Best Filter/Oil for 99 Civic Hatchback

[cannabinoid]

Hey guys new to the forums, longtime lurker.

Love all the work, tests, reviews and comments on these forums they are truly awesome.
What are the BEST Filters for my Specific Vehicle? Been using PureOnes & Classics, but recently saw some Purolator Synthetic that I had never seen before. Are they better, if so do I need to switch to synthetic oil? Used Chevron 5w30 normally, recently though, I've been buying the cheapest conventional oil I can find. Am I doing right to my vehicle?

What is the best Filter/Oil Combo for Honda Civic 99 Hatchback.
Your feedback is appreciated!

 

[joegreen]

I use a fram ultra filter on my 02 accord. I find that to be a great filter for the money. Its well built and has very good filtering capabilities. As for the oil i use Mobil 1 5w20. It really depends on how long you oil change interval is and if you leak or burn any oil. No point in expensive synthetic if you have to add oil all the time. One word of advice is to get your oil at walmart. Its generally pretty cheap compared to most other places. Their is no BEST oil/filter for you car because a lot of filters or oil will work great in your car. More people will chime in with some advice im sure.

 

[cannabinoid]

How long do you run that Fram Ultra for?

No leaks or burning 130K Original Miles, Oil Change Interval is Usually 4-5K Miles.
Since this engine was designed for dino, does synthetic have a positive impact?
Thanks for the info!

 

[cannabinoid]

Originally Posted By: joegreen
I use a fram ultra filter on my 02 accord. I find that to be a great filter for the money. Its well built and has very good filtering capabilities. As for the oil i use Mobil 1 5w20. It really depends on how long you oil change interval is and if you leak or burn any oil. No point in expensive synthetic if you have to add oil all the time. One word of advice is to get your oil at walmart. Its generally pretty cheap compared to most other places. Their is no BEST oil/filter for you car because a lot of filters or oil will work great in your car. More people will chime in with some advice im sure.


How long do you run that Fram Ultra for?

No leaks or burning 130K Original Miles, Oil Change Interval is Usually 4-5K Miles.
I drive like a grandpa for MPG, mostly short trips like 5-10 miles day.

Since this engine was designed for dino, does synthetic have a positive impact?
Thanks for the info!

 

[dgunay]

For 4-5k OCI, grandpa driving and short trips, I'd use Pennzoil Conventional 5w30 + Napa Gold / Wix oil filter.

 

[cannabinoid]

Originally Posted By: dgunay
For 4-5k OCI, grandpa driving and short trips, I'd use Pennzoil Conventional 5w30 + Napa Gold / Wix oil filter.


Thank You I will look up these products, Pennzoil Conventional is that Pennzoil conventional?
What is the reasoning behind your suggestion? Thanks!

 

[dgunay]

Originally Posted By: cannabinoid
Originally Posted By: dgunay
For 4-5k OCI, grandpa driving and short trips, I'd use Pennzoil Conventional 5w30 + Napa Gold / Wix oil filter.


Thank You I will look up these products, Pennzoil Conventional is that Pennzoil conventional?
What is the reasoning behind your suggestion? Thanks!


Yes it's the Pennzoil conventional.

For short trippers and relatively old cars (+ high mileage), synthetic oil would be overkill. Conventional oils can easily handle 4-5k OCIs nowadays. If you want to keep 4k OCI, then I'd stick with the conventional.

Why Pennzoil Conventional? Because Pennzoil Conventional is the most popular conventional in this forum (there's a reason behind that), and it has a really good additive pack.

I also have 5-6k OCI and I am also a short tripper (3-4 miles one way) but we must use synthetics during winter, we usually see -20f temps around here. I will use Pennzoil UP 5W30 in winter and I would switch to Pennzoil Conventional 10w30 in the upcoming summer.

 

[AKhan87]

the cheapest conventional oil with proper certifications. I had that engine and rebuilt it because of worn rings, it's ridiculously easy on oil, honda says you can do 7500 OCI with changing the filter every other oil change, I would do fram ultra and change it every 15,000 miles.

