Oil additives
Can you use them, and what happens if you do?
It’s hard to say what problem a car owner thinks they’re solving by adding some additive to the engine oil in their own engine. Presumably they’d very much like to believe it will let them save on engine repairs. In practice, unfortunately, the opposite tends to happen — using additives most often speeds up the need for major repairs and makes them, at the very least, substantially more expensive.
In general, engine oil additives are one of the most “harmful” inventions in the world of car chemicals, because the consequences of using them do maximum damage to the wallets of drivers who believed the advertising fairy tales. That’s exactly why I will never buy an engine oil from a manufacturer that also makes additives for engine oil. But that’s all just talk — below I’ll try to explain exactly what’s going on.
- Oil additives - the heart of the matter. An introduction to the section on additives owners pour into engine oil: why the effect is short-lived, while the harm to the engine and repair costs are real.
- What types of additives are there? What the labels of engine oil additives promise, why car owners argue over their benefit and harm, and the key question to ask before you buy one.
- How do additives for automotive oil work? How aftermarket oil additives work, and why changing the parameters set by the maker is especially risky for modern oils with LSPI protection requirements.
- How fast will additives finish off an engine? How oil additives can finish off a foreign car’s engine within hundreds or thousands of kilometres, and why its parts are so hard to clean afterwards.
- When Can You Add Additives? The one justified use of an oil additive is to buy time before a planned engine replacement; it is also used to mask a worn engine at resale.
- Oil additives A preview of the section on engine oil additives: why “to pour or not to pour” is not a matter of faith, only of how much harm additives do to the engine.
- Do oil additives harm the engine? Using these supplements substantially alters the characteristics of engine oil, which already has every element it needs straight from the factory.
- Do additives harm the engine? (automotive oil) A short note on why aftermarket additives in automotive oil are risky: they change the properties of a finished oil that already contains everything it needs.
- Is there a real effect from additives? Topping up with such additives will fundamentally change the characteristics of an engine oil that already has every element it needs.
- Is there a real effect from using additives? By using any additives in engine oil, you are taking on the risk of damaging the engine.
- Should you add additives to your oil A short note on aftermarket additives in engine oil: they change the quality of an oil that already has every component it needs, and can harm the engine.
- Do additives in oil harm the engine? (third-party additives) In brief, on third-party oil additives: they fundamentally change an oil that already has all the components it needs, and risk harming the engine.
- Is there a real result from using additives? A short answer on oil additives: they radically change an oil that already has everything it needs from the factory, and risk harming the engine.
- Do additives harm the engine? (engine oil) Aftermarket additives in engine oil always put the engine at risk: a short note on why a ready-made factory oil needs no extra additives.
- Will additives actually deliver results? Should you add additives to oil: ready-made oil already contains everything it needs, and third-party additives change its quality and can harm the engine.
- Do additives harm the engine? Oil leaves the factory with everything the engine needs; a topped-up additive changes its quality substantially, and the driver takes the risk of engine damage.
- Do oil additives harm the engine? (any additives) Any additive radically changes the properties of engine oil, though the oil already contains all the engine needs, so the owner takes the risk of damage.
- Should you add additives Engine oil comes from the factory with everything the engine needs, so extra additives change its properties and put the engine at risk. A short note.
- Do additives in oil harm the engine? A note on why additives in car oil are harmful: they substantially change its chemistry, although the oil leaves the factory with everything the engine needs.
- Do oil additives harm the engine? (third-party additives) Third-party additives change the characteristics of car oil that already has everything it needs, so every use of them puts the engine at risk.
- Do additives harm the engine? A short answer on oil additives: any supplement risks harming the engine, because it substantially changes an oil that already contains everything it needs.
- Do additives poured into the oil harm the engine? (topping up additives) Topping up with aftermarket additives changes the quality of an engine oil that already has all it needs and puts the engine at risk. A short note.
- In brief: about additives... Oil additives give only an instant effect, and the engine is replaced afterwards; every additive an engine needs is already in the oil at the factory.