15000 KM on dino...

[rcy]

Yeah, I'm tempted to get a used oil analysis on this out of curiousity.

Here's the story. My Mom was over tonight, and I thought I'd check the oil level on her 2002 Honda Accord 4 cylinder. First thing I noticed was she was down at least a litre. Second thing was the oil was black as tar (I know colour isn't an indicator of oil cond'n, but this was pitch black and thick). Third thing I noticed was the little sticker the dealer put on her windshield. It said 123000 KM and October 2006. Her car had 133000 KM on it.

Assuming the dealer goes with the standard 5000 KM/3 month oil change, that means her oil was last changed at 118000 KM.
I almost peed myself. I asked her what she was waiting for, and she said she goes by the month on the sticker, and was only a little overdue. I gave her a quick lesson on mileage vs. time and changed her oil.

I was tempted to put in Esso XD-3 0w30 to clean the engine, but her car specs 5w20. Then I was tempted to add some 5w20 synthetic I had laying around (QS, or Formula 1, or Pennzoil Plat) Finally I decided on Quaker State 0w20 conventional, a Quaker State filter that came free with the oil and a bottle of Auto-Rx (I have three just laying around). Told her to come back in 3000km for the rinse phase.

I hope this isn't hereditary...

 

[Rand]

Thats not too bad... does not honda spec 10000mile changes..
That would be 16600KM. Now the low oil didnt help any.

 

[trixman]

Those Honda engines run long OCI anyways, unlike the Toyota sludgers.

A used oil analysis would have told the story regarding any wear or negative result.

 

[m2200b]

0-20 won't be dino but its ok for your clean cycle with arx.
Besides ARX I've found a few short OCI cleaned up my tar baby tercels when my daughter run long OCIs with 2 qts down.
The ARX regime of 1500 mi clean then 2000 miles rinse is good and short. You may want to check if the filter is overloaded before 1500 miles which can occur on tar babies with ARX.
You may want to

 

[rcy]

Ooops. My mistake - it was Quaker State 5w20 conventional. Dunno where that 0 came from - wishful thinking maybe.

 

[Max_Wander]

wow down over a liter eh? what size is the sump in the car?

 

[toocrazy2yoo]

My girlie ran her Infinity Q30 V-6 on 15K dino OCI from the dealer. She thought that was all it needed. Looking through the oil filler, it was pretty ugly in there from what I've seen. Did a couple of 1500 mile OCI with cheapie Pennzoil High Mileage over the summer, and then original handle-bottle Pennzoil "full synthetic" groupIII the last 2K and the thing has cleaned up quite a bit, which I didn't really expect. Where there was btts of sludge on the cam bolts is now just a varnish tinge. Dunno if that's the case elsewhere, but it looks better on the top end. The car runs flawlessly, maybe we caught it in time, but jeez, 45,000 miles, and only 3 oil changes at the dealer. You'da thought someone there woulda told her OCI isn't just a part of 15K service..

 

[rcy]

Quote:

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wow down over a liter eh? what size is the sump in the car?

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4.3 litres. It was AT LEAST a litre, maybe more. I poured the old oil into the 4.4 litre bottle the fresh oil came from and it was more than half full, but a lot less than completely full.