04 honda 1.7 and mobil 1

[sneakboxer]

Hello all,
I have a stock 2004 honda civic with 70,000miles that i bought new. It has no known issues and does not burn any oil. I have fed it a constant diet of 5w20, FF honda (2oc), amsoil 7500 (3 oc) and the rest have been mobil1 5w20 @ 5000mi/6mon OCI and all filters have been filtech honda OEM. I currently live on a tropical island with steep hills, 200+inches of rain, salt air, airbourn ash and short trips less than 6miles. I have read some threads about all the FE in mobil1 and i have been wondering about my maintenance plan. I just sent out my first UOA and i'm waiting the results. So here are my questions:
should time trump miles?
is mobile1 ok in this use?
5w20 the best weight in this enviroment?
Are honda filters OK?
With this short interval is dino a better option?
What is your take?

I live on a island so i'm limited to namebrand oils only otherwise i'll get hit with crazy $$ in shipping.

Oh, i'd like to keep this car forever, well till the body falls off.
Sorry for all the questions.
Thanks,
Greg

 

[hal]

honda filters are made by fram, or they used to be. if i were you i'd get a WIX

 

[sneakboxer]

I'm a fram hater too. But, i thought that honeywell made fram and my filters say filtech on them. Man i hope they arn't frams, if so i won't be able to sleep till i put a purealator, Wix or mobil1 on....
I had a fram fail (guts colasped) when i was 16 and i vowed never to use them again.
Thanks i'll look in to that.
Greg

 

[Hermann]

The Filtechs are excellent filters. They are made by the US division of Toyo Roki. The part # that end with 01 are Filtechs and the 02's are basically Frams(Honeywell).

 

[Chris Meutsch]

I'd keep going with what you're doing. I have the same engine and it will continue to run forever if you do basic/little maintenance to it. You're going above that with the syn oil, lower miles and 6mos. changes.

 

[bepperb]

I used to have that engine in an 03 civic.

You're being very conservative and the engine will outlast the rest of the car the way you're taking care of it. IIRC, the factory OCI was over 10,000 miles.

M1 is a great oil. The only reasons a few people don't like have more to do with the company than the product. I usually change around to whatever group 3 syn I can get cheap, and in April M1 will be cheap with the rebate.

Filtech is not fram. But, if you save some money with a purolator/wix/bosch.... and on and on I'd consider changing that.

 

[KDS]

If the originally equipped filter is a FRAM then where is the problem? I would assume that Honda tested this before putting them on the cars.

 

[ctc]

Wait for your UOA results and see if you have high fe or any other problems. Then you can decide if you need to switch oils.

 

[IntegraVT]

The funny part, at least for my last six Hondas from all different assembly plants, is that the filter that comes on the car from the factory is always a Filtech; it's the replacement filters that are Fram. ...not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

[Mark888]

Fram sells about 4 different oil filters under their own brand name, one of which is excellent and has synthetic filter element (but costs about $8-$10). They also make a very cheap filter that is not very good, which is the one most people are familiar with.

Fram also makes filters for other companies, and the quality of those filers depends on what specs the other company asks for. If they ask for a high quality filter, Fram will make one for them.

 

[ThirdeYe]

Originally Posted By: Hermann
The Filtechs are excellent filters. They are made by the US division of Toyo Roki. The part # that end with 01 are Filtechs and the 02's are basically Frams(Honeywell).


Correct. The Filtech filters are excellent. I had 5 of them at one time and they're one of my personal favorites for Honda applications.

 

[sneakboxer]

Thanks for the info! I just need to wait for my UOA. Hanging around this site has me second guessing my practices. I'll be back...
Thanks,
Greg

 

[HTSS_TR]

I bought a bunch of Toyo Roki filters for '04 S2000 4 years ago for less than $4/ea, I still have 4-5 left. Toyo Roki is very high quality filter, but it is very hard to find at any Honda dealer in So Cal now. I don't know which filter I should use in place of Toyo Roki for S2000 when I run out.

 

[tropic]

Toyo Roki/Filtec still manufactures the 15400-PCX-004 filter for the S2000. Fram hasn't touched that one yet. At my dealership they run $14 a pop.

I'd try one on my R18 if the recessed oil pan allowed it, but the PCX filter is too [censored] chubby to fit. The 15400-PLM-A01 is also [censored] impossible to find in town, so it's Mobil/Wix/PureONE filters for me.

 

[mechtech2]

A 5-30 is a viable option for you.

 

[CharBaby]

Greg,
What your doing is fine. Please sleep well at night. All of the advice given to you on this site is great advice and plenty of it. You can't go wrong with any oil(0W20, 5W20, 5W30 dino or syn). As mentioned, the engine will outlast the rest of the vehicle and this will be somewhere in the next two decades.

If you really want to keep the car forever, don't forget the other fluids(all of them!)

 

[Mr Nice]

$14 for an S2000 oil filter ???

Whats so special about this filter for it to cost that much money ?

 

[tropic]

Dunno what's so special about the filter, but my dealer always has huge markups on maintenance items... H and A Accessories sells the 15400-PCX-004 for $8.55 before S&H. The filter itself is huge compared to the Honeywell 15400-PLM-A02, and it's the only oil filter Honda recommends for the 9,000 rpm S2000 engine.