Don’t be a drip

Most people have probably heard that just a single drop of oil can contaminate hundreds of litres of water. And no one should drink it for fear of their own health. But when it comes to detecting oil in water, the dimensions are completely different. For example, employees of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven reported years ago that they were able to detect a single sugar cube in Lake Constance using the LA-ICP-MS (laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) method...

Frightening on the one hand, astonishing on the other. Either way, motorists should not allow their vehicle to leak oil in the first place. The culprit is often a leaking oil sump drain plug. Depending on the type, it should either be replaced completely with an integrated seal or integrated sealing ring or at least the sealing ring should be exchanged at every oil change. This is because both the rubber seal and the metal sealing ring are compressed so much when the screw is tightened that they do not return to their original shape after being unscrewed, meaning that there is no guarantee that they will seal properly again.

So before difficulties arise: AIC has 57 oil drain plugs or oil sump plugs with 34,726 vehicle associations for over 375 million applications in its portfolio.