How Often to Change Lawn Mower Oil to Protect Your Engine
Do you know how often to change your lawn mower oil? Regular changing of oil is always necessary regardless of what climate you’re living in.
Although you have to do this if you live in a Mediterranean-type climate, you also have to change your lawn mower’s oil on a regular basis even you reside in a temperate region.
But do you know how often to change lawn mower oil so that your machine stays working and robust?
Machines also need a clean supply of life sources. If gasoline is the food source of your engine, the oil is like the blood that enables it to stay working and healthy.
So if the oil gets dirty and still use your mower to the extreme it could easily overheat, develop corrosion, and damage your crankcase and eventually breaks down.
So how will you know how often to change your lawn mower oil?
If you have a car and haven’t changed its oil for a very long time it got dirty, you’ll see the same signs on your lawn mower as well. .
So here are the telltale signs your mower’s oil needs a quick oil change.
Dirty Lawn Mower Oil And The Results
Mower doesn’t want to pick up speed.
In short, its performance will lag.
Even you throttle it to speed up its run, it won’t go faster.
The bad news is if you don’t check your oil and continue to use your machine , it will result in engine damage.
Experience sputtering.
A lot of lawn mower models today have oil filters in them.
So one of the possible reason for lawn mower sputters is due to a clogged oil filter.
When the oil filter is not releasing a good amount of oil on the engine, this causes the sputters this will damage your engine.
Clanking sounds from the engine.
This is also caused by a dirty oil filter.
Because there is a lack of oil supply on the crankcase due to dirt clogging the oil filter or low oil level, the engine will be starving with lubricants and the metal inside begins to grind against each other.
This scenario could bring great damage to your lawn mower’s engine.
Black Smoke from the exhaust.
This can also be due to a clogged oil filter.
You can easily smell the burning of oil as the smoke travels from the engine and out to the exhaust.
Oil turned black.
When you check the oil with the dipstick and you cannot see the level mark as the oil turned color black or murky, this is a clear indicator that your oil should be changed right away.
Smelly oil.
Open the dipstick cap of your lawn mower while it’s not running, and position your nose a few centimeters from the mouth of the reservoir and smell the oil inside.
If the oil smells burned or of digested carbon, your oil is already dirty with carbon deposits due to contamination from the engine’s exhaust.
When any of these signs occur in your lawn mower, you need to change the oil immediately.
Moreover, you always need to check your User’s Manual on the type of oil your machine needs before buying your oil.
So now we will discuss how often to change lawn mower oil.
For new lawn mowers,
change oil after the first 5 hours of use.
For continuous use of lawn mower, ideally, change the oil every 25 hours.
For regular maintenance, do an oil change at the start of the mowing season.
For old lawn mowers, always check the oil after a day’s work with a dipstick and change the oil when it gets murky.
Old lawn mowers’ engines usually have a lot of carbon deposits and some of it enters the crankshaft and mix with the oil.
Note that if you are to change the oil you must always rely on your User’s Manual to know the right type of oil with the SAE grade.
Some people advice that you can also use car motor oil on your 4-stroke lawn mower.
However, you should be careful because small engines like lawn mowers can be sensitive to alternatives and additives and you don’t want your lawn mower going haywire.
Recommended Lawn Mower Oil Types
The most common type of lawn mower oil which homeowners use today and we also recommend are the straight SAE 30 graded oil or the 10W-30 multi-viscosity oils which are advisable for use on all types of temperatures.
These should also have detergent additives that can neutralize impurities in the oil thus cleaning your engine from deposits known as oil sludge.
Typically, these detergents are the magnesium sulfonates that can protect components inside your engine because of its anti-corrosive and anti-rust properties which prevent metals from oxidizing.
Maintaining or tuning-up your lawn mower is not necessarily time-consuming and difficult.
The important thing is to use the right type of lawn mower oil and replacing its air filter as necessary.
The air filter is responsible for cleaning the air before it reaches the carburetor so without an efficient air filtering system, your machine would not work as expected.
Another thing to consider when maintaining your lawn mower aside from changing oil is the spark plug.
This small piece of device makes the spark that enables the piston on the crankshaft to burn the mixture of air and gasoline which eventually convert into energy.
Thus if you have a defective spark plug your machine won’t create the spark that is needed to start your engine.
As a last reminder
It is very important that you know how often to change lawn mower oil and follow advice given.
These can serve as your guide or reminders so that you can maintain a well serviced working lawn mower.
But we must also add that it is imperative that you must be cautious about the danger signs of bad oil and when you see any of these signs, don’t hesitate to replace your lawn mower oil.