensure that it has the right characteristics and serves the right job.
Your engine's oil is a vital component responsible for lubricating the internal engine moving parts and preventing engine overheating. Over time of use, you'll change the engine oil to ensure that your oil has the right capabilities to lubricate the engine and prevent dealing with major consequences.
This article highlights what happens when skipping an oil change and gives you an idea about all negative consequences to expect and be prepared for. This way, you'll know that it is never a good idea to schedule an oil change!
Why do you need to change your engine's oil?
Before we dive into the details about “what happens when skipping an oil change?” Let's step back and understand the main purpose of oil change and why can't you skip the oil change.
Your vehicle's engine generates massive amounts of temperatures that could result in engine overheating in no time. In addition, the engine's internal components also interact with each other causing friction leading to different temperatures as well.
Your vehicle relies on engine oil to lubricate the internal components and prevent them from interacting, causing friction. With the right amount of engine oil, you mustn't worry about this excess heat since you have the right level of lubrication.
Over time of use and depending on the type of engine oil you're using, the engine oil will break down, at you'll get to a point where it's not going to have the right to characteristics and will not help lubricate the internal moving components. As a result, you'll deal with engine overheating even though you have the right required amount of engine oil.
Therefore, at a certain mileage threshold, you'll change the engine oil to bring a new one that has fresh capabilities of lubricating your engine components.
What happens when skipping an oil change?
As we indicated earlier, engine oil plays a vital role in newer vehicles' performance and life. Therefore, you can't skip the oil change because you'll deal with the following consequences:
1- Dealing with premature engine wear
One of the first and most common consequences of skipping an oil change for a long time is dealing with premature engine wear. The last thing you want to deal with has the engine gets damaged before its due date. Therefore, there is no clear reason for skipping the oil change and dealing with major complications in the engine that could cost you thousands of dollars down the road.
2- Reducing the vehicle's fuel efficiency
When the engine doesn't have the right level of lubrication, it will be stressed out most of the time. In other words, the engine will require an additional fuel supply to generate the required energy. That's why you'll notice that you'll visit the gas station more frequently than before.
Therefore, if you think about it from a cost perspective, you'll need to make much more money on gas than the money will save on performing the oil change.
3- Reducing the vehicle's performance
Along with the reduction in fuel efficiency, you'll also deal with the strange behavior of your vehicle. As a result, your car won't be as smooth as before, and your driving experience won't be as comfortable as before.
4- Emitting more bad emissions
When the engine is stressed out and pulling more fuel than it should, your vehicle will emit more harmful gases in the environment than before. That's where you'll notice some weird smoke coming out of the tailpipe, causing some air pollution.
Air pollution will only impact you. Still, also it impacts the entire ecosystem, which means you'd better help save the environment and never cause extra stress impacting the humans and living creatures’ health.
5- Voiding the warranty
Did you know that you might void your vehicle's warranty if you don't perform an oil change at the right time? Yes! You must review the contract with your automaker and confirm what's required as part of the warranty. Many automakers will void your warranty immediately if they discover that you skipped an oil change.
Automakers understand the complications of skipping the oil change, and they know exactly what could happen to the engine prematurely. Therefore, to help you extend the lifetime of your car, they will ensure that you perform oil changes regularly.
6- Lowering the resale value
Even if your car is not very old now, you might start thinking about certain selling this vehicle at some point in time. If the potential buyer discovered that you did not maintain a proper oil change, don't be surprised for the buyer not to accept your asks price.
Maintaining oil change is one of the easiest ways to show your buyer that you've been taking good care of the vehicle. Therefore, you must never skip an oil change to maintain your vehicle's value for the near future, especially if you're thinking about selling this car.
7- Missing frequent inspection
When performing the oil change, your mechanic won't only be focusing on changing the oil. Still, they might provide you with bonus services like taking a closer look at your vehicle and letting you know about early signs of internal problems.
Skipping an oil change will make you miss his amazing opportunities of free inspection. Therefore, no matter what's preventing you from performing oil change should not be as important as learning about early signs of internal damages because once you detect the internal damage early, there is a very high chance that you can resolve the issue without needing to spend thousands of dollars on repair costs.
Automotive experts indicated that detecting problems early help you fix the issue and prevent major breakdowns suddenly without being prepared and when you're stuck in nowhere without any help nearby.
