How to distinguish the original from a fake engine oil

Engine oil - one of the main consumables that motorists regularly buy. And the hands unclean sellers do not miss an opportunity to make money on such a hot commodity. You can run into a fake when buying both expensive and cheap oil.

The main danger lies in reducing the life of the engine because of the mismatch of counterfeit declared characteristics. For the manufacture of counterfeit scammers often use very cheap mineral oil with a minimal amount of additives, and even at all without them.

The resulting product, which already does not meet tolerances of the manufacturer, it becomes too thin when the temperature rises, and conversely, when it thickens reduction. In both cases, this leads to insufficient lubrication of loaded assemblies engine, Increased friction in them, and premature failure.

To distinguish a fake from the original oil in appearance is quite difficult, but still there are several ways. Here's what you need to pay special attention when choosing and buying.

What to look for when buying motor oil

1. Price

Undervalued by 10-20% the price tag almost certainly talking about forgery. Even large dealers with large volumes of sales of oil producers provide a discount of a few percent. On the small shops can be no question: all of the shares and sell them nothing more than a fiction.

You can run into a fake and a major retail chain, which sells original oil and has all necessary certificates. In this case, the fault lies with the unscrupulous sellers, adding to the party of the oil a certain amount of counterfeit goods.

In order not to arouse suspicion, the fraudsters often sell fake oil only slightly cheaper than the original. Therefore, except for the price, you need to look for other factors.

2. place of purchase

If in doubt, places like the market or the little-known online stores better chance of running into a fake, although here too things are not so simple. The risk of large retail chains buy incomprehensible bodyagi costs significantly below the original, but completely exclude it, unfortunately, is impossible.

When choosing a place to buy, use common sense. Prefer proven shops and garages who value their reputation. If you have problems respectable dealers usually go to meet him.

3. Packaging

This is the main way to fight counterfeiting. Manufacturers create multiple protection with holograms, two-layer labels, caps with complicated seals. cans design is constantly changing, and with all the variety of oils to consider the differences between each of them is simply impossible. Let us examine the common features that can help identify counterfeit.

jerrycan

Original container manufactured from high quality plastics (sometimes interspersed) on iridescent light as metallic paint. The surface of the cans must be smooth, flat seams and free of burrs, shells and any other casting defects.

At counterfeit plastic canisters are often heterogeneous. The walls of the tank translucent, clearly visible place adhesions two halves. In very advanced cases, may even present an unpleasant odor. Unlike the original artisan canister sin uneven marking oil level scale or color marks instead of using the casting.

Cap

At the lids on cans, too, there are several ways of protection. First - a ring seal with antennae which fixes the lid on the neck and breaks upon opening. Some manufacturers further applied to the side surface of the cover and a bar code seal or logo. Repeatedly combine two parts of the inscription is not possible, and this clearly indicates that the canister has been opened.

Do not do without security holograms, which are glued on the cover and shimmer in the light. At different angles they can see the changing symbols, inscriptions original or genuine, indicating the authenticity of the product. Some of the holograms are destroyed when opening cans.

Do fake holograms are either absent or are static.

Often scammers do not bother with relief repetition lid edges, making them narrower or forget to engrave brand. On fakes cover often not maintained due to the locking ring on the seal, and banal with adhesive. Can be and vice versa - when the cover dangles and oil begins to drip if flip canister upside down.

Label

The most complex component of the package is equally serving both for information and for protection. Appearance of the label should not cause any suspicion. All manufacturers of original oils used labels with quality printing. They pasted smoothly and without bubbles, and pry their nails are not so simple.

Forgery will give poor-quality label printing with bad, jagged fonts, if not spelling errors. Images and colors on counterfeit products appear faded and blurred. Gradients and color transitions in them missing.

date of manufacture

Other important features that will be given once a fake - a date of manufacture, batch number and expiry date. In the original oil production data makes its way down to the second and can not be the same in different cans. Date Stamp to be a distinct, no abrasions and other flaws on it is not allowed.

At the bottom of the cans usually indicate the date of manufacture of the container itself. Of course, it should be earlier than the date of production of oil and coincide with said label. It is also worth paying attention to the presence marks the expiry date and batch number. Often on the fakes they are absent.

How not to run into a fake

It is best to buy oil from the official representatives in major stores, working directly with the manufacturers of oils and their distributors.

Find regional dealers and official points of sale on the site of the oil producer. There's also easy to check whether the selected store authorized partner or not. The relevant information is on the site Shell, Mobil, Castrol, Liqui Moly, ZIC, Elf, Total and other manufacturers of oils.

When buying it is useful to check the seller dealer certificate confirming the originality of the product. Document stamped products and may contain holograms. Typically, such certificates are stored in the store office box in a prominent place.

If doubts have arisen after the purchase, the authentication can take advantage of special services, which provide manufacturers themselves. For example, the Castrol allow to break a twelve unique code with the hologram on the canister by SMS, through the mobile application, on the site or by calling the hotline. Similarly, work and other companies.

How do you know that you have bought a fake engine oil

1. Difficulty launch engine during the cold season. The oil of poor quality excessively thickens at low temperatures. Besides labored launch, this entails insufficient lubrication and failure of the loaded engine components.
2. Increased oil consumption. The need for constant refilling also points to a fake, especially if to replace this was not observed. The reason is banal burnout of oil during operation due to the mismatch.
3. consistency change when frozen. Antiquated method to check counterfeiting. If in doubt, you can take a little oil and place in the freezer for a few hours. From original oil nothing happens, counterfeiting is simply freeze and become stringy.

Whatever it was, if in any doubt it is better to merge the the dubious oil and replace it with a good one. Expenses for the purchase of another canister will be much less than engine repair.

How to distinguish the fakes from the popular oil

Finally look at the key features of the original oils popular manufacturers and types of protection that they use.

Castrol

At Castrol cans and barrels for wholesalers even numbered codes unique to holograms, which allow you to check the oil on the originality through the official service.

On the lid of the canister - dented logo. It is also printed on the side surface and the protective ring, breaks upon opening. Under the hood there is a silver foil membrane and the bottom of the canister is brilliant castle with color logo Castrol.

Mobil

Mobil Company applies the new security features in 2018. To check the oil on the originality enough to scan QR-code, which is on each canister. In addition, the manufacturer uses three-dimensional graphics with raised metal dots and twelve-unique codes that can be easily break through on the official site.

For oils with the previous generation of labels Mobil was detailed How To VideosFor verifying the authenticity of the products and to recognize a fake.

Shell

Shell also uses a unique code to check for originality. You can find it on the canister lid at the tear-off sticker with a hologram. The code consists of 16 digits and is checked for website company.

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