 

[Olas]

Originally Posted By: cannabinoid
Hey guys new to the forums, longtime lurker.

Love all the work, tests, reviews and comments on these forums they are truly awesome.
What are the BEST Filters for my Specific Vehicle? Been using PureOnes & Classics, but recently saw some Purolator Synthetic that I had never seen before. Are they better, if so do I need to switch to synthetic oil? Used Chevron 5w30 normally, recently though, I've been buying the cheapest conventional oil I can find. Am I doing right to my vehicle?

What is the best Filter/Oil Combo for Honda Civic 99 Hatchback.
Your feedback is appreciated!


Hey

The problem with your question about the 'best' oil is that we don't know your priorities..
For example,
if you're flat broke the best oil is the cheapest stuff you can find
If you want to do extended OCIs the best oil has the hints starting TBN
if you want AW & FM mods and no VIIs redline is the best..

Tell us what you want from your oil and we can better advise what might suit your application.

Cool name, btw

 

[cannabinoid]

Originally Posted By: dgunay
Yes it's the Pennzoil conventional.

For short trippers and relatively old cars (+ high mileage), synthetic oil would be overkill. Conventional oils can easily handle 4-5k OCIs nowadays. If you want to keep 4k OCI, then I'd stick with the conventional.

Why Pennzoil Conventional? Because Pennzoil Conventional is the most popular conventional in this forum (there's a reason behind that), and it has a really good additive pack.

I also have 5-6k OCI and I am also a short tripper (3-4 miles one way) but we must use synthetics during winter, we usually see -20f temps around here. I will use Pennzoil UP 5W30 in winter and I would switch to Pennzoil Conventional 10w30 in the upcoming summer.


Yes I do want to keep the 5k Interval, although I would not mind to have a longer interval if possible with these engines?
Thanks for the Pennzoil Conventional recommedation, going to look for the best deals locally.

Originally Posted By: 01_celica_gt
the cheapest conventional oil with proper certifications. I had that engine and rebuilt it because of worn rings, it's ridiculously easy on oil, honda says you can do 7500 OCI with changing the filter every other oil change, I would do fram ultra and change it every 15,000 miles.


7500 on Conventional oil? Yes when I have P1 Filters I change every other change.
So are you saying Change the Oil Filter & Oil at 15K? If so, I am starting to like your suggestion, I want to extend my OCI but still have a reliable engine with good MPG.


Originally Posted By: Olas

Hey
The problem with your question about the 'best' oil is that we don't know your priorities..
For example,
if you're flat broke the best oil is the cheapest stuff you can find
If you want to do extended OCIs the best oil has the hints starting TBN
if you want AW & FM mods and no VIIs redline is the best..

Tell us what you want from your oil and we can better advise what might suit your application.

Cool name, btw

My priorites are a well running vehicle that gets the best MPG possible.
I am not flat broke, but I am a sucker for a great deal

Yes I do want to extend intervals, what is TBN?
Sorry for being a noob not sure what AW, FM or VII's are....

Thanks Cheers Mate!

 

[AKhan87]

Originally Posted By: cannabinoid
Originally Posted By: 01_celica_gt
the cheapest conventional oil with proper certifications. I had that engine and rebuilt it because of worn rings, it's ridiculously easy on oil, honda says you can do 7500 OCI with changing the filter every other oil change, I would do fram ultra and change it every 15,000 miles.


7500 on Conventional oil? Yes when I have P1 Filters I change every other change.
So are you saying Change the Oil Filter & Oil at 15K? If so, I am starting to like your suggestion, I want to extend my OCI but still have a reliable engine with good MPG.
Honda's owner manual says to do 7500 oil change with oil, where the filter change is recommended every other oil change.

1. 7500 Oil change on the Conventionals of 1995? the engine was released then.
2. 15000 oil filter changes on filters of 1995? the engine was released then.

its 2015, the Conventional oils have a tougher certification to meet, and the oil filters like the Fram Ultra are definitely better. That engine can easily do that on the cheapest certified oil and a good oil filter.

