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[–] 35 points 3 days ago (17 children)

We switched to fully electric cars 5 years ago. Guess this is one more reason that that was a good decision.

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  • [–] 13 points 3 days ago (6 children)

    I believe all EVs have some kind of gearcase oil; mine certainly does. It doesn’t need changing for a long time, but it is going to be effected - still, way ahead of the regular interval oil changes!

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago

    Motor oil for internal combustion engines doesn't last very long because it needs to work in a very large temperature and pressure ranges, from a cold start in winter temperatures to the high operating temperatures of an engine with a bunch of little explosions.

    The oil is also directly exposed to the combustion chamber so it needs to be able to be filtered for whatever contaminants come from combustion, and it needs to not combust itself in that environment.

    The oil also does double duty of being a fluid that takes heat away from the engine, and can exchange heat with the radiator fluid in order to cool the engine of excess heat.

    All that together means that we ask so much more of lubricants for ICE engines than for the other moving parts in a car. An EV will have lubricants that aren't exposed to the same operating conditions, and can last longer without needing to be replaced. Basically they're more like traditional transmission fluid than like traditional motor oil.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 days ago* (4 children)

    I mean, yeah, there's oil in there because there usually is still a transmission that has two gears (forward and reverse), so obviously there have to be gears and those obviously need lubrication. However, as there is nothing burned it usually really is just for lubrication and doesn't really accumulate dirt or deteriorates in other ways. In fact I just checked and both my cars have no transmission oil changes in their maintenance schedule because it just doesn't need to be replaced. Like, ever.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 days ago (3 children)

    The gears are usually not forward and reverse, just reduction gearing. Lifetime fluid is a misnomer. Differentials also are just moving gears with no pressure or combustion byproducts, but those get changed regularly. It depends whether you want your car to last past the “lifetime” as defined by the manufacturer or not. Personally, my cars get fluid changes, because my definition of lifetime is longer than the extended warranty period.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

    Great, guess that means I should look into transmission oil changes at least for my golf... thanks for bringing that up, would have ignored it completely otherwise.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    less than a liter goes in the front diff that I believe the reduction gearing is built into. At least on ICE vehicles they always do reduction

    Not a difficult change, not a lot of oil (<1 liter), do it every 50k km if you want to be super safe, but honestly even 80k km is probably fine. Idk if the video goes through it, but on absolutely any car you change the diff oil on - crack the fill plug open first - only once you know it's not seized shut should you open the drain plug.

    I make it a point to change on all my vehicles if I intend to keep them for any amount of time because I buy them heavily depreciated with tons of kilometers and the previous owners have almost always neglected it. Is it likely that I'd have a diff blow up on me if I didn't? Probably not, but nice to be safe and to know the next owner of the car won't have the diff blow up after a few months of ownership either.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 days ago

    We drove that car about 150k km. Yeah, I'm going to do that rather sooner than later.

    Our second car doesn't need that right now because we just had the parking brake replaced (different story, although I'm still salty about that one because the car obviously uses the parking brake to stop when on adaptive cruise control and thus wrecked it after about 120k km) and therefore just had all engine lubricants replaced. Still, I had really just assumed that this is a maintenance free part for both of them. Crap.

    Oh well, good thing I wanted to be a smartass about this one, I guess. The more you know. Again, thanks for bringing it up.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 days ago (6 children)

    All of the plastic in your electric car is made from petroleum.

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  • [–] 18 points 3 days ago (5 children)

    Yeah, but I don't need to replace that regularly.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 days ago (4 children)

    No, but it does mean that replacement EVs are going to get more expensive too.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 days ago* (3 children)

    Luckily you usually don't have to replace your car regularly either.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 days ago* (2 children)

    That’s not my point. Just because you could afford to upgrade 5 years ago doesn’t mean everybody could and shit is just going to get more expensive.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

    Yep, Their post just screams "I got mine so it doesnt matter anymore".

    Not only are the greases, oils, lubricants, etc in the car from petro, the plastic are too, and so is the means of transporting those EV cars from the factory to the dealerships via trains and big rigs that run on diesel. Oh, and lets not forget all the extraction equipment for the batteries/bodies/wiring/etc that all runs on diesel as well.

    and all those prices going up are going to make EVs skyrocket in price

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  • [–] 0 points 3 days ago

    Sure you'll be able to drive on all renewable electricity to the grocery store where you can't afford the food, then you can run your fridge at home for free but it's empty.

    That'll show the oil companies.

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