Pay Attention to Motor Oil Weight
Depending on How You Use Your Car, Oil Weight Is Very Important
Manufacturer recommendations are easy to go by when it comes to motor oils, but depending on how you use your car, you might have to change up your routine. As we all know, Mercedes and Mobil 1 have had a long relationship, and most high-performance models, like AMG’s cars, take 0W-40. That’s great, because those numbers represent weight. Weight, of course, is the rate of flow. The wider the range of numbers, the better the oil, due to handling cold and hot temperature conditions
Is there a catch-all oil? That’s tough to answer. For folks who live in the south and don’t need to worry about cold-starts, you can choose a higher temperature, higher weight oil. If you have winter mornings below zero and need to start your car, that 0W weight ends up being crucial.
What is really shocking is seeing the way oil flows at colder temperatures, as demonstrated in the video above. The higher number oils are not really suited to cold startups at all, with a flow rate that almost looks like honey. Oil passages and components would suffer with such a low amount of oil. Compare that to when they pour the lighter weight oil, and the difference is very clear.
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On the other end of the spectrum is heat. Mercedes automobiles tend to enjoy their heat, and the lubricating components of oils break down once temperature extremes are reached. If you’re really pushing your car hard, like on a track day, that high-weight component then becomes the important number to look at. The higher the number, the higher temperatures it can handle.
Luckily, Mercedes takes this into consideration and uses high-quality oils in their cars.
