8/11/2026

Hello there! I just changed the oil in my truck today, so this post subject is lubrication and oil filtration! I want to share that industrial lubrication principles and practices can be used for home applications too! I’m going to keep this very simple, and I don’t mean to gloss over important details, because lubrication is its own engineering field and very complex. You can Google it!

During my apprenticeship, we weren’t taught any principles of lubrication, so I had to learn on a self-directed basis and often during a bearing change on a pump, an agitator or worse, a paper machine roll. Taking these lessons and applying them to personal life, I realized that a vehicle engine is amazingly complex and deserves a high level of attention. If you don’t properly maintain your vehicle, it will fail early, leave you stranded on the side of the road and cost you some hard-earned money!

To keep this simple, the goal of a lubricant is to reduce unwanted friction by separating two solid surfaces (metal) with a thin layer of lubricant. Your vehicle engine has many metal parts that require constant lubrication to ensure metal surfaces don’t touch or rub together, thus wearing out prematurely and failing. Even new metal surfaces appear shiny and feel smooth, microscopically, they look as sharp and pointy as the Rocky Mountains! The lubricants’ job is to fill these valleys to keep the metal surfaces from rubbing, but during some conditions, such as initial start-up on a cold January morning, the high points of the metal surfaces collide and can essentially machine each other down. Thus, the second point of this post oil filtration. Those peaks of metal “hopefully” don’t embed anywhere in the engine metal and flow back to the oil filter to be captured and removed from oil circulation.

Now down to the business, here are a few of my vehicle lubrication and filtration practices:

·        ALWAYS change the filter when the oil is changed, no exceptions and use the OEM brand filter, it’s only an extra $15!

·        ALWAYS use the OEM recommended oil, such as 10w30, or in my case, 0w-40 SRT full synthetic oil at $10/quart. If you have an engine failure while still under the manufacturer warrant and can’t provide receipts and/or detailed service records, you will have to pay for it or have an almost unwinnable fight to get it replaced by the manufacturer/dealer.

·        ALWAYS tighten plugs and fasteners to the recommended torque value. Overtightening an oil pan plug or a screw on filter will cause you a lot of trouble at the next oil change!

·        ALWAYS pre-fill your new filter and lubricate the filter o-ring. This may be a silly tradition on my part, but it never hurts!

·        ALWAYS base your oil & filter change interval on mileage or driving conditions, such as dusty environment or high-altitude driving. Even though packages say guaranteed for 15,000 miles, that’s a marketing ploy. All of my vehicle’s oil & filter get changed at the same time and at about 4,000 miles. Don’t allow that handy Oil-Life meter that is on the dash to override your common sense!

·        ALWAYS fill your vehicle to the required amount, which can be found in the owner’s manual. Underfilling isn’t detrimental as long as you fill it to the correct amount in a timely manner, whereas overfilling is a death sentence to an engine!

·        CREATE a tools and materials list for each vehicle. I have a 36”x48” catch pan where I wrote each vehicle’s oil type and quantity, filter model number, oil pan plug wrench size, filter wrench/housing cap wrench size. This makes life so much easier and keeps you from having to make multiple trips to the toolbox, especially if more than one vehicle is due to be changed at the same time.

·         If you take your vehicle to a quick-service oil change shop, don’t be afraid to ask them for the old filter. I used the same quick-change shop for years and I trusted them. When the main shop foreman left, so did the attention to detail and I wasn’t confident I was getting what I was paying for. If you can, put a date on the filter when you have your oil & filter changed and write it down. When you ask for the filter, make sure you have a container to put it in to keep from making a mess. If you really want to see how the filter is performing, you can purchase an oil filter opener to pull out the element (providing it’s a metal canister) and inspect the element for shiny particles! No shiny specks is the goal!

·        ALWAYS wear protective gloves because used motor oil is a carcinogen!

·        ALWAYS recycle used motor, it should be free at your local auto parts store.

There is much more to automotive engine lubrication than what I’ve written here, but these are the practices that I follow and they can help you too! And as always, if you have any questions, we are happy to help!

Thanks,

Mike