2000 Honda Civic Under Sever Driving Conditions

[TrackRat]

-2000 Honda Civic 160,000 miles on conventional oil
-Owner lives in NW Oregon, but frequently travels to Idaho and can see 0 degree startup temperatures in the winter.
-Commutes 20,000 miles per year!

I am posting this for a friend of mine. He is asking me for advice on what oil he should use. I have some ideas, but by no means am I an expert and decided to turn to the experienced community of BITOG. Based on the description above, can I please get some insight on an oil brand, grade, and filter.

Thanks!

 

[addyguy]

If he's interested in doing really long OCI's, then he could probably get away with once-a-year changesd with AMSOIL Signature Series.

Otherwise, he might want to do 6-month, 10k changes with any number of oils - PP, PU, Edge, Mobil 1 Extended Performance, Amsoil XL.....

If he can't stand going that long, then he can do 6-7k/4 months on any conventional oil out there.

What's the owner interested in doing?

 

[shrooms]

Ask the owners if they have a service record of OCI's. If not, search for the manual online. It will tell what grade to use.

20K a year and I'm assuming mostly highway is not severe. Mainly, that's stop and go city stuff. If it calls for 30wt, then a dino, P1 filter will work great because it's done well all these miles.

 

[chubbs1]

If he drives that many miles per year he is obviously driving a lot of highway miles, not as severe for the engine as constant city short trip granny driving (no offense to grannies). A good 5w20 synthetic Mobil 1 Extended Performance is a great extended drain oil, so is AMSOIL, Go to Advanced Auto parts and get the deal of the month next month and I am pretty sure Mobil 1 Extended Performance will be on sale the filter M1 is free. If he needs it this month Edge is on sale with a K&N filter, get that and run it 10K.

 

[meangreen01]

I doubt that his usage is really "severe service". Considering 20k miles/year, I'd think that most of those miles are free sailing freeway/highway miles that are easy on oil.

I'd tell him to reference his owners manual that has a chart for recommended weights. If he's concerned about 0 degree temps he probably could run a 0w-20, or 0w-30, but that would require a synthetic.

IMO, he's made it 160k running his current maintenance on dino, in a well-known good engine that's easy on oil. So, if he's only seeing those 0 deg start-ups occasionally, I'd run a good dino, of owners manual specs, to 5k(probably more) and not worry about it.

Formula Shell, Pennzoil conventional, Quaker State, Mobil Clean 5000, MC semi-syn, all good and pretty cheap.

 

[bepperb]

That's easy. 10,000 mile OCI on whatever with 5-20 or 5-30.

The factory OCI on that D17 is 11,500 miles IIRC.

 

[Bill in Utah]

ANY 5w-20 or 5w30 conventional every 6 months or 10k. 0 degrees is a non-issue.

Dad's 2001 Honda Civic did it for many years. Close to 200k on it now with nothing special once the engine block was replaced @ 14k.

Bill

 

[flatlandtacoma]

Doesn't sound severe to me. I agree with 6 mo oil changes on SM/SN rated 5w20/5w30.

 

[CourierDriver]

severe service has different definitions to all of us, depends on ur job and so on. Ur Honda should give many years of service ............

 

[garlicbreadman]

Originally Posted By: bepperb
That's easy. 10,000 mile OCI on whatever with 5-20 or 5-30.

The factory OCI on that D17 is 11,500 miles IIRC.

its a d16, d17 is for the next generation.

 

[Dave Hess]

Any conventional 5w30 oil.

That Civic will last another 250K miles no problem.

 

[Dave Hess]

I forgot to mention, on our 1998 Civic I used the Purolator Classic L-20073 filter with zero leaks and its the biggest filter you can find for the Civic.

 

[rclint]

It seems it might be hard to get severe service with that many miles, however it could be dusty conditions etc... but if it's just highway driving, and the zero degree temp does not really throw it to severe service as it's not long term temp he is in..


I say the world is open here, so many ways so many oils.. and filters. I do close to the same, and may put on more miles than that !! but only a few more miles.. I choose to go with synthetics at times, and extend my drain out to around 13K or so, using a purolator pure 1, fram extended drain, or M1 extended drain filter.. this is because I'm lazy,

The best bang for the buck I have seen is choosing a conventional oil like Pennzoil conventional, Valvoline, Castrol, all the others etc and do 7500 mile oil changes..with any off the shelf oil filter here.. in this case I choose a top tier extended drain type filter as posted above and use the filter for back to back oil changes so that is 2 oil changes on 1 filter as the owners manual states every other oil change. You get the best bang for buck here, and I have yet to have any oil filter problems, or any type of oil related problems.

One other option here is the Motorcraft semi-synthetic at walmart 5w-20 which is priced outstanding, and you should be able to obtain 10k easy !! Look to see if the car specs or back specs for 5w-20, I have run many grades of oil, and I don't think the oil grade is linked to anything engine wise, however after trying all kinds of oil grades from 0w-20 to 15w40 even 20w-50 I have found that 0w-20 or 5w-20 works best in these engines...

I really like Castrol Edge if your going with a synthetic, easy to find at local walmart in the nice 5 quart jugs etc.. and from reading, and my own experience Honda's love this oil..

 

[ottotheclown]

Cannot say this year 2000 but as I have been saying my 2009 on Edge gives me start, sputtering,

start sputter etc. Civic 2009 have start problems too. So Edge might be fine.
Originally Posted By: rclint
It seems it might be hard to get severe service with that many miles, however it could be dusty conditions etc... but if it's just highway driving, and the zero degree temp does not really throw it to severe service as it's not long term temp he is in..


I say the world is open here, so many ways so many oils.. and filters. I do close to the same, and may put on more miles than that !! but only a few more miles.. I choose to go with synthetics at times, and extend my drain out to around 13K or so, using a purolator pure 1, fram extended drain, or M1 extended drain filter.. this is because I'm lazy,

The best bang for the buck I have seen is choosing a conventional oil like Pennzoil conventional, Valvoline, Castrol, all the others etc and do 7500 mile oil changes..with any off the shelf oil filter here.. in this case I choose a top tier extended drain type filter as posted above and use the filter for back to back oil changes so that is 2 oil changes on 1 filter as the owners manual states every other oil change. You get the best bang for buck here, and I have yet to have any oil filter problems, or any type of oil related problems.

One other option here is the Motorcraft semi-synthetic at walmart 5w-20 which is priced outstanding, and you should be able to obtain 10k easy !! Look to see if the car specs or back specs for 5w-20, I have run many grades of oil, and I don't think the oil grade is linked to anything engine wise, however after trying all kinds of oil grades from 0w-20 to 15w40 even 20w-50 I have found that 0w-20 or 5w-20 works best in these engines...

I really like Castrol Edge if your going with a synthetic, easy to find at local walmart in the nice 5 quart jugs etc.. and from reading, and my own experience Honda's love this oil..