Motor oil is one of the main consumables that car owners regularly buy. And unscrupulous sellers do not miss the opportunity to make money on such a popular product. You can run into a fake when buying both expensive and cheap oil.
The main danger lies in the reduction in engine life due to the counterfeit product not meeting the declared characteristics. To make counterfeits, scammers most often use the cheapest mineral oil with a minimum amount of additives, or even without them at all.
The resulting product, which already does not meet the manufacturers’ tolerances, becomes too liquid when the temperature rises and, conversely, thickens when it decreases. In both cases, this leads to insufficient lubrication of loaded engine components, increased friction in them and premature failure.
It is quite difficult to distinguish original oil from a fake by appearance, but there are still several ways. This is what you need to pay special attention to when choosing and purchasing.
How to understand that you have purchased low-quality motor oil
After pouring the surrogate into the engine, the following phenomena are observed:
- In cold weather it starts with great difficulty. This is due to the thickening of the lubricant.
- Oil consumption increases, the composition must be added more often. Due to non-compliance with operating parameters, it quickly burns out.
- The engine pulls worse and runs unevenly. Since the composition does not perform its functions well, friction between parts increases.
- During startup, the engine jerks and blue smoke comes out of it.
- Deposits appear on the parts. The reason is the low quality of additives or their absence.
- The motor gets hotter.
After filling the surrogate, oil consumption increases.
Even with minor suspicions, it is recommended to change the oil. Repairs will cost much more than purchasing an extra canister.
Canister
When buying oil in a canister, you need to know all the distinctive features of the original container. The easiest way to distinguish a fake is when you have a container from the original in your hands and you can compare samples visually right at the point of purchase. But this is not always possible, and in this case you need to pay attention to the quality of the plastic (if the container is made of this material). Casting must be accurate, uniform, without geometry violations. There cannot be burrs, shells, roughness or other defects on the surface of the original canister: most well-known manufacturers carefully monitor the quality of the containers into which their products are poured.
The plastic of fake canisters is often heterogeneous, translucent, and has uneven scale markings.
What to look for when purchasing
In order not to buy counterfeit products instead of quality ones, you need to carefully examine the product on offer. Fearing image and financial losses, auto chemical manufacturers are constantly introducing more and more complex anti-counterfeit elements.
Therefore, before going to the store, it is recommended to visit the manufacturer’s website and see what the canister with its oil now looks like. It is also useful to take with you an empty container from a previously purchased product, so that you have something to compare the product offered with.
Lid
The lid should unscrew easily, with characteristic clicks of the security seal. It is unacceptable to remove it together with the fixing ring. There should also be no grease leaks from under the cover.
Branded cover
Cover that can be removed with a protective ring
Manufacturers use a protective sticker on the lids. It has its own characteristics depending on the brand. Also, the original often has an embossed inscription with the name of the manufacturer.
Protective sticker
Manufacturer name
For metal canisters, counterfeiters buy lids from car service centers. No matter how the scammers try to carefully remove and put on the lid, marks remain on it. Therefore, if there are dents or other defects, it is recommended not to purchase lubricant.
Table of differences
For clarity, it is useful to summarize all the data in a table:
| Criterion | Original | Falsification |
| Place of purchase | Large store or official dealer of the manufacturer | Kiosk at a market or gas station |
| Label | Pasted evenly, high quality printing | Faded, does not hold up well and has defects |
| Lid | Clean, no oil stains, crunchy when opened | There are traces of opening, the image on the side of the lid and the protective ring does not match |
| Canister | Good quality, no defects, with counterfeit protection elements | The plastic emits a pungent odor and the seam between the two halves is uneven. The metal canister has dents and other damage. |
Label
The first thing a buyer of motor oil pays attention to is usually the label on the canister. It is important that this element of packaging does not arouse your suspicion. First of all, the sticker on containers with lubricant must be made of high-quality, fairly thick paper. There should be no abrasions or damage on it, which may indicate that the canister has been used for more than the first time. All inscriptions on the original label are made in a clear font, images are in high-quality printing. The date and time of production, as well as the batch number, must be indicated. The same data is often duplicated on the bottom of the canister. Some new products have a QR code on their labels to help customers verify the authenticity of the product. To do this, you need to use a special mobile application and send the code to the manufacturer.
