Whether it’s a mountain bike drivetrain, an offshore oil and gas drilling rig, or a car differential, lubricants reduce friction to maximise equipment output and extend the life of critical assets. But not all lubricants are created equal. The right lubricant can prevent scoring and reduce wear between rubbing surfaces, while the wrong one can cause damaging micropitting. Wynn’s friction modifier oil keeps metal-to-metal components – including the limited slip differential in your vehicle – smooth, quiet and efficient.

Friction modifiers are polar chemicals that improve boundary lubrication and reduce fuel consumption in engine and transmission applications by reducing friction in key metal-to-metal contact points. They are oil soluble and work as additives to the base oil in a lubricant system.

The basic friction modifier molecule consists of a polar head and an oil soluble tail. The polar head attaches itself to the metal surface to create a cushion for the metallic surfaces against each other. The tails stand up like a carpet and hold up when the cushioned surfaces come into light contact with each other to form a thick boundary film that is softer than the metal surfaces.

The effectiveness of different types of friction modifiers can be influenced by the other additives in the lubricant, such as dispersants and antiwear agents, which tend to increase friction. In the slow speed pin-on-disc tests, all of the FM blends reduced friction to some extent compared to the base oil and Moly 2 solutions. However, after 2 h of rubbing the friction curves for all of the FM solutions were very close to the GTL4 results, suggesting that full EHD film lubrication was not achieved.