Air contamination in oil is a serious condition. There are five problems associated with aerated oil that can be deadly to lubrication components, like oil pumps.

With proper measurements one can quantify the susceptibility of one's design or component to the negative effects of aeration.

There are a number of ways to introduce air into the oil to obtain a certain level of aeration. There are two predominant methods for achieving oil aeration: suction port t-fitting and direct injection.

Apart from the ingress of debris, the greatest danger to any design of a pump is cavitation. The phenomenon can be found in centrifugal (i.e. impeller) or positive displacement (i.e. gear, gerotor or vane) pumps, in both oil and coolant applications. Excessive cavitation can lead to erosion damage. It is important to understand how cavitation occurs as there are some misconceptions and confusion on this topic.