Methods for determining authenticity
The absence of defects in the packaging does not guarantee the authenticity of the contents. It is recommended to apply additional verification methods.
Smartphone reading
Manufacturers put on the label:
- QR code;
- digital number.
Fraudsters also imitate them, so the mere presence of these elements does not confirm the original origin of the product. You need to read the QR code with your smartphone and see where it leads. This icon will display a page on the manufacturer’s official website confirming the authenticity of the oil.
When reading a fake code, an error message appears.
When reading a fake code, the result is as follows:
- an error message appears;
- the browser goes to the manufacturer’s website, but only to the main page.
The digital number allows you to identify the package without a smartphone. They go to the manufacturer’s web portal, go to the “Oil check” section and enter it in a special field. If the code is original, the system will confirm the authenticity of the composition.
Inspection of Contents
A sign of counterfeit is also different amounts of the product in several containers. The original oil is packaged automatically, so its level in all canisters will be the same.
After making a purchase, you do not need to immediately pour the composition into the engine.
The product itself can also be verified for authenticity using several methods:
- Carefully smell the contents of the container. A pungent odor, for example, of acetone, indicates poor quality of the oil.
- Drop a small amount of the mixture onto the paper and tilt the sheet so that it runs off. The trace should be clean, colorless, barely visible. A rich dark shade is a sign of a fake.
- Pour the oil into a glass glass and place it in a dark place. After 10-15 minutes, check it for uniformity. A low-quality product delaminates.
- Rub a drop of liquid between your fingers. If it is a surrogate, you can feel small grains of sand. When settled, they settle to the bottom.
- Refrigerate a small portion to the minimum operating temperature indicated on the label. The fake will thicken and lose its fluidity. If this happens in the engine, it will run almost dry when starting.
Before pouring oil into the engine, it must be inspected.
We check the quality
If you have carefully studied the packaging of the oil, but still doubt whether it is original, you should check the quality of the product.
- Pour the oil into a transparent glass and keep it away from sunlight. After a few hours, look to see if the liquid has broken up into layers and if a sediment has appeared. The original will remain uniform.
- Place a drop of oil on a white sheet. When the liquid is absorbed, look to see if there are any black dots visible on the stain. The original shouldn't have them.
- Try freezing the purchased butter in the freezer. If after an hour of being there it becomes , then it is a cheap product.
- Trust your aesthetic feelings. Real oil glows a little and has a more pleasant smell, while fake oil is unpleasant and looks dull.
These are the main ways in which you can distinguish a fake product from a real one.
Be careful and don’t skimp on your “iron horses.”
A car is like a family member that periodically requires attention to its “health.” In addition to fuel, another “blood” flows in its veins - oil. It is responsible for the uniform operation of all engine parts, their resistance to corrosion, and a number of other parameters. And pouring fake oil into the engine compartment almost always means sending the car to an automobile doctor - a car mechanic. How to avoid this? There are several ways to solve the problem.
Selection criteria for an online store
Signs of a decent online store:
- His details are on the Federal Tax Service website. Otherwise, this is a fake trading platform, scammers will simply take your money.
- The buyer's right to return the goods within 14 days is declared.
- Upon purchase, clients are provided with reporting documentation.
- The entire range produced by the manufacturer is available. The presence of only some items indicates a high probability of illegal origin of the goods.
- The store is large, widely known and has been operating for a long time.
When buying motor oil in a small and little-known store, there is a high chance of running into a fake.
The online store must be widely known.
PLACE MOBIL
Three degrees of canister protection appear here. It is clear that the company is thinking about this, so:
The first is the code for checking on the site.
The second is a QR code (if you point your smartphone, you will be redirected to the manufacturer’s website),
Third , raised dots on a special code. The disadvantage is that all the information is printed in open form, and when checking on the site, it is not reported how many times the code has been checked. It is possible to print a code from a real canister on a fake, and it will be verified on the website. Deserved third place in TOP5
How you can’t spot a fake: debunking myths
The following misconceptions are common among motorists regarding motor oil:
- Counterfeit can be identified by the thickness of the plastic and the handle of the canister. This is wrong. Many manufacturers, such as the German company Liqui Moly, order containers from several different suppliers. The tanks differ in wall thickness and handle sizes. What they all have in common is high quality, no pungent odor or defects.
