5w-20 oil in a 99 Honda Accord V6?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jul 15, 2005
Messages
18
Location
Virginia
We have a 99 V6 Accord with 91K on it. I have been using 5w-30 Mobil 1 synthetic and Pure One oil filters for the last 40-50k with 5k OCI. Honda originally specified 5w-30 wt.oil, now they have changed to specifying 5w-20 for this engine. Should I stick with the 5w-30 or start using the 5w-20? It sees a lot of highway use since our daughter drives it to college.
smile.gif
 
i would stick with a synthetic 5w30 as you have. no point in changing it now. i doubt your mpg will increase enough to notice. Pennzoil Platnum, Mobil 1, Syntec, etc will all suit your 5k mile oci well.
 
It wouldn't hurt to try 5w20 for 5K miles , do a UOA for wear and in that 5k miles......you will be able to measure MPG.

Some people have said they noticed a drop in gas mileage with 5w20 oil in an engine speced for 5w30.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Schmoe:
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Disagree.

With that many miles, I'd go with a 5w-20. You're not driving the car particularly hard, are you? Probably just day-to-day driving...hoping that it lasts another 50-100 thousand miles...right? 5w-20 will get you there easily, and a lot cheaper than synthetic.

Instead of spending an extra ~$3 on each qt of oil, spend and extra ~$5 on a good filter, like a M1 or K&N.
 
Stick with 5W-30. That is still the recommended oil in most new Honda engines, except those sold in NA and Japon (Japon owners manual states 5W-20 only for improved mileage).
 
Geesh...having to defend myself on almost every issue. With that many miles you DO NOT want to go with a thinner oil. Cardinal knowledge that a higher mileage vehicle will start using oil as it gets up their in miles. That's when you'd switch to a slightly thicker oil to compensate for that. If you present OCI is not burning or using oil, then at this point you have found a happy medium....hence, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
 
Schmoe:

Maybe you're getting the cart a bit in front of the horse. If the owner wants to just try 5w-20, one run is certainly not going to hurt anything. From this, he will be able to tell whether or not his engine is inclined to consume thinner oil or not. In other words, the fix/no-fix decision ought to follow the broke/not-broke determination.
cheers.gif
 
Why would you use an oil that is not recommeded for your engine when it was built?

Its an old racers trick to put super thin oil into a motor to squeeze out a few HP, but the trade off is very short engine life.

Do you want a very slight, I would dare say imperceptible, gas mileage increase at the cost of shorter engine longevity?
 
Schmoe wrote:

"Geesh...having to defend myself on almost every issue."

That's why I have to think 4 or 5 times before posting anything. By the way, I agree with you.
 
Honda V6 engines from that generation (J30) (1999-2002) were specced for 5W20 beginning with the 2001 or 2002 model year, not sure which. Our 2002 Accord V6 was specced for 5W20. Does anyone here know if Honda made any oil-related engineering changes for the J30's during these years? If not, if tolerances and oil pressure requirements were the same, then we can understand why Honda would include 5W-20 in the oil options for 1999 engines. Lots of O2 and later Honda V6 and I4 engines are running just fine on 5W20. I think we make too much of the 5W30-5W20 thing here.
 
I would only use 5w-20 in a back-speced engine if it was for short trips. Maybe low miles would be a factor too, but I can't agree that 5w-20 means more consumption. I have heard reports to the contrary.
 
I find that the thicker is always better logic is broken. Thiner oils flow better this has a number of pluses like keeping the motor cooler, oh and yes better MPG.

Now why why wasn't 5-20 or even 0-20 not spec'ed for his car when built? Do any of you recall finding 5-20 on the shelfs at your local AZ, AA or Wally world in the mid 90's? I don't. But since the then Honda and Ford has seen the light.

Oil base stocks has improved.
Manufacturing tolerances become tighter.
Thinner flows better finding every ball barring and sliding part.
Better flow helps move in your engine faster, helping removing heat, and yes you do get better MPG.

Todays oils are much better today then before. 5-20 or 0-20 are great look for an oil that passes Fords Ball bearing wear test (Honda might have a test now too). Stick to blends or better as Ford's MotorCraft 5-20 is a blend. I used MC 5-20 in the summer and M1 0-20 in the winter in my Focus.
 
I have a 96 ranger with the 2.3 that was spec'd for 5W30 when new and then was back spec'd for 5w20. Mine has 158K miles now and I had switched to a 5W20 MC when it had about 154 on it it did not burn any oil at all. I did see a slight improvement in my mpg about.5 mpg difference but since then I just switched back to a 5w30 and the engine does run smoother with this oil. I say try it if you like. I dont think it will hurt anything and you might like it.
 
Some full synthetic 5w30's are at the bottom end of 30 weight oil at operating temp. Many dino or 'semi-synthetic' 5w20's are at the top end of being a 20 weight.

My guess is you would not see a big difference either way.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top