The future of motor oil

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The future of motor oil
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The future of motor oil

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MOTORCYCLE Oil Primer: The Future of Motor Oil

For decades, oil development was a rather calm and manageable affair. Those days are over for good. An oil professional explains what’s going on right now.

Klaus Herder

04/14/2016

Vita of Oliver Kuhn

Born 1971 in Saarland

From 1988 Training as a chemical laboratory assistant at Meguin Mineralolwerke in Saarlouis

From 1994 Deputy laboratory manager at Meguin

From 2005 Contact person for the OEM business (oil approvals in the automotive sector)

Since 2010 for Liqui Moly active in the areas of communication with OEM and end customers as well as application technology and training

Oil development then and now – what are the biggest differences, who determines which oils we will have in the future?
In the past, an engine was designed and an existing engine oil was used for it. Today engine oil is already part of engine development. So you basically know on the drawing board which properties the engine oil must have and, if necessary, make new requirements so that it works in the future engine. The automobile manufacturers themselves are pioneers in oil development; the oil manufacturers then gradually adapt to product development. 

keyword “Oil fashions” – the buzzwords in the last few years were among others “Low-viscosity oil” and “Interval lengthening”. What is currently in focus?
The generic term remains unchanged “Fuel economy”, and that is why smooth running is still very important. In the past, the development focused on making the oil thinner in the cold, as it was assumed that the cold start behavior has the greatest influence on fuel consumption. The viscosity went from originally 20W to 15W and 10W down to 5W and even 0W. You only ever reduced the low-temperature viscosity. In the meantime, it has been recognized that oil development must also go in the other direction. Not least because the cold start phase is getting shorter and shorter and the behavior at operating temperature has become more and more important for reducing consumption. The focus now is on lowering the high-temperature viscosity of the oil. It used to be 20W-50 – the second number always indicates the said high-temperature viscosity – it went to 40, the standard today is 30, and some have already gone down to 20. In Japan there are already 16 oils, in the USA from 2017, and later it will probably go down to 12 or even 8.

What conflicts of interest can arise in such a development??
If the ultimate goal is to minimize friction and the viscosity is reduced further and further, at some point you will move into a limit area in which wear increases. This tightrope walk is the challenge in engine and thus also oil development, in which the automobile manufacturers are first asked, for example with the use of new materials. This then includes a tailor-made oil.

How does engine oil development differ around the world??
The major regions of Europe and America, which are independently advanced in terms of oil development, will probably remain separate. In Europe, it is the OEMs, i.e. the automobile manufacturers, who will continue to dictate what they need for their vehicles. In America, the oil industry will continue to use APIs to determine what specifications it will place on future oil generations, and the automotive industry is adapting to this. The Asian vehicle manufacturers, especially the Japanese, are integrated into the API and are therefore going the American way. One of the decisive factors for this different development is certainly that in America and Asia the gasoline engine will continue to play the main role in the passenger car sector and that the Europeans with their mix of gasoline and diesel engines absolutely need their own standards. The result is already that European oils work worldwide, but American oils do not necessarily work in Europe.

What are the biggest sticking points in the current engine oil development?
Clearly the ever greater differentiation. Every automobile manufacturer comes with its own requirement: a 0W-30 for VW, a 0W-30 for PSA, a 0W-30 for Ford – but not a product that covers them all. And the specialization continues, even smaller automobile manufacturers are now coming up with their own specifications. In addition, we are suddenly faced with technical challenges that we hadn’t even had in mind before. For example, in the direct-injection, turbo-charged and, above all, relatively small – keyword downsizing – gasoline engines, particle formation can occur that was previously completely unknown. Particles that cannot simply be burned off like with diesel. And so we then need additives again that prevent exactly that.

What effects can this have on the price development of engine oils??
The price of crude oil plays an increasingly smaller role, the more demanding and therefore more expensive additive packages will increasingly determine the motor oil price in the future.

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