8- Losing seasonal reminders
Also, when performing the right oil change at the right timing, your mechanic will provide you with some advice about the coming seasons. Therefore, if you skip the oil change, how will you know how to prepare for the summer season? Or probably how to get ready for the harsh coming winter season?
9- Missing reminders of scheduled maintenance
An oil change is not the only scheduled maintenance that you must perform, but other items are listed in your vehicle's owner’s manual. When performing the oil change, your mechanic will quickly remind you that it might be the right time for a tire rotation or probably flushing the radiator fluid.
By skipping an oil change, you won't get any idea about these reminders, and therefore, don't be surprised to deal with major damage is in core components without you being prepared.
10- Shortening the lifetime of your car
When skipping an oil change, you won't only deal with major engine problems, but also you'll skip many important reminders that will eventually cost you your vehicle. But your vehicle's lifetime will be shorter and major breakdowns will appear before they should cost you a lot of headache and money.
11- Developing oil sludge
When oil gets very old in your car, it loses many of its main characteristics. Instead of helping prevent engine overheating, it leads to more engine overheating, especially when the oil builds some sludge. The older the oil, the dirtier days, and the quicker your engine gets hotter resulting in major issues.
12- Dealing with major catastrophic outcomes
Finally, when you skip oil change for a long time, it is not surprising to deal with measured engine breakdowns that could cause the entire engine. Therefore, the only solution will B is to install another engine. You can either go with a brand-new engine or a built-in engine or probably a used one. In all situations, repair costs are extremely high, which might not be worth the investment.
That's where most people who deal with major engine breakdowns end up selling their vehicles and purchasing better cars that don't have any issues. All these consequences are just because you skipped simple maintenance, which is an oil change.
How often should I change my engine oil?
After learning about the different negative consequences of keeping an oil change, you must understand how often you change your engine oil. The short answer is it depends.
Changing the engine's oil depends on your vehicle type and the type of oil you're using. If you're using conventional oil, you will need to change the oil at least once every 5000 miles, and some experts recommend once every 3000 miles if your vehicle is suffering. On the other hand, if you're using synthetic oil, you might not need an oil change until you reach 15,000 miles in some instances.
Therefore, if you're not a fan of frequent oil changes, you might go with synthetic oil to reduce the oil change frequencies. However, keep in mind that synthetic oil might not be compatible with every vehicle, which means that you must refer to your vehicles. Owner’s manual to get an idea about if you can use synthetic oil or not. On the other thing is synthetic oil is much more expensive than conventional oil, so it's another thing to keep in mind before heading to switching your engine oil.
Typically, you shouldn't have a problem changing your vehicle's oil, but you cannot go with a lower quality oil than specified in the vehicle owner’s manual. For example, if your manual requires synthetic oil, you cannot switch to conventional oil to save money because this can lead to major engine problems.
Conclusion
In any vehicle equipped with a combustion system, your engine requires a specific level of lubrication that it needs through the motor oil. Therefore, maintaining the right motor oil level is extremely important but what's more important is to change the motor oil occasionally depending on the oil type and depending on what's specified new vehicles owner’s manual.
Skipping an oil change is never a good idea because it leads to a long list of negative consequences that might cost you the entire engine. For example, missing an oil change leads to engine overheating and internal moving components grinding against each other, causing severe damages.
If, for any reason skipping the oil change resulted in major problems already in your vehicle, it's not the end of the world because you can still sell the vehicle and use its money towards a better car. Moreover, you mustn't necessarily install a new engine if you think repair costs are not worth it. The good news is that cash cars buyer is one of the fewest companies that guarantee to buy your vehicle even if it has major mechanical problems related to the engine and other major components.
Cash Cars Buyer is willing to remove your vehicle within one to three days only! Cash Cars Buyer is one of the top-rated car removal companies in the nation that guarantees to pay you the top dollars and provide you with free towing despite your living location around the United States.
Our process is very straightforward and doesn't take more than a couple of days to get your car removed safely and for the most money.
All it takes you is to:
- Describe your car’s type and condition
- Receive our instant free quote
- Accept the quote
- Get your car removed and receive your cash payment on the spot!
To learn more about our process and our teen, you can reach out to us by giving us a call at 866-924-4608 or visit our home page click on the free instant online offer.