How API Motor Oil Standards Are Helping To Reverse Improperly Disposed Of Engine Oil

Motor oil is a highly important piece of a car’s functionality because it helps the engine start, lubricates its parts and keeps everything clean, reduces friction, protects against corrosion, cools its parts, and minimizes deposits in the combustion chamber. Unfortunately, it is not properly disposed of enough of the time. The EPA estimates that about 200 million gallons annually of motor oil, or 757,082 liters, are illegally dumped of the 1.3 billion gallons that U.S. drivers produce each year, wreaking havoc on the environment.

To help combat this, the Society of Automotive Engineers, or SAE, has established stringent API motor oil standards for U.S. drivers to help classify types of motor oil based on their viscosity levels and Api oil ratings. These API motor oil standards are important both to encourage people to select the best oil change places that adhere to these API motor oil standards and to encourage Americans handling their own oil changes to know more about engine oil and how to use and dispose of it. For instance, for do it yourselfers a primer about motor oil and its uses is highly useful. Knowing for instance that a dipstick is used solely to measure how much liquid is in a space that is completely inaccessible helps, as does knowing how to use it. The dipstick is dipped down into that area and then brought back up to determine how low levels are based on how much of the stick came into contact with the liquid.