Originally Posted By: dwgwater
Thanks for the input BITOGers. Very helpful. One of the reasons I had a UOA with TBN done was to see whether I could trust the Maintenance Minder, since it appears to have been re-calibrated. For most of this car's life the MM had wanted me to go to close to 10K miles, which was too far for me to be comfortable. Too many stories about Honda VCM engines having serious issues. My take has always been that there was nothing inherently wrong with the VCM system, but that the vehicle needs more frequent oil changes than the MM was calling for. That 2nd gen Pilot is hard on oil: it burns lots of fuel (almost twice what an Accord does with the same V6 engine), its heavy and has the aerodynamics of a sheet of plywood, so even at highway cruise, its got a load on it. I had been changing the oil at 50% on the MM, which was typically 5K miles +/-. I'd noticed that the interval had dropped to about 3.5K miles to get to 50% and that seemed to be a pretty short OCI. So I ran it down to 20% on the MM which amounted to 6,600 miles. Without getting into oil brand issues or worrying too much about a few dozen PPM of certain metals, it seems to me that given the cold weather and short trips, the UOA is telling me that the oil is on its way south. Still serviceable, but past its prime at 6600 miles. I think that engine needs good oil in it more than most, whether because of the VCM or because the Pilot works the engine harder than other Hondas with the V6. My takeaway is that if I change the oil around Thanksgiving and Memorial Day, I'll have fresh oil at the top of its performance going into the nasty cold months and get the beat up winter oil out before the summer heat arrives. I may be dumping oil that has some life left in it, but I won't be crawling around on the ground changing oil in January or February in Chicago. That's worth the price of a jug of oil. Since I won't be pushing the OCI, I could probably get by with one of the cheaper syns, but I hate to open that can of worms.
As another suggested, I'd try M1 EP 0w-20, which is a majority PAO lube and may hold up better in this application.