What Happens If You Don’t Change Oil?

What happens if you wait too long to change the oil? How horrible would it be? We were all in this place. Life is going to get in the way. You’re distracted by job pressures, family commitments, and a blizzard of tiny wanderings. One day, idling in rush hour traffic, you spot the reminder sticker in the corner of your windshield.

You’re out of time for an oil change.

It’s another item on your long list of activities. You persuade yourself to force it through. Wait until next week, maybe next month, when life is more manageable. Plus, does oil really have to be adjusted every 3,000 miles? Putting it off couldn’t have caused too much damage. Right? 

Wrong.

Oil is the vehicle’s lifeblood. It lubricates and protects all those meticulously engineered moving parts of your car engine. Getting it changed at regular intervals is one of the most economical ways to get reliability and top output out of the vehicle you’re depending on to take you through your life. Bad things will happen if you don’t change your gasoline. The following are just a few ways that delaying or missing oil changes could cost you time and money.

• Complete Engine Failure

Go long enough without a change in oil, and it might eventually cost you your car. Once the fuel oil has become sludge, it no longer absorbs heat from the engine. The engine could overheat and either blow a gasket or seize.

The milky white exhaust of the blown head gasket will drive you straight to the side of the lane. Fixing a blown head gasket may be an expensive fix, which might make little sense to your car depending on its age and value. You may find yourself in a dealership, dealing with the headaches of sales and finance staff.

If the heat doesn’t cause the gasket to burst, the pieces in your engine will be warped. With the lubricating properties of the oil neutralized, the metal can rub against the metal. The engine is going to seize. There’s no way to remedy this. Usually, the seized engine needs to be replaced, and it’s not hard to imagine how much it costs. Again, such a repair cost could make you precariously close to having to buy a new vehicle.

• Poor Engine Performance

In addition to lubrication, oil also keeps your car’s engine clean. Detergents, dispersants and other chemicals carry soil and debris to the fuel filter — which is replaced throughout oil change. Once the filter has been blocked, all this grime is forced to pass back into the engine.

Smooth, clean oil is eventually turning into polluted sludge. The moving parts of your engine have to struggle through this muck, causing it to work harder. Your car might have less torque and torque. And the harder your engine is to operate, the more gas it’s going to guzzle. This means that you will stop at the pump more frequently than not to fork over your hard-earned money.

• A Voided Vehicle Warranty

One of the greatest benefits of purchasing a new car is the peace of mind that comes with a warranty. However, the failure to get your car serviced according to the factory requirements may make the warranty null and void.