- The label must exactly match the one shown on the website or on the original canister used. In fact, the text on the label changes depending on the region the product is intended for. For some countries, canisters can also be supplied with books (booklets) with text in several languages or an additional sticker. General requirements: high quality printing, level position without distortion, no errors.
- The presence of certificates from the seller guarantees the quality of the goods. The store can sell both original branded oils and counterfeit oils at the same time. Certificates are a powerful argument in favor of the integrity of a given point of sale, but we should not forget about other ways to detect counterfeits.
Price
A sign of a fake is the price is lower than the market average. Cheap motor oil should alert the car owner. Common sense should prevail over the desire to save a couple of hundred rubles. After driving a counterfeit, you often have to pay for an expensive overhaul of the engine.
It is difficult to offer customers a better price even for large dealers and hypermarkets that purchase products directly and at a discount.
The price cannot be lower than 10-15% of the market average for this type of product. November 8, 2022
Consequences of using non-original engine oil
The use of counterfeit leads to the following consequences:
- Coking and engine breakdown after 3-7 thousand kilometers. This effect is produced by clarified mining.
- Accelerated wear of parts. The fake does not correspond to the temperatures at which the car is operated. In the cold it becomes too viscous, in the heat it becomes too liquid. The lubricant does not perform its functions, and friction between parts increases.
- Loss of power and increased fuel consumption. The motor has to overcome the additional resistance of friction between moving parts.
- Engine overheating with parts jamming.
The last option is the most dangerous. If this happens while driving, the motorist may be involved in an accident.
Why is it dangerous?
The problem is that most often counterfeit motor oils do not actually have even half the properties of normal oils. Their guise can disguise any substance that, due to its consistency and color, will not arouse suspicion among the buyer.
When you buy a fake, you pour an incomprehensible surrogate under the hood and, thinking that you have supplied the engine with an excellent product, drive it for many days, or even months. At the same time, you don’t even realize that your car has probably been running without any lubrication all this time. The parts rub vigorously against each other, becoming unusable.
Most often, the use of such a surrogate leads to the fact that the car owner has to make major repairs or even replace the engine.
To prevent such disastrous consequences, you need to know what distinctive features counterfeit products have and which motor oils are most often counterfeited.
Cold check
It happens that instead of high-quality synthetics, artisans pour cheap “mineral water” into cans and sell them at exorbitant prices. It can be distinguished by visual analysis of viscosity. If the canister says that the viscosity is 5W30 or 0W30, then this oil is capable of operating at low temperatures. “Semi-synthetic” has a viscosity of 10W40, “mineral” - 15W40. This means that synthetic oil works down to temperatures below -20 degrees below zero, while mineral water thickens already at -10 degrees. If you pour a little lubricating liquid into a flask and put it in the freezer of the refrigerator, then everything will be clear. If the substance being tested has thickened and stopped flowing freely, then it is “mineral water” poured into an expensive canister. True, such an analysis can be carried out after purchasing the product.
A flammable fake. Every third independent gas station sells counterfeit goods Read more
Content
- Label
- Price
- Place of purchase
- Canister
- Lid
- Other verification methods
Motor oil is a consumable item that requires mandatory periodic replacement. Taking advantage of the high demand for this product, scammers are actively supplying the market with counterfeit products - counterfeit products that can harm the engine of your car. Criminals have many ways to pass off a counterfeit as an original. Thus, cheap oil or even purified waste is poured into cans of original products, labels are printed that are difficult to distinguish from real ones, and the product is delivered to the market. Often, a car owner realizes that he has bought a fake only while using the vehicle. If you notice that after changing the lubricant the engine is running worse, you need to take immediate action. Signs that low-quality oil has been poured into the engine may include a rapid decrease in pressure in the system, difficult starting at sub-zero temperatures, unstable idling, deterioration of acceleration, and extraneous noise.
