What engine oil do I need? : Find the best engine oil for your vehicle
What engine oil do I need? Find the best engine oil for your vehicle
Getting the best engine oil for your car is crucial. Choosing a lubricant with the wrong engine oil grade for your vehicle, or one that features the incorrect type and number of oil additives, can seriously impact performance, component lifespans and more. The right engine oil, on the other hand, can provide a step-change in cost, ride, and engine power. That’s why it’s important to know exactly what engine oil you need.
Use TotalEnergies’ free LubAdvisor tool to quickly find out exactly what engine oil you need - the best one for your vehicle. Or read on to learn how else you can make sure your engine oil best matches your vehicle.
How to check your engine oil grade
If you’re wondering what engine oil you need, you should first check which engine oil grade is right for your vehicle.
Engine oil grades such as the popular Society of Automotive Engineers’ (SAE) 10W-30 grade are used to denote how viscous the engine oil is during winter (the number preceding the ‘W’) and summer (the number after the ‘W’) temperatures.
The lower the first or higher the second number, the less the engine oil will thicken at low or high temperatures, respectively. This means it can maintain a better oil pressure and film strength as it copes with extreme temperatures and pressures deep within the engine.
While it used to be the case that engine oils only had one grade number and therefore had to be changed in preparation for summer or winter, today’s oils can cope with a range of temperatures. That means that, unless you drive a classic or vintage vehicle, there will likely be a single grade of oil your engine needs.
You can check the engine oil grade for your car, commercial vehicle or machinery via LubAdvisor, in its handbook or by contacting the manufacturer.
Learn about viscosity grades
Understanding oil additives
Alongside grades, understanding what engine oil you need is easier if you have knowledge of oil additives. These chemical compounds are added to engine oil to improve their properties, so much that between 10 and 30% of an engine oil can be composed of additives.
Additives can stop oxidation of the oil, prevent component wear, stop foaming, improve viscosity, and clean away deposits within the engine oil, plus much more. It’s for that reason they are used in oils for performance vehicles and those that are relied on to perform in extreme environments.
To learn more about oil additives, including their roles and the many different types used within the best engine oils, view our guide.
Understand oil additivesSynthetic, semi-synthetic, or a mineral.
Whether one lubricant is the best engine oil for your vehicle will also be due to whether it’s a synthetic, semi-synthetic, or mineral oil.
Synthetic engine oils are entirely man-made. They are designed for high-performance vehicles, as their characteristics can be perfectly controlled. Mineral oils are formed from natural sources from crude oil highly refined - traditional engine oils were mineral oils. Semi-synthetic oils are a mixture of the two. They are less expensive than fully synthetic oils, but offer greater performance benefits for modern vehicles than mineral oils.
The type of engine oil your vehicle needs will be shown in its handbook, or via LubAdvisor. To learn more about oil types, view our simple and straightforward guide.
Check the TotalEnergies catalogue and safety data sheets for engine oils
If your requirements are more specific when searching for the best engine oil, view TotalEnergies’ catalogue and safety data sheets.
If you’d like to browse and compare the entire range of TotalEnergies engine oils, our UK catalogue covers all automotive and commercial vehicle products on offer to drivers and fleet managers.
View the catalogue
TotalEnergies’ bank of safety data sheets, on the other hand, feature a wide range of product details for each engine oil, including classification, labelling, mixture, first aid measures and much more.
That means they ensure that you can employ the right engine oil in the safest, most secure way possible, minimising any threat to human health or the environment.
View safety data sheets
Use TotalEnergies online Live Chat
If you’re finding it difficult to understand what engine oil you need, use our Live Chat feature to talk to our team of UK office-based staff.
Accessible on the bottom right of the page via the chat icon, the service lets you get quick, direct and personalised engine oil information.
Use it now and draw on our extensive and constantly growing knowledge base system and in-depth product range knowledge of the team - perfect if you need answers on which is the best engine oil for your vehicle.
Find the best engine oil with
LubAdvisor
With LubAdvisor, simply enter your registration number or select the make and model of your vehicle or machinery to find out which are the best engine oils available.
Visit LubAdvisor