Can hydrocracked oils be used?

So, we've established that hydrocracking is simply a technology. More precisely, it's just one of the technologies for producing base oil, and nothing more. Yes, hydrocracked oils differ in their properties and chemical composition from both mineral and synthetic oils. But does the ordinary car owner actually need to care?

Here it's probably worth recalling this site's main motto: engine oils fall into just two categories — suitable and unsuitable for your engine. That's it, no other categories exist. So if an engine oil has the right viscosity, and has been tested and approved to the quality classes and approvals required by your car's manufacturer, that oil can unquestionably be used in that engine, provided it isn't counterfeit.

Information about exactly how the base oil was made, on the other hand, could be useful to a thrifty car owner, say, in Western Europe, for choosing the optimal length of the service interval, since the service life and oxidation resistance differ between synthetic, mineral and hydrocracked oils.

For the conditions cars are run in across the CIS, however, this parameter is far less relevant: on our dusty roads and with low-quality fuel, engine oil gets contaminated much faster than it oxidises (that is, before its useful life actually runs out), regardless of what technology the base was produced with. So if you've read my article on how often to change your oil, and you follow the recommendations given there, it genuinely makes no difference to you how the base oil was made — the product's actual quality matters far more.

So don't rack your brain over any of this nonsense, forget the term "hydrocracking" and choose your engine oil by the approvals and classifications listed in your car's service book!