Nexcel integrates an oil filter into a reservoir containing all the oil the vehicle should need for the duration of its oil-change interval. An oil change starts by initiating the procedure on the dash or via OBD port. Then all the engine oil gets pumped into the reservoir, you replace the sealed container of dirty oil and filter with a fresh one, and the oil gets pumped back into the engine. It all takes about 90 seconds, and the filter/reservoir units can be reused about five times and then recycled. Pretty convenient—but who really cares how long an oil change takes?
That wasn’t Castrol’s primary motivation. Rather, Nexcel aims to improve the lubrication of today’s increasingly high-strung engines and to clean up the environment. These downsized and highly boosted engines really stress their lubricants, and up until now that lubricant is the one thing engineers haven’t really had control over. After a vehicle leaves the showroom, folks like sis and me are free to economize or make mistakes regarding what brand and grade of oil and filter we select. The sealed Nexcel unit comes prefilled with the manufacturer’s specified oil and filter, and a chip on the reservoir verifies this with an electronic handshake with the engine control computer before the engine will restart.
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