I have rebuilt the engine before, even though my piston rings were worn out, the engine with 165k miles and serious neglect from previous owner still was VERY clean inside, in-fact all the oil return holes in the piston were completely open, which tells me that the engine is VERY VERY easily on oil, Honda 4 cylinders from that era are definitely that way.

The rear main seal is notorious for leaking, I used a 0w20 after the rebuild(it was an inside the vehicle rebuild) the rear main seal leak became VERY significant.

My personal recommendation from rebuilding this engine would be.

1. Cheapest certified high mileage oil you can find (SuperTech/Mobil Super High Mileage oils come to mind) @ 7500 miles on oil changes
2. Fram Ultra oil filter at 3x that oil change interval (7500 x 3 = 22500)

The compression rings seem to be the culprit in the oil burning in these cars, the oil control rings and oil return holes were completely free and open, a weak 2nd compression ring would make it burn oil, by me simply replacing the rings, the engine stopped burning oil.

I used maxlife 10w40, which reduced the oil burning from 500 miles/per quart to almost negligible, which can be contributed to weak compression rings.

Oil Grade I would recommend for all temps would be a 10w40 because of it's availability in the high mileage flavor and from my personal experience in "almost" eliminating oil loss.

 

[lubricatosaurus]

Agreeing with 01_celica_gt here mostly.
Certainly, if you look up the construction and filtering performance, nothing beats a fram ultra; filters very well and holds a bunch of dirt, much more than normal filters, wire-backed, silicon adbv, etc. http://www.fram.com/oil-filters/fram-ultra-synthetic-oil-filter/
Change a fram ultra every 15,000 miles maximum though just to be sure, even make your oil filter changes independent of your oil changes, as in change your oil at 7,500 miles and filter at 15,000 miles when using the bargain SuperTech full-synthetic at Walmart, or go with any high-mileage full synthetic like m1 high mileage. Use a 5w30 year around for that engine.

For your other questions: Purolator synthetic-media oil filters are good, just not as good as a Fram Ultra. Do not use any other type of Purolator oil filter due to their reputation for developing holes in the filter media, but the synthetic media versions are OK. .... I wouldn't use any oil filter that uses any paper inside the media, like Wix-napaGold or other normal oil filters.

And, no, you don't have to use a synthetic oil with a synthetic-media oil filter, no need to correlate the two at all.

 

[lubricatosaurus]

Might add: It does depend on your goals. As in, why not take the engineers at Mobil 1 up on their offer to go 15,000 miles using Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5w30? It doesn't cost much more and will save you money over the long run due to less oil changes. Ditto with Fram Ultra at 15,000 miles. These are products that do just great at those intervals.

With your short trips though, change oil once a year (fram ultra can go up to 2 years). You might not make it to 15k miles of course, but those short trips are tough on oil acid build-up so limit it to 1 year with Mobil 1 Extended Performance or Castrol EDGE Extended Performance (gold jug) at Walmart.

 

[AKhan87]

Originally Posted By: lubricatosaurus
Might add: It does depend on your goals. As in, why not take the engineers at Mobil 1 up on their offer to go 15,000 miles using Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5w30? It doesn't cost much more and will save you money over the long run due to less oil changes. Ditto with Fram Ultra at 15,000 miles. These are products that do just great at those intervals.
I agree with those statements only if his engine doesn't burn any oil at all, because topping off with an expensive oil is a waste of money.

If you did want to go 15000 miles on an oil change, then use a high mileage oil like Maxlife synthetic or M1 High mileage in the 10w40 flavor to counter the weak rings that I have observed on these cars, also the rear main seal leak is more prominent with non-high mileage oils on these engines, from my experience.

 

[dgunay]

I wouldn't extend the OCI if your daily trip is less than 10 miles one-way.

 

[CT8]

OEM. And name brand filter will be fine.

 

[ryanschillinger]

I would buy the filters at the dealer if you have one nearby. They aren't expensive. Mobil High Mileage is cheap and seems to be pretty stout. Did great in my old Camry with over 300k when I sold it. 5w30 or 10w30 would be just fine in a civic. I mean, so would 5w20 if you want to use that.