07 Acura RDX (Turbo) 5978 mi, M1 5W-30

[slalom44]

This is my wife's Acura RDX with a stock Turbo on a 2.3 liter four cylinder VTEC engine. I did this UOA to see how conservative the Oil Life Monitor was on this engine. This car is driven with a mix of city/highway, and short & long distance trips.

Honda requires oils that meet HTO-06 specification for this engine. AFAIK, only M1, PP & SSO meet these requirements. It looks like even with the Turbo, the OLM is conservative:

 

[buster]

It's one of the better reports for this particular vehicle. Viscosity is too low. Wear is great. My guess is that there is more fuel in the oil than what Blackstone shows. I would try using Dyson Analysis to get a better measure on that.

 

[addyguy]

Yeah, oil did well, but fuel sheared/diluted the heck out of it.

Was this oil fill run to 0% on the OLM? If so, it IS very conservative. But good choice on following it while under warranty.

 

[IntegraVT]

Thanks for the UOA, slalom44!

Nice TBN... I've got my sample kit all ready for when our RDX OLM goes down to single digits.

I know the search feature is lacking, but I have not seen any other reports for the K23A1. At least we've got something now.

addyguy, he's got to be at or close to 0%, mine is trending to hit zero at about 5,000 miles.

Thanks again!

 

[Chris Meutsch]

I don't know much about turbos, but would that put fuel higher over such a short OCI?

 

[Al]

Where did the2.3 engine come from? They have the 2.4 you would have thought they would have used that. Tough to second guess Honda though.

 

[slalom44]

Originally Posted By: buster
It's one of the better reports for this particular vehicle.
You have seen other UOAs on the RDX? Where? I haven't seen any, and there haven't been any posted on this site.

I didn't pay attention to the life remaining when I reset the OLM, but I remember changing the oil about 3 weeks after my wife told me the change oil warning came on. So it had to be less than 10%.

I'm not surprised about the fuel dilution. This engine kicks in the turbo quite often, even during non-aggressive driving. And since Mobil 1 tends to shear down anyway, I decided to switch to Pennzoil Platinum with this oil change.

Al: The 2.3 liter engine is exclusive to the RDX. Unlike the 2.4 liter engines used in the Accord, Element, CR-V and TSX, the 2.3 engine is Turbo. They don't make this engine without a turbo. I'm surprised this car doesn't sell better - That turbo is a blast, it gets good mileage, and it's price is great compared to other XUVs.

 

[Max_Wander]

This is an excellent report!

Originally Posted By: Al
Where did the2.3 engine come from? They have the 2.4 you would have thought they would have used that. Tough to second guess Honda though.


The K23 is a K24 with a J30 bellhousing pattern and a -1mm bore (86mm). I presume Honda shrunk the bore to increase the bore strength to be able to handle the increased heat and pressure. If not that then to just differentiate engines and parts (ie pistons). They share the same crank/stroke

 

[sjlee]

Looks good, but not really that surprising considering you're using Mobil 1 with a 6k mi OCI.

Honda recommends following the same maintenance schedule regardless if you're using conventional or synthetic oil. That being the case, I believe that the Maintenance Minder system is designed for conventional oil regardless what vehicle it is put into.

 

[tig1]

Wear numbers look really good. The M1 5-30 is holding up well in your turbo. Another good iron report for M1. Looks like it will go to 10,000 OCI with no problem even for a turbo.

 

[JAG]

Originally Posted By: sjlee
Honda recommends following the same maintenance schedule regardless if you're using conventional or synthetic oil. That being the case, I believe that the Maintenance Minder system is designed for conventional oil regardless what vehicle it is put into.

I think the oil spec. for this engine is Honda HTO-06 which is only met by a handful of synthetic oils...no mineral oils.
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1238058

 

[wannafbody]

Holy Moly that iron is low

 

[buster]

Originally Posted By: wannafbody
Holy Moly that iron is low


Maybe they reformulated and it now passes the Seq IVA.

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: buster
Originally Posted By: wannafbody
Holy Moly that iron is low


Maybe they reformulated and it now passes the Seq IVA.

Don't you find it interesting only M1s competition claim they don't pass. My UOAs have never shown high iron.

 

[buster]

Originally Posted By: tig1
Originally Posted By: buster
Originally Posted By: wannafbody
Holy Moly that iron is low


Maybe they reformulated and it now passes the Seq IVA.

Don't you find it interesting only M1s competition claim they don't pass. My UOAs have never shown high iron.


Well, who else would claim they don't pass it?

I'm sure it does now!

 

[tig1]

Buster,
That's what I'm talking about. Can the competition be relied on to be, 1-truthful, and 2- be in M1s best interest. Other oils show high iron at times as welL.Maybe it's an engine design thing.

 

[Jaymus]

All the "Oh look, Mobil1 showing good iron wear" in all these UOA's. It's not that Mobil1 showed damaging amounts of iron, they consistently showed HIGHER iron wear than other oils. And that was a fact, there was even lots of talk about them sending out some bad oil or something on this site.

But again, 90% of this site is just people spreading rumors. Look at some UOA's of M1 from 1-4 months ago. Then you'll see the 'higher iron' trend. It wasn't made up.

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: Jaymus
All the "Oh look, Mobil1 showing good iron wear" in all these UOA's. It's not that Mobil1 showed damaging amounts of iron, they consistently showed HIGHER iron wear than other oils. And that was a fact, there was even lots of talk about them sending out some bad oil or something on this site.

But again, 90% of this site is just people spreading rumors. Look at some UOA's of M1 from 1-4 months ago. Then you'll see the 'higher iron' trend. It wasn't made up.


I just have never seen it it my UOAs in Ford engines.

 

[buster]

Across the board in many engines, Mobil 1 has shown higher Fe levels. Multiple grades too. Not all engines, but many. Similar to RL's signature higher Pb readings.

 

[Mau]

cool good to see a RDX UOA. I switched to PP 2 oil changes ago, found it to bring motor chatter down quite a bit over M1.

Using i along side Wix/Napa Gold filter, I should probably do a UOA on the next change...

Maintenence minder light is on....A12 service code gotta change up the cabin filter

BTW I don't find this truck all that fuel efficient but it is a blast to drive and take corners like you were driving a sports car...