Gear oil and motor oil are used as lubricants to maintain the vehicle by serving different purposes. The different functions include lubricating, cooling different parts of the engine, holding different emitted particles until they get filtered, neutralizing the formed acids, keeping the engine clean. Altogether different oils are used, aiming at little or no maintenance to the vehicle. Different oils contain different chemicals to perform different tasks.
Gear oil, as the name indicates, is specifically made for the smooth functioning of gears. It is used to lubricate, cool and guard gear systems. It also holds damaging parts away from contact areas and quiets the sound of gear operation. Gear oils normally offer high protection from different temperature, pressure and speed ranges, so that the vehicle becomes safe from damage and failure. Motor oil is intended for the motor or the engine of the vehicle. It also has to lubricate and guard different parts of the engine.
Different additives or chemical compounds are added to the base oil to enhance existing properties or to introduce new properties. The additives used in both gear oil and motor oil vary based on their purposes. In the case of gear oils, the main additive used is extreme pressure and anti-wear agents as gear has to work under high pressure and temperature. But in the case of motor oil, additives that deal with harmful products of the combustion process are added. Also, different additives including rust and corrosion inhibitors, oxidation inhibitors, anti-foam agents, viscosity index improvers and friction modifiers are added in both motor oil and gear oil.
Different types of gear oils include extreme pressure gear oils, rust and oxidation preventive oils, compounded gear oils and synthetic oils. Extreme pressure gear oils have extreme pressure additives added into it so that it remains safe and secure even under high pressure, especially in the case of high-performance vehicles. R&O oils have special capacity to safeguard the gear parts from rust. Compounded gear oils contain many additives to perform many different functions. The specialty of synthetic gear oils is that they are not mineral based. Three different types of motor oil are conventional, synthetic and synthetic blend motor oil. Conventional oil is formed after the crude oil refining process and it is the cheapest of all. Synthetic oil is the most costly motor oil, having a high viscosity.
Viscosity is the physical property of fluid which describes the fluid's ease of movement and consistency -- whether the fluid is thick or thin. For example, water is thin and moves easily while syrup is thick and moves slowly. Both gear oil and motor oil are generally thick in consistency. However, the overall viscosity of gear oil is much higher, meaning gear oil is both thicker and it flows slower than that of motor oil because it has to flow properly in the gear system to ensure the gears are adequately lubricated.
