'03 Honda Pilot with 188000 miles! What now?

[JHZR2]

theyre old UOAs, I posted a lot of them a long while ago...

Ill pull up my excel logs at home (I have to find them, as Im transitioning between computers), and post them someplace ASAP. Ill PM you to let you know where the results were.

The one caveat is that this was a few years back, running SJ oil, IIRC. I agree that there are lots of instances that one sees where a decent dino will meet or beat a syn in some applications. heck, I would not use regular spec M1 in my chevy 4.3, because I saw too many superior dino-based UOAs. Also, what works for her car might not be the same as what works for yours. UOA is very vehicle, driver and driving proifile specific. She goes 5 blocks, 4x/day, and does supermarket trips. The engine doesnt exactly warm up much, and likely the add pack doesnt thermally activate on surfaces all the time, necessarily. I'm not making excuses, just giving my insight from a 'severe service' very short commute vehicle.

That said, at this point, I dont have a good reason to 'test the waters' and go back to trying, say, havoline or pennzoil, given that we are quite happy running M1. We could, I suppose, but at this point, the only change I might consider is going to pennzoil platinum (not likely now that I hear its truning into a grp III oil from whatever it was before, with its suppsoedly wonderful chemistry).

Ill get that data out ASAP.

JMH

 

[427Z06]

If you're truly going to only drive it ~3650 miles per year, you could stick with M1 and change it once a year. If an unexpected need to take a long trip pops up near the end of the year, no need for a quick oil change, with M1 in it. By the way, what flavor of M1 did you use, 0w20, 5w20, 5w30?

 

[Pablo]

It boggles the mind.....my 3rd grader tutors for $10/hr.

M1 is fine.

 

[damanwitdaplan]

For all folks amazed with the mileage...it was mostly highway driven to this point...up and down the east coast! I've had it since new.
No appreciable oil burn between oci which i keep at 6m now with M1. I'm just worried whether with the current short trips whether dino will be up to the task (film strength etc). I also use M1 filters. Don't get me wrong M1 has worked well for me...I'm just willing to be a little more adventurous with all the good uoa's out there and maybe i'll save some money...don't mind shorter oci in the tradeoff.
BTW give beanoil a break...that little math slip was at 2:12am!

 

[damanwitdaplan]

i use 5w-30 but have also used 10w-30 with no real difference in drive

 

[JHZR2]

Havoline sure has been showing good results... use havoline with LC and youll surely be doing good.

However, as I said, with M1, you can do short trips, have good startup protection and still go the distance with the shorter trips.

JMH

 

[damanwitdaplan]

point well taken...but what's LC? excuse the ignorance...

 

[JHZR2]

lube control... a product that has been around a long time but isnt particularly well known. There should be a link for lubecontrol on the top of most pages here at BITOG.

It is essentially an oil antioxidant with cleaning capability. It allows your oil to essentially last longer before severely breaking down, which is typically why you need to replace oil, particularly dino oil.

It is useful for all oils, and for use in the atf, etc as well.

LC and FP are useful products to get to know regarding car care.

JMH

 

[damanwitdaplan]

sweet...thanx for the tip JMH. just hope the extra expense doesnt ruin the cost advantage dino has

 

[JHZR2]

it doesnt... but that said, if it were my vehicle, Id stick with M1 anyhow...

Unless the vehicle is worn out to the point that it is nearly scrappable... which given hiughway use, etc., I doubt...

IMO, you have at least 100K or more life left in that, given its current history... so Id spend the $.

JMH

 

[cb450sc]

Good thing I'm not a math teacher!!

 

[fred0803]

better do your math. 10 miles times 360 equals 3600 miles per year. 100 miles per day equals 36,000 miles

 

[00Max00]

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Why change? At about 10 miles a day, you will still rack up 36k a year. Maybe a move to M1EP, and 15k changes/6 months?

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10 miles/day x 7 days x 365 days/year = 25 550 miles !!!

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Oh my goodness! look at all those math here!

 

[damanwitdaplan]

at 185k i had a buddy of mine who's a Honda master technician give the whole truck a look over and he said there's no reason why it shouldnt last another 100k without trouble.

BTW he put 300k + on his accord and uses dino alone...he appeared annoyed that i actually spend the extra cash on a synthetic...hence my current odyssey.

 

[JHZR2]

the reality is that with proper PM, dino will let your vehicle last just as long...

There are instances, such as in the measurement of timing chain 'stretch', where there is a marked difference between dino and syn oils... but then again, even something like a timing chain can be repaired as PM if watched correctly.

So, he is right - to some extent... syn buys you other operational parameters that have benefits to some. extended drains, for instance... did he verify that he changed his dino oil per the computer or did he change it sooner because he is the master tech and can do it for free? cold start (and cold isnt necessarily -10F... compared to the operating temperatures of the engine is another factor, driving profile, driving style, oil change interval, fuel quality, engine efficiency...

all these factors and more go into the determination of how much a syn oil will improve the engine life compared to dino. often the difference is negligible, but often the difference buys peace of mind.

JMH

 

[damanwitdaplan]

didn't go into details of what determined his oci JMH but the fact that he thought i was an ignorant fool for using syn just shook me up.

his accord's engine purrs like the day he bought it...don't know about major repairs though. timing belt change is part of the PM in these cars anyway.

 

[G-MAN]

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BTW he put 300k + on his accord and uses dino alone...he appeared annoyed that i actually spend the extra cash on a synthetic...hence my current odyssey.

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There has to be something wrong with people who get annoyed at how I spend my money.

 

[Laminar Lou]

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There has to be something wrong with people who get annoyed at how I spend my money.

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Bingo. As soon as I hear contempt from an auto mechanic over something that is relatively subjective, is the same second I discount his advice. It shows to me that they don't have an open mind about things and already have determined that they know everything. My ego doesn't allow for other people to know it all

 

[thooks]

LMAO at the math and reading comprehension skills here.

One person says 10 miles per day is 36,000 miles per year.

One says it is 25,500 miles per year.

One says it is 3640 miles per year.

One person talks of timing CHAIN stretch and the respondant talks about timing BELT replacement.




And people look at me funny when I criticize the general population's IQ.

 

[javacontour]

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Why change? At about 10 miles a day, you will still rack up 36k a year. Maybe a move to M1EP, and 15k changes/6 months?

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If no one else has said it, check your math, that's 3650 miles/year

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If you want to be picky it's 3652.5

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Nice,

What is the answer in metric?

Assume 10 miles = 16 kilometers

365.25days/year (not exact, since we fudge a bit on the century years, but close enough if I'm estimating 10mi=16km

)

365.25
x16
5844km/year

Sure makes it seem farther in metric, LOL