Oil without tolerances – to pour or not to pour

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The approvals or tolerances of car manufacturers stated in the API and ACEA classifications are explained by the fact that the engine designs of different cars are different. At the same time, the same oils are poured into engines of the same brand, whether it is a low-power atmospheric engine, a turbocharged engine, or a V6 or V8 engine.

Judging by the characteristics of the engines, they are about the same for all car manufacturers: peak torque at about 4000 rpm and peak power at about 6000 rpm (eg for naturally aspirated engines).

The alloys that the oil bathes (the elements with which it undergoes chemical reactions) and the heat load, which does not affect the oil, may differ.

The mentioned classifications appeared not so long ago. For example, ACEA has been around since January 1, 1996 – 26 years. API was developed in 1969, but its importance to consumers may only go back 12 years, when the SN class of oils appeared with a reduced phosphorus content, which was necessary for compatibility with exhaust gas after-treatment systems.

By this time, the stock of engines produced had dwindled two or three times, and only legends remained about millionaires, and legendary reliability, as many believe, was a thing of the past. Today, an engine source of 300-400 thousand kilometers is an excellent indicator.

Income on licenses

And then automakers figured out how to monetize tolerances. API and ACEA did not allow this, so companies like Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Renault, BMW, Porsche, Fiat, GM developed and introduced their own approvals – “approval”.

Of course, dozens of oil manufacturers began to chase the approval of car brands, without which motorists simply would not buy oil.

In modern Russia, you can heat the stove to tolerances, because you need to choose oils according to availability, and not according to the certification of car manufacturers. The problem is that all the additives for oils, which account for up to 20% of the cost of finished products, have been imported to us from abroad, and now they urgently need to be replaced with something or transported by other – friendly – countries, which increases their cost significantly.

Choose your own oil

As a result, it will soon (if not already) be poured into car engines, not recommended, but affordable and available oil. And immediately the question arises: is it dangerous or not? It makes sense to forget the car manufacturer’s recommendations (except for viscosity, of course) and be guided by ACEA, choosing oil according to this classification specifically for your engine, depending on whether it is atmospheric or turbocharged, powerful or not , diesel or petrol.

Sergei Mamykin, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, founder and technical director of the Kupper group of companies (Cupper brand lubricants):

– Literally in the past decade, a really large number of all kinds of tolerances have appeared on the Russian market. Although before that, no brand oils from the series “Mercedes-Benz / Toyota / Nissan Genuine Oil, etc.” and in sight did not exist, as well as any tolerances. At the same time, the engines of the “Germans”, “Japanese” at that time were completely “millionaires”, and there were no problems with them. So all these “recommendations” from brands are banal to earn extra money. In addition, against the background of a steady decrease in the resource of engines.

And, unfortunately, for a Russian manufacturer of lubricants, obtaining such a permit from foreigners was not so easy, quick and cheap. In general, the only possible way used by the Russian fuel giants – Lukoil, Rosneft, Taneko (Tatneft) and others is to purchase additive packages immediately approved by foreign car manufacturers of transnational companies. In particular, Lubrizol, Infineum, Chevron Oronite and Afton Chemical, which account for 90% of the global additive market. As a result, our biggest players, even with their own domestic blending base oils, somehow faced serious problems in the supply of additives.

But even after debugging logistics over time, importing additives in a roundabout way, they can’t avoid a significant price increase.

But after all, you have to travel, which is why, in an emergency, people are now actively looking for affordable, truly household fuel and lubricants that are not inferior to Western counterparts, and sometimes even surpass them in quality and technical characteristics. For example, in Russia, metallurgical oils and lubricants based on copper salts are produced, which do not contain sulfur and phosphorus harmful to the environment and have practically no sulphate ash content.

In general, for Russian motorists, the time has come when, even if this or that product is not registered in permits and passports, now it will be very, very difficult to find a good alternative